Hand: lambda, Exeter 3500

EXON Project

This hand may be recognised by absence of round d, the shape of the cedilla in the e-cauda; the open descender of g, which is flat; the absence of et nota; shape of the ampersand with extended lower component; frequent erasures, corrections and additions. Very uneven hand: struggles to maintain separation between letters (as well as their proportions) within the word as well as to keep to the ruled line.

1. Letterforms

a.- Uncial form which often shows a wide bowl and a higher component that reaches above the bowl and leans on it slightly. Round at top.

d.- Only straight-backed form. Ascender is short (1mm), less than minim height (2mm).

e.- Round back, small eye, lower component on the baseline and projecting tongue (hairline) that may ligature with following letter.

g.- Open descender that can be either angular or round but that is often flat at its lowest point.

h.- Often found in an enlarged form (esp. at beginning of ‘hanc’). Right leg normally tucks in and reached below the baseline, whereas the left one stands on the baseline.

p.- Straight descender normally unfooted, though occasionally finished on a flick to the right. Head is angular and slightly under minim height.

s.- Hood on the left, head may be either round or slightly angular. Not footed most times, but it reaches below the baseline.

t.- Horizontal top; vertical stroke does not cut across.

x.- Left lower limb is extended below the baseline and reaches below the previous letter. It ends on a slight curl up. Right lower limb ends on a thinner finishing stroke that may ligature with the following letter.

2. Treatment of minims, ascenders & descenders

Minims .- Slightly leaning forward (forward duct?) and footed by a finishing stroke. About 2mm high.

Ascenders.- Rather short, about 1mm high (even less in the case of l), which is half the minims height. They tend to show a wedge on the left.

Descenders.- As with ascenders, they tend to be about 1mm long, except when showing an abbreviation/suspension mark, in which case they may be slightly longer. Most times they end on a finishing flick to the right.

3. Form of capitals

E. Either an enlarged minuscule form (often used for the formula ‘qua rex E.f.u.&.m’), or half-uncial form in which middle stroke may be found very close to the top one.

R. Left leg is straight and rests on the baseline with a foot made of a wavy horizontal stroke. Right leg is straight, extended as to touch on the following letter and descends at 45º. [425v7, 13]

4. Forms of punctuation

Punctus simplex seems to be only form of punctuation in use.

5. Form of paraph (gallows mark)

Three strokes with top one slightly rising. Normally, top one shows curls at both ends. Very occasionally, vertical shaft shows curl at bottom too.

At other times there may just be short vertical strokes at the top angles (430r1&;ndash; rusty stain page)

6. Forms of abbreviation

Ampersand.- Extended lower member that often goes below the baseline. Rather thin upper component and projected tongue.

et nota.- Not used.

Overline.- Curled upwards and finishing on a hairline. Quite short.

-ur.- 2-shape with a very short tail.

-us.- The (thin) lower part of the 9-shaped form often leans on the letter below.

-orum.-.

q- forms.-

e cauda.- ‘Cedilla’ rounded hook to the right. Not found with q as ‘quę’ not abbreviated.

pr- forms.-

other forms.-

est.- 463v12 and 463v14.

7. Forms of suspension

8. Ligatures

-ae-

-ct- ligature: 463v5

-rt- ligature

-st- ligature:

-or-:

9. Method and form of annotation (signes de renvoi?)

10. Method of correction and correction mark

11. Treatment of numerals

Minims stand on the baseline, even though x reaches below it.

12. Proportions and measurements

Codicology

- Pricking.-

- Ruling.-

13. Other idiosyncrasies (preferred spellings, usages, …)

-

What does he write?

Bishop of Coutances (So) – 139r1-3 [opens quire]

Earl Hugh (So) – 286v1-7

Ralph de La Pommeraye (So) – 344r12-19

William de Moyon (So) – 360v5-12

Odo fitzGamelin (So) – 380r2-6 [ends quire; only entry for Somerset in quire]

Roger de Courseulles (So) – 425v7-6r10; 426r13-v2 [two lines entered by beta]; 430r1-8 [opens quire - Stain]

Roger Arundel (So) – 442v1-6 [entry finished by beta]

French Knights (So) – 463r5-v15

Nicholas The Crossbowman and Others (So) – 473v1-6

Other relevant information

On fo. 426r, beta begins his stint with an entry from line 11 (no evidence of erasure underneath), but halfway through line 13 lambda takes over mid-word (‘Rogero’?).

Stint 442v1-6, after six lines in which we can find at least three erasures, a few words are erased and beta takes over to finish the entry. The following entry is by alpha and lambda does not appear again in the quire.

Stint 463r5v15, esp. verso, the overall look of the hand seems t change from all the other performances, probably due to the fact that the ruled lines are at least 0.5cm narrower and the script is more compressed. Similarly, as visible in some lines (eg. 9, 10, 14, 15) the letterforms are shorter as well, with minims being just over 1mm high, instead of 2mm as seen elsewhere in this hand.