Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodley 180 (2079)

Number of Hands: 1

Hand: main text

Scope: major

Script: English Vernacular Minuscule

Ker reference: Ker 23

Description: An English vernacular minuscule of the twelfth century, which retains features of the first half of the century, such as headless and tapered ascenders still upright. Insular g is used throughout, whilst insular s alternates with long s and no ligatures appear to be used. The writing is regular and large in aspect. Ker argued that this manuscript was 'not well written' (Ker 1957, p. 359), but the scribe controls his or her hand throughout the quires, spacing minims and individual letters well. The height of the minims is regularly 3 mm. The prayer at the end is written most likely by this hand. Sedgefield suggests that: 'A close examination decides against the identity of two hands, which however may belong to the same school of handwriting' (Sedgefield 1890, p. xv). The hand of the prayer is different in aspect, because the scribe seems to write faster and pays less attention to the formation of the individual letters and the pen is cut with a thinner nib, but it is very likely that these two types of script belong to the same scribe. Probably this text was copied at a later stage, but certainly at the same time as the corrections were inserted. Brown Ink.

Summary of the characteristics of the hand:

• a: insular, with a large lobe, occasionally the head protrudes on the left;
• b: with wedged, slightly forked ascender with a straight back and a rounded lobe;
• c: one broken stroke with a curled head;
• d: two broken strokes and a thick upright back stroke, which tapers at the top end, but curls to the right at the point of junction with the left stroke of the bowl.
• e: insular small rounded and closed with a little tongue on the right side, more evident in final position.
• f: a distinctive insular form: straight upward shaft finishing occasionally with a little curl towards the right, otherwise closing with a forty-five degree angle. Two dot-like-strokes form the horizontal strokes on the left. A little serif protrudes from the top of the back of the shaft.
• g: insular, with an s shaped descender which curves towards the right just after the writing line, and turns flat into an open lobe on the right topped by a flat horizontal stroke.
• h: Caroline with a thick wedged and slightly forked ascender and a right limb which sometimes curls under the line.
• i, m, n and u: minims are traced one at a time, regular in shape and their feet always finish with a small serif to the right.
• l: Caroline form with a tall wedged straight ascender, the shaft ends on the line with a foot curling to the right.
• o: rounded, oval shaped closed.
• p and ƿ are mainly distinguishable through meaning. However, ƿ is formed with a wedge-like head and a tailed descender curving towards the left and a closed elongated lobe.
• r: insular form, with a well defined bow and a descender which ends curving on the left, but finishing with a square or perpendicular angle.
• s: insular form, with a straight descender below the line of writing, occasionally curving to the left.
• t: straight head-stroke and straight shaft which curls to the right.
• y: is always dotted and the descender curves to the left finishing in a thin tail. The second stroke to the right is done quite high up near the start of the shaft.
• æ: formed by an insular a and an e which sits on the shoulder of the a and terminates with a tail on the top right.
• ð is formed like d, with rounded bowl and upright ascender, but the median stroke is not always straight; it mostly curves from the left to the right finishing with a tail and then a dot below the tail itself, but still attached to the stroke. There is another type of ð which appears more frequently towards the end of the manuscript. The basic formation is the same, but the scribe forms the left side stroke of the bowl to meet the ascender and then continues to finish with a tail curling leftwards.
• þ is upright with wedged ascender and a tailed descender, and a pointed head-stroke.
• Capitals are enlarged form of the minuscule with the exception of A, which sometimes is a large two-compartment letter.
• Litterae Notabiliores of the main chapters of the table of content are decorated with dots, but written in the same ink as the text by the main hand.

Abbreviations: 

• Use of tironian nota;
• crossed through þ for þæt;
• a macron usually abbreviates m, n.

Punctuation: Punctus mostly median, but also on the line.

Ligatures: No ligature.

Language: West Saxon spelling retained, with occasional Kentish features (Sedgefield 1890, pp. xv, xxxv-xxxvi)

Correcting technique: The manuscript was corrected by the main hand. Some minor corrections appear for, example, on on fols 1r, 2r/v, 3r/v, 4r/v, 6r/v, 7v, 8v, 9r/v, 10r/v, 13r and 14r/v. More substantial corrections appear, for example, on fols 12v, 14v, 55v, 58v, 62v. Method of correction: erasure and expuncture, a small comma-like sign indicates insertion of corrections inserted interlinearly. On fol. 24v, the signe de renvoi is a seven like comma is followed by a punctus, with the correction inserted in interlinear position; see also fol. 19r, where the correction appears on the left margin. On fol. 55r, the signe de renvoi is a punctus, followed by a comma and the correction inserted in interlinear position. Erasure on fol. 90v left blank.

Date: s. xii1