Oxford, Bodleian Library, Junius 1 (5123)

Number of Hands: 2

Summary: The main text and the bulk of the revisions are in Orrm's hand; a second hand (known as Hand C) added the Latin pericope at the beginning of each homily, and made a few English additions (e. g. fols 43r, 62r, 67v).

Methods of Alteration: Thoroughly and repeatedly corrected by Orrm himself. Corrections often made by superposed letters.

Hand: Main text

Scope: Major

Scribe: Orrm

Script: English Vernacular Minuscule

Description: English written in an unusual, heavy, cramped English Vernacular minuscule. Ascenders and descenders are short compared to the body of the minims. Word division is not always a priority. One feature of Orrm's unique orthographical system is his use of geminate consonants; these generally indicate the preceding vowel is short, unless that vowel is in an open syllable. To economise the space this system requires, Orrm sometimes stacks the second consonant of a pair on top of the first consonant.

Summary of the characteristics of the hand:

• a: may or may not have a head. æ retained, though absent from Orrm's Latin.
• d: round-backed. Occasional biting of de.
• e: there are occasional examples of e-caudata.
• g: an insular form, carefully composed of three strokes; a modified caroline form, finished with a horizontal stroke along the top of the bole, which is used for the stop consonant; and occasionally, the pure Caroline form.
• h: Orrm uses the straight-limbed insular form in his English text, a curved-limbed form when writing Latin. H can also appear superscript above a g, indicating a medial guttural sound.
• i: double i is ticked, single i is not.
• o: Pointed oval.
• r: generally a simplified insular form, though Orrm uses the Caroline form when stacking a geminate consonant, which he also uses when writing Latin. Orrm is also inclined to use a majuscule r in 'Marȝe'.
• s: Invariably the tall Caroline form, usually descending very slightly below the line. Orrm also uses the st ligature.
• þ used throughout.
• ð a rare form, only used 117 times in total throughout the Orrmulum.
• ƿ: used throughout.
• ascenders generally wedged
• descenders generally taper left
• accents: Accents are used to disambiguate potential confusions.
• Orrm uses a range of techniques to clarify the structure of the text. Major structural divisions are marked by decorative capitals; paraph marks (for which Orrm has three designs, but the choice seems to be random) indicate further divisions. Orrm also uses the simplex ductus to mark key passages marginally. Individual half-lines usually begin with a capital.

Abbreviations:

• barred t -terr
• double common mark of abbreviation -mm, -nn

There are one or two isolated examples of syllabic suspension, e. g. 'crist', 'trowwenn'. The Latin abbreviations for 'pro-' and 'per-' are occasionally used in loanwords.

Punctuation: 

The main mark of punctuation is the punctus; the punctus elevatus is also used. Runovers are routinely marked with a hyphen. The end of a homily is marked, unusually, with a series of positurae.

Ligatures:

st ligature in English and Latin; ct ligature in Latin, with the tie taking an oblique angle

Correcting technique: 

Thoroughly and repeatedly corrected; Orrm particularly struggled to eliminate eo spellings once he had decided he preferred e.

Hand: Pericopes, corrections 

Scope: Minor

Scribe: Hand C

Script: English Vernacular Minuscule

Description: Hand C added the Gospel pericopes at the beginning of individual homilies, using a small academic hand. He also rewrote several of Orrm's additions more clearly (fols 43r, 67v, 69r, 117v). He may have added ll. 7471-80 (fol. 62r) by his own initiative, though the text is identical to ll. 6494-6504. While he fails to follow Orrm's orthographical conventions exactly, he evidently understood the principles on which they rested. Parkes 1991 suggests he may have been familiar with writing documents.

Summary of the characteristics of the hand:

• a: generally with a pronounced headstroke that is the same length as the bole, though the headless form is also frequently found. The headless form is also used superscript as a syllabic suspension, a feature Parkes suggests dies out in the 1180s.
• d: round-backed; lobe composed of broken strokes.
• e: tongue generally protrudes, a feature exacerbated when the letter is word-final.
• f, like s descends slightly below the line (features, according to Parkes, extremely rare in bookhand).
• g: Caroline, composed of a lobe and tail which initially descends in front of the lobe, before turning back perpendicularly to the left. This stroke is often extended. In English, where the tail of Caroline g is typically closed, he also uses insular g, as well as Orrm's hybrid form.
• h: in Latin, the second limb curves inward and is often extended beneath the line; in English, Hand C maintains the insular form.
• i: wedged at top, at base sometimes finished with an oblique rightward serif, sometimes unfinished. Word final i is sometimes long.
• m: generally has rounded arches. Such arches became pointed in the 1170s according to Parkes.
• o: Pointed oval.
• r: generally Caroline in Latin; insular in English.
• s: Descends slightly below the line.
• t: The stem sometimes bisects headstroke. The stem is often extended upwards to the right. 
• þ is used to the exclusion of ð in English. The crossbar of the abbreviation 'þatt' turns up at the right.
• ƿ: used in English; often very similar to p.
• ascenders sometimes wedged, but often unfinished
• descenders generally straight with a very slight taper to the left. This taper became more pronounced in documentary hands of the 1160s and 1170s.

Abbreviations:

• ˥ sits on the line; the descender is finished with a serif to the right. The capitular form is barred.
• In English, uses syllabic suspension in 'cristes' (67v). As one might expect, he uses the full compendium of Latin abbreviations in the pericopes.

Punctuation: 

The main mark of punctuation is the punctus. In English, the punctus elevatus is also used.

Ligatures:

st ligature in English and Latin.