Shortcuts to Letter Forms and Ligatures.

Textura Quadrata: Letter Forms.

There is nothing completely new in the way of actual letter forms.

Because of the heavier lines, a looks as if it is two closed loops.

The concave scoops at the tops of b, l and h have become forked.

Variant Letters

		The two forms of s are visible, with the same convention about placing: see decursus in line 12.
		The two forms of r appear: the 2-shaped r follows a number of bowed letters, including a, as in aquarum (line 12), or another bowed letter, as in proicit (line 17).
		The second letter in double i is extended slightly: this is the beginning of our modern letter j. Note the 'dots' on the i and (in the first example) the j. This is to distinguish it from u. See abiit in line 2, and impii in lines 16 and 18.

Ligatures
St is a ligature; ct is not.
Bowed letters like d are joined to contiguous curved letters, so that they share one stroke:
see do in dominus (line 20), de in defluet in line 17, da and po in line 13, etcetera.

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Gothic Textura Rotunda: Letter Forms

I do not propose to analyse all the letters, which are very similar to those above.

This is a quite late version of the script, and used for the vernacular (in this case, Dutch). We shall see some of these forms later in contemporary English workaday script:

The a has two strongly marked compartments.
The h has a very extended final down-stroke.
The letter v has appeared, though it is not used for the consonant only, as we would expect, but as the form of u/v which appears at the beginning of words.
The letter w has appeared, written as a 'double v'.
And so has the letter k.
Double i is written with an extended second letter, like a modern j, as it was in the example of Quadrata above. This has survived into Modern Dutch as a sign of length.

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© MEG TWYCROSS 1999