Insular Half-Uncial: Abbreviations

There is only one abbreviation on this page, possibly two:

The abbreviation for spiritus, 'spirit':
spiritus in line 1.
The ligature of Et is going to develop into an abbreviation, but for the time being it merely conjoins two letters:
Example in line 1. Later this will develop into the ampersand, known to us as &.
In this manuscript it often begins a line, and is decorated lavishly: example in line 3.
It is also used in verbs to stand for the grammatical ending -et: in line 3 it ends the verb dixisset 'he had said'.


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© MEG TWYCROSS 1999