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| This segment shows the three different scripts employed in the text. The heading along the top is uncial, a rounded majuscule script which continued to be used for centuries as a heading script after it had been superseded as a script for blocks of text. The script of the main text is rotunda. It is not laterally compressed and although letters touch, they are not conjoined. The use of an enlarged capital set slightly apart at the beginning of each line is a characteristic of all medieval poetry manuscript writing. The script employed for these initials is rustic capitals, with a more angular form than the uncial heading. |
| A punctuation mark of a single dot appears in the middle and end of each line, separating each line into a rhyming couplet. Try reading it aloud. The simple metre and rhyme and a simple balanced structure would make the text very easy to learn by heart, even if your Latin was not so good. |
| Melissande Psalter (British Library, Egerton 1139, f.210), early 12th century. Images by permission of the British Library. These images are madeavailable by the british Library under a CreatuveCommons licence. |
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| overview | decoration | text | alphabet | abbreviations | exercises | | transcript | translation | |
| Click on each of the above to walk your way through a segment of 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 this example |
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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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