These are:Įth also equivalent to “th”, and printed ð Middle English uses certain special characters in its alphabet. Frequently, context is necessary to determine what a letter is, as we shall see below. Study these letter forms, but do not be discouraged if you were unable to figure them out.
Note that the same letter can have different forms, even when written by the same scribe. Mouse over each letter to learn the correct answer. Look at the letters below, and try to figure out what they are. Some letter forms used in medieval scripts look very different from those we use today. Every time you look at a new manuscript, you will need to become accustomed to the features of the scribe's (or scribes') hand(s). Remember, though, that even if he is using a particular script, each scribe has a distinctive hand. Our discussion will focus on these two scripts. Of these, anglicana and secretary are the most frequently used to copy Middle English texts.
If you wish to continue your study of paleography, consult the relevant resources.Īs you saw in the discussion of scripts, there are three different types of scripts that were used in the later Middle Ages in England. This page offers a very brief introduction to this discipline, to allow you to complete the exercises in Platform 3. The discipline of reading medieval handwriting is called paleography (also spelled palaeography). Letter Forms | Abbreviations | Punctuation
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