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| Apologies for the need for horizontal scrolling, but as you can see, the document is an awkward shape. | |
| The main text of the petition is in a chancery hand of particularly tiny lettering. With its particular reference to the bureaucratic process in the text, one does wonder whether these documents were actually written by chancery scribes for the petitioner, or whether there were monastic scribes with an expertise in governmental process who could turn out the style of handwriting deemed appropriate for a letter to the chancery. I like to think that this writing is the work of a very cluey and fastidious lady abbess, but I might be right up la Pole with that one. | |
| Petition and endorsement of 1445 (London, National Archives E.28/74/52). All photographs by permission of the National Archives. | |
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| overview | text | alphabet 1 | alphabet 2 | abbreviations | structure | exercises | | transcript | modern paraphrase | |
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| Click on each of the above to walk your way through the text. The transcript will appear in a separate window so that you can use it for reference at any time. These exercises are designed to guide you through the text, not test you, so you can cheat as much as you like. | |
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 Script sample for main text |
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| Script sample for endorsement |
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Index
of Exercises |
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Index
of Scripts |
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If you are looking at this page without frames, there is more information about medieval writing to be found by going to the home page (framed) or the site map (no frames). |
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