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| The History of o (2) |
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| In the document hands and later cursive book hands, o may be connected to adjacent letters at the top. The only real confusion occurs if the connection is carelessly executed, so that it may be hard to distinguish between o and a. By the 16th century, some very informal hands are starting to look very careless. When they start not even bothering to close o at the top, so that it can be confused with u or e or even r (Now there's another story!), it's time to take up a new hobby. Even Luxeuil minuscule starts looking good.
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In this formal protogothic example of a document hand from the 12th century, o is neat, wide and relatively rounded. |
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In a less formally scribed writ of the reign of Henry II, the letter s is formed in a more cursive manner. |
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A calligraphic charter of the 13th century displays a rounded o. |
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In this example of cursiva
anglicana, which first appeared in the 13th century, o
is round and separate. |
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In this formal ecclesiastical charter of the 13th century, the letter o is much the same as the above. |
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In this example of the formal English chancery hand of the 13th century, based on cursiva anglicana, o is the same again. |
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This example of o from an early 13th century writ is slightly angular. |
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This 14th century example of o from a French cursive document hand is simple and round. |
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In this early 14th century cursive English book hand the o is round, with marked thick and thin sections. |
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This example of o from an English 15th century charter shows the cursive form with a reverse twist at the top to connect to the next letter. |
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In another 15th century charter, o is very similar. |
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This example of o from a formal and mannered version of French bâtarde script is narrow and pointed. |
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In the later English chancery hand, as shown here from an Elizabethan document of conservative penmanship and formal quality, o is round. |
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In this genealogical document of late 15th or early 16th century, o also round, in an untidy sort of way. |
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In this endorsement on a mid 15th century petition to the English chancery, the cursive o shows the tendency for the connecting line to drop down the right hand side of the letter, and also for the letter to start to open at the top. |
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Humanistic book hands, as usual, reverted to the neat, rounded, carefully written form derived from Caroline minuscule. |
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In this example from a 15th century Italian book hand, o is neat and rounded with markedly thick and thin sections. |
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This 16th century example dates from after the advent of printing and has produced a simple round o. |
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| Basically, there are no major changes to the form of o and, apart from a couple of idiosyncrasies in some early scripts, it has no special diagnostic forms. When lost in the depths of paleographical despair, find yourself an o. |
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 Histories of Individual Letters |
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History of Scripts |
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| What is Paleography? |
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