Script Type : minuscule cursive
Script Family : Gothic
Date : early 13th century
Location : England
Function : Document hand or charter hand
Distinctive letters : Around this time document hands in England were somewhat variable and undergoing changes. This example has a spiky angular appearance, but with large loops and sometimes split shafts on the ascenders and descenders of letters like b, l, h, g and others. Despite being a little mannered in appearance, the script is cursive. The letter forms are a bit variable.
The descender of q curls, from our perspective, the wrong way but it is distinguished from g because that letter has a more lavishly curving descender. There are two forms of r, including the minimalist form that sometimes appears after vowels, and two forms of s, the short and curly and the tall. In most cases v is the same as u.
The letters j and w only appear as capitals in English names. There are no examples of k or z.
The letter y only appears in English names, and it is dotted. While i is not generally dotted, this does occur when it is doubled, as in the word
filiis
There are many abbreviations. A distinctive characteristic, which gives the hint that this is an ecclesiastical document, is the use of the papal knot abbreviation mark, as in
gratia
The
Tironian
et is also employed. 
Pass the cursor along the first couple of lines to get a taste of it. For more detail, investigate the paleography exercises.
Script
Index Paleography
exercises using Flash
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