Hand: Forty-eight Glosses (mostly 92v–98v), Bodleian Auctarium F.3.6 (2666)

Name

Forty-eight Glosses (mostly 92v–98v)

Manuscript

Bodleian Auctarium F.3.6 (2666)

Script

Unspecified

Scribe

Unspecified

Date

Saec. xi1

Place

Unknown (Exeter by s. xi3/4)

Stokes, English Vernacular Script, ca 990–ca 1035, Vol. 2 (PhD Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2006)

These glosses were written in a fairly regular hand with brown ink. Ascenders can have wedges, tapering tops, or be slightly split and are usually about minim-length or a little longer but can be very long. Descenders are usually shorter than minims, are often very short, and can be straight or turn left. Caroline, flat-topped, and a more point-topped a are all found. Flat-topped or straight but slightly rising top of æ was used, the tongue of which is horizontal and quite high, the hook angular and always low, and the lower curve flat then vertical-tipped. Round c was used, as was d with a long and somewhat concave back which can be angled at about 60° but is more often about 10–20° and is occasionally bilinear; straight-backed Caroline d was also used. Round and horned e are both found, and the hook, tongue, and lower curve are the same as in æ. The tongue of f is short and the hook branches from just above the base-line. The top of g is flat and wide, the mid-section is small, quite open, and hangs just to the left of centre, and the tail is wide, open, and reaches beneath the preceding letter before turning up at the tip. The shoulders of h, m, n, and r can be quite angular, and both Caroline and Insular h are found. Low and Caroline s were both used, Caroline sometimes before t and once finally. The scribe used þ exclusively instead of ð. Round undotted y is found. A simple substitution-cypher seems to have been used for at least one of the glosses (wfbldwn for wealdun, glossing presint, 124r10b).