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Every kind of abbreviation can be found in this text. This is just a sample to show the different types. To find all the abbreviations in the section transcribed, go through the text pages with the transcript window open.

There are the very simple types of contraction, such as omitting m. There is the use of a graphic which looks like a z to indicate a final -us, but the same graphic is used as an abbreviation mark for other suffixes as well. A simple curl like a reversed C serves as the abbreviation for the prefix con-. There may be different letters left out of the same word when it is written multiple times. There are multiple abbreviations in a single word, and there is a kind of hyperabbreviation which occurs in words which are repeated many times, such as li ar for liberum arbitrium.

The Tironian et, which looks rather like a 7, is used rather than the ampersand style of abbreviation for et. The word est is abbreviated in two different ways, either as e with an abbreviation mark, or with a sign of a dash with two dots, which looks rather like a mathematical division sign. This was found in insular (English, Irish etc) manuscripts of the Anglo-Saxon era and taken with the Tironian et, seems a little oldfashioned for a manuscript which is purported to be 14th century. So perhaps it is actually earlier.

The nomina sacra terms are also used.

Sentences of Peter Lombard. From a private collection. Photographs © Dianne Tillotson.

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Medieval Writing
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