Provisional Drogereit pdf

(p. 345) In our period the minuscule is written almost exclusively in Winchester and
the reform circle dependent on it. Under their influence beautiful Anglo-Saxon
handwriting is still occasionally appearing. One good example can be seen in the
Salisbury Psalter (Pal. Soc. 189). The writing is similar in thickness to the Caroline
minuscule, from which the a is occasionally borrowed. The letters are somewhat
rounded, but remain tightly together, and they all have a vertical axis. The ascenders
and descenders are shortened. The upper shafts have a slight triangular thickening. All
letter-forms demonstrate beautiful proportions. We are now rarely encountering a
high e in the text, whereas the round s is very frequent within the body of the word.
At around the end of the century the various influences of the minuscule can be
established for different locations, with several writing schools being recognisable 54 .
We will now move on from a general observation to a more detailed examination of
the characteristics of the individual scribes.
2. Comparison of the script of the charters of Aethelstan A (p. 345)
Charters: Anc. Ch III, 3 & 5
The script of Aethelstan A is heavy and angular. The letters are small and close
together. They are not written delicately or carefully as we find later on, in fact
several are rather stunted. As this script also lacks any regularity, it is less
calligraphic. – The vertical strokes on the left side all have a broad triangular
thickening at the top end. With the descenders of f, r and s the thickened end leans
slightly towards the left.
The general impression that this is of the same hand is reinforced by the similar
composition of individual letter-forms, even though there are isolated deviations,
which we can assume arose from the three-year gap between them.
The pictorial invocation of both charters is a cross consisting of a main stroke,
thinning and curving outwards to the right and with a thickening top left. A thick
horizontal bar inclining slightly to the right and up, cuts through the shaft above the
centre. – The crosses in front of the witnesses’ names, which are positioned on a
vertical line (see Anc. Ch. III, 5 Col. 2), all resemble that initial cross. (During this
period there is no ‘signature writing’ 2 .) The irregular horizontal stroke runs at times
horizontally, at times resembling a wavy line.
54 We refer here, for example, to the Sherborne Pontifical (New. Pal. Soc. 111 and 112) as well as the
Canterbury Psalter (New. Pal. Soc. 163 and 164).
2 Bresslau did not want to solve the question decisively, yet one can reject with Earle the fact that the
crosses were handwritten. See Bresslau loc sit, p. 46 and n 4 (supported by K. Brandi) and Earle loc sit,
Introduction XXXVI.
345