Click on button beside each word to indicate how it ia abbreviated in the text.
The calendar has some particular abbreviations that do not necessarily conform to the usual conventions. Packed as it is with virgins, apostles, bishops and martyrs, these terms are often written as super abbreviations in a code which everyone reading the calendar would have been familiar with. The names are in genitive case, which is in itself a form of shorthand for feast of ....
more abbreviations
Calendar from a Book of Hours, c.1470. From a private collection. Photographs © Dianne Tillotson.

| overview | initial | text | alphabet | abbreviations | exercises | transcript | translation |

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.
Medieval Writing
Script sample for this example
Index of Exercises
Index of Scripts

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).
This site is created and maintained by Dr Dianne Tillotson, freelance researcher and compulsive multimedia and web author. Comments are welcome. Material on this web site is copyright, but some parts more so than others. Please check here for copyright status and usage before you start making free with it. This page last modified 6/9/2014.