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| The History of d (2) |
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| In later English document hands variants appeared in the ascenders. In the 12th century they mostly has a simple curved shape, but from around the 13th century onward, cursive document hands and the book hands which developed from them displayed a variety of looped forms. |
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In the formal protogothic document hands of the 12th century, the backsloping d is given a longer ascender which kinks upwards at the top. |
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It looks much the same in a less formally scribed writ of the reign of Henry II. |
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A calligraphic charter of the 13th century also produces an essentially similar form for d. |
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The more rounded and curly cursive document hand known in England as cursiva anglicana, which first appeared in the 13th century, added a long thin closed loop to the right to the ascender of d. |
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In this formal ecclesiastical charter, the curve to the right at the top of the ascender is not extended into a closed loop. |
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In the formal English chancery hand of the 13th century, based on cursiva anglicana, the ascender has a loop with a thick and thin line, but it is formed in a more cursive manner with a closed loop curving to the left. |
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This early 13th century writ displays two variants of d, one with the curve to the right without a closed loop, the other with a simple straight backsloping ascender. |
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This 14th century example of a French cursive document hand displays a closed loop to the left with a forward slope to the whole letter. |
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In this early 14th century cursive English book hand the looped shape is very similar to the of the chancery hands shown above. |
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These two examples from English 15th century charters show in one case a slightly angular form with a loop to the left, and in the other a more curly form with a loop to the right. |
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The French bâtarde script can display different variants on d. In this very formal book hand it looks like a Gothic d with a fine loop to the right added. |
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The later English chancery hand, as shown here from an Elizabethan document of conservative penmanship, the flowing effect of the loop to the left is given a somewhat stilted appearance by an angular treatment. |
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Humanistic scripts tended to revert to the upright form of Caroline minuscule, but not in all cases. |
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This example from a 15th century Italian book hand uses a rounded version of the Gothic d. This is not uncommon in humanistic display scripts which combined elements of Gothic rotunda with Caroline minuscule forms. |
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This example of formal 15th century book hand uses both the upright Caroline minuscule d and the backsloping Gothic d of rounded form. |
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This 16th century example dates from after the advent of printing, and shows a formal version of the upright d with serifs. |
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| The letter d is one which can be diagnostic for script types and for dating, providing the usual cautions are exercised. Styles changed over time, but there was a tendency for various styles to be in use at the same time, and for certain versions of the letter to reinvent themselves. |
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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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