These descriptions provided here are rather basic and unsophisticated ones.
This is a slide show with 20 seconds per slide
duct: the stroke of the pen
bole (bow or lobe): a rounded part of a character, as in a or b or d
ascender: the upward stroke of a character as in b, l, h
descender: the downward stroke of a character, as in p, but note
that such a stroke in y or g might be designated the tail
character: basically a letter
minim: the vertical strokes in m (3 minims), n and u (2 minims) and
i (one minim)
suspension: a general contraction at the end of a word
superscript: a character written above the horizontal line of the
other characters in a word
initial: the position at the beginning of a word
medial: the position in the middle of a word
final: the position at the end of a word
ligature: is a join between two characters, as between s and t,
s and h, s and c, for examples
e caudata or tagged e: is an e with something like a cedilla on it
which represents the syncope of the Latin dipthong -ae-; it was used in the
twelfth century, but died out by the thirteenth century, leaving only residual
e to represent dipthong -ae-
whipped ascenders: feature in the late twelfth century; the upper levels
of the ascenders are whipped back down the ascender to form a sort of decoration
majuscule: a hand in which all the characters are the same size
regardless of whether they are upper case or lower case or have ascenders
or descenders or tails(diagrammatically
they can be said to be produced between two lines, although that is a
simplification)
minuscule: hands that have different levels for upper and lower case, for
ascenders and descenders and tails (and so can, by simplification, be said to
be written between four lines)
uncial:
half-uncial:
deletions in texts:
- cancellation: a method of deletion where the word is struck through;
- vacation: a method of deletion where the word vacat is written
in the margin to indicate words to be deleted, sometimes in association with subpunction of those
words;
- subpunction: a method of deletion indicating the word(s) to be deleted
by putting dots underneath the word;
- erasure: a method of deletion in which the word(s) is/are scored out.
descriptions of mss
- a volume consists of leaves, each of which consists of a
recto the front (the right side of the volume) and a verso
the back (the left side of the volume);
- a membrane of parchment consists of a face (the front) and a
dorse (the back); these are referenced as, for example, m.1 and m.1d,
in which in the first the face is understood and in the second the d represents
the dorse;
- rolls consist of rotulets or membranes, which can be
gathered in two ways, either Chancery-wise or Exchequer-wise;
in the former method, the membranes are stitched foot to head and then rolled as
one long, continuous roll; in the latter (Exchequer), the membranes are all
stitched together at the head and then rolled (as a 'pipe').
Some residual characters:
- yogh;
- thorn;
- wyn;
- aesc ('ash');
- eth ('barred d').
Signa (sing. signum): these are the crosses at the
foot of Anglo-Saxon diplomas against the names
of the 'witnesses' and sometimes called the subscriptions.
Diploma: what is loosely called the Anglo-Saxon charter, a formal document
which is a dispositive instrument, giving bookland or privileges,
which is mainly written in Latin, but with a boundary clause in the vernacular
(Old English) and with these diagnostic, constituent clauses: a proem
or preamble or arenga of solemn nature; an anathema to assure
the benefaction; and the signa or subscriptions at the foot. The
notification of the diploma was conveyed by an instruction, the writ
which was compiled in the vernacular (OE).
To be completed