Hand: Hand 2 (pp. 170–270), CCCC 178, pp. 1–270

Name: Hand 2 (pp. 170–270)
Manuscript: CCCC 178, pp. 1–270
Script: Unspecified
Scribe: Unspecified
Date: Saec. xi1
Place: Unknown (Worces or York?)

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

This hand has a more pointed aspect than G.54-1 and is somewhat backward-leaning but is still fairly heavy, and the bowls of letters are rotund. Ascenders are long and have small but regular wedges, and descenders are shorter, tapering, and turned left. Minims are more upright and have small approach-strokes and feet. Single-compartment a was used throughout, sometimes rotund but also with a flat rising top and an angled back and angled lower curve. A form of a derived from Caroline was sometimes used in ligature with preceding e or t, in which case the horizontal tongue or top-stroke of the first letter curved down to form the back of the a, and the teardrop-shaped bowl was then formed by a second stroke. The rotund form was used in æ, the loop of which can rise above cue-height even when not in ligature or can be low with a straight rising tongue. Round c appears throughout, and the back of d is straight, angled at about 45°, and thickened or with a downward hairline stroke at the end very much like those of S.1394-1 and S.1399-1. Round and horned e both appear, the tongues of which are long and straight and the hooks normally low but sometimes higher in ligature. The tongue of f is short and concave up. The top of g is flat, the mid-section rounded, and the tail normally closed but sometimes open and turned down slightly at the tip on the last line of a page. The shoulders of h, m, n, and r are rounded and the strokes are bulging; the foot of r is relatively small. Low s was used throughout, often deeply split, although a tall form was used infrequently with a long, forward-leaning upper stroke which ends in a small hook. The scribe normally used þ in preference to ð, although the latter was used in round form (as opposed to majuscule Ð) as a capital, and the descender of þ is very short. The construction of ð is like that of d, including the thickened tip. Bilinear x was used, as was straight-limbed dotted y, the tail of which can curve left, and the upper branch is hooked left. The usual form of z was used with two ~-shaped strokes and one thin diagonal descending below the base-line, although the diagonal stroke usually turned left at the tip and the top can be at or well above cue-height. The top of 7 is flat and at cue-height but the down-stroke begins from slightly above this and is quite vertical. Latin is not distinguished from Old English by script.