BoAr:
Research: Use of N
http:// boar.org.uk/oaiwxs5UseofN.htm Latest edit 29 Nov 2007.
©2007 R.J.PENHEY
The Bourne Archive
The Use of the Curvilinear Upper Case N (n) in English Medieval
Manuscripts.
In an
attempt to date a copy of the Hereward story. De Gestis Herwardi
Saxonis, in the manuscript book known as the Peterborough Chronicle,
from Peterborough
Cathedral (now in the Seeley
Historical Library, Cambridge University)
a survey of sample pages from a number of manuscripts was made in which the samples
were chosen by the presence of copies in available publications. The samples
were checked
1. for the presence of upper case
letters N in the classical Latin form N, or something fundamentally the same;
2. for the presence of upper case
letters N in the curvilinear form, resembling n;
3. the presence of lettering in the
sample but absence of upper case Ns;
4. for the absence of lettering from the
sample.
The manuscript to be dated was that shown in the frontispiece of the
Fenland Notes and Queries
supplement published in April 1895 by Rev. W. D Sweeting.
The publications used for comparison were:
2. Brown, M.
3. Shaw, H. Up to the twelfth
century, the upper case Ns are of the classical Latin
type, though sometimes somewhat distorted, with the diagonal bar nearer
horizontal than in the classical N. From a sample of ‘about 1272’, they are of
the n pattern until, after numerous examples dated about 1480, the
latest is of 1489. There is however, one German example of the N pattern in
1480 (page 93). The next example given is of the N pattern, in 1515, after
which all upper case Ns are of the N pattern.
4.
Vergne, F.
6. Fitzwilliam Macclesfield
Psalter CD-ROM.
The date of each manuscript was noted and the
historical period during which the two styles of N were in use was observed.
The date of the Robert of Swaffham’s
