| Click on button under each letter to indicate an example in the text. | |
| Some letters are variable in form, c and a, for example, appearing in differing degrees of elaboration. Letters at the beginnings of words are sometimes different, even when they do not represent a capital. For example, while j might appear to be differentiated from i, i has the same form as j when it appears at the beginning of a word. Similarly, u and v are usually identical, but both letters assume the angular form at the beginning of a word. The letters k and w appear in English names, while w and z both appear in the word warantizabimus. | |
| Note that in the transcript I have used z for the abbreviation for the suffix -us. This is not technically correct, as it is really a specific abbreviation mark which superficially resembles a z. Unfortunately computer fonts are seriously lacking in their capacity to reproduce medieval letters and abbreviation marks. | |
| 13th century charter of the abbey of Wilton (British Library, Harleian Charter 45 A36). All images by permission of the British Library. | |
|
| overview | seal | text | alphabet | abbreviations | structure | 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. | |
 |
|
 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). |
|
 |
|