Thursday, June 3, 2010

Calligraphy Hand of the Old English Hexateuch

The calligraphy in the Old English Hexateuch matches closely with the calligraphy done in other Anglo-Saxon sources like Beowulf, the typical Insular minuscule influenced by caroline minuscule. I'm currently building a chart that compares the letter forms. I've used a modern font, the Beowulf font from the front pack from the University of Virginia, and images of each letter taken from the digital facsimile of the Hexateuch.

The image above uses the fonts from the University of Virginia and can be found here 


Features:
- round shape of d
- f that extends below the baseline instead of sitting on top of it
- insular g, with more of a base before it descends
- dotless i
- r that extends below the baseline
- three shapes for s, insular long s and the high s are more common
- t that does not extend above the cross-stroke
- ƿ ("wynn") usually has been translated as w in modern works.
- y is dotted, and the more angular one is used

Some letters that we know now, I just haven't been able to find.  But, as Professor Peter Baker points out in the book "Introduction to Old English"; "Old English has no use for q or z.  J and v do not have the status of spearate letters but are occasional variant shapes of i and u (more common in roman numbers than elsewhere).  Old English scribes used k rarely"

Isaac

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