The Devonshire Manuscript/Appendix I: Paleographic Features

an

Paleographical feature: {_a}.
Details: a-tittle: line or double curve of abbreviation, tittle or tilde over a, often indicating omitted n or m.

de

Paleographical feature {d,}.
Details: d with a descending hook, sometimes abbreviating de but more often otiose (Petti, p. 23).

en

Paleographical feature {_e}.
Details: e-tittle: line or double curve of abbreviation, tittle or tilde over e, often indicating en or em.

es

Paleographical feature {es}.
Details: so-called swash e, a form for terminal es, is, or ys with looped descender (Petti, p. 23).

ger

Paleographical feature {g'}.
Details: g with ascending stroke hooking backwards over the letter.

gra

Paleographical feature {gA}.
Details: g with a curled or flourished u or a, sometimes only a serrated line, written above g and standing normally for gra.

in

Paleographical feature {_i}.
Details: i-tittle: line or double curve of abbreviation, tittle or tilde over i, often indicating omitted n or m.

ion

Paleographical feature {_on}.
Details: on-tittle or ou-tittle: line or double curve of abbreviation, tittle or tilde over on or ou, often abbreviating ion or ioun, (Petti, p. 23) or ascending curl (Petti 22-3).

mar

Paleographical feature {m'}.
Details: m with final raised hook often standing for mer, mar.

ne

Paleographical feature {n'}.
Details: n with final raised hook often standing for omitted er and other times for ne, in which case the mark is generally otiose (Petti, p. 24).

on

Paleographical feature {_o}.
Details: o-tittle: line or double curve of abbreviation, tittle or tilde over o , sometimes indicating omitted i, y, n, or m.

our

Paleographical feature {o+r+}.
Details: shortened from our.

pri

Paleographical feature {p`}.
Details: p with a superscript stroke like an opening quotation or i, infrequently abbreviating pri (Petti, p. 24).

pre

Paleographical feature {p'}.
Details: p with a superscript hook, often standing for pre (Petti, p. 24).

per

Paleographical feature {p+}.
Details: p with cross bar through descender, often standing for par or per (Petti, p. 24) or por (Cappelli xxx).

per

Paleographical feature {p1}.
Details: p with convex curl (frown) through descender, made to the left and down and around through the shaft towards the right, often standing for par and per.

pro

Paleographical feature {p2}. later
Details: p with a loop made from the base-line to the left and down to meet the midpoint of the descender, either not crossing it to make a convex or concave curl or crossing it; normally standing for pro.

pro

Paleographical feature {p3}.
Details: p with concave curl (smile) through descender, made from the bottom up to the left and around through the shaft towards right, often standing for pro (the bottom half of 0 is concave, like an o with a tail given a quarter counterclockwise turn ).

quod

Paleographical feature {q+d+}.
Details: double-letter abbreviation for quod using q and superscript d.

re

Paleographical feature {r'}.
Details: r with ascending hook, or connected apostrophe, indicating omitted e (Petti 22-3).

ser

Paleographical feature {{s}8}.
Details: long-s with double curl made through descender to form an 8-shape, or with a / made through its descender, often a abbreviation of ser, sir, sur, or syr (Petti, p. 24).

ter

Paleographical feature {t'}.
Details: t with a superscript hook, standing often for ter (Petti, p. 24).

tra

Paleographical feature {tA}.
Details: t with a curled or flourished a, sometimes only a serrated line, written above t and standing normally for tra.

the

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Paleographical feature {{th}+e+}.
Details: two-letter abbreviation for the using thorn and superscript e.

there

Paleographical feature {{th}+er+}.
Details: thorn plus superscript er standing for there.

that

Paleographical feature {{th}+t+}.
Details: thorn plus superscript t standing for that.

thou

Paleographical feature {{th}+u+}.
Details: thorn plus superscript u standing for thou.

uer

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Paleographical feature {u'}.
Details: u with a superscript hook, standing often for uer.

un

Paleographical feature {_u}.
Details: u-tittle: line or double curve of abbreviation, tittle or tilde over u, often indicating omitted n or m.

us

Paleographical feature {9}.
Details: letter shaped like 9, Tironian abbreviation for initial con for terminal us or ous (Petti, pp. 23-4) and for terminal hook following consonants and indicating omitted us, os, is, s (Cappelli xxiv).

ver

Paleographical feature {v'}.
Details: v with a superscript hook, standing often for ver.

which

Paleographical feature {w+c+}.
Details: double-letter abbreviation for which using w and superscript c.

with

Paleographical feature {w+t+}.
Details: two-letter abbreviation for with and superscript t.

yn

Paleographical feature {_y}.
Details: y with a macron, indicating omitted n.

See also

• Textual Introduction

External Links

• Ian Lancashire, Renaissance Electronic Texts: Encoding Guidelines
• Manuscript Studies, Medieval and Early Modern University of Alberta course website on researching and interpreting early modern manuscript and print materials.