The Middle English of "Amethyst" in the Peterborough Lapidary (late 15th century) is below. (Click to go to it immediately.) First, a digression on one or two aspects of medieval manuscripts.
Paleography (literally "ancient writing")
is the study and interpretation of manuscripts--their production,
their historical context and provenance, and their handwriting.
There were three main hands in the Middle Ages:
Textura
is a regular, squared-off hand (we sometimes call modern
fonts that are based on Textura Gothic;
in TrueType fonts, it is named Old English)
that was usually reserved for bibles, books of hours, psalters,
and other religious texts, or for special presentation books.
By the 14th century, few scribes were able to produce this hand
well.
The Textura of Très
Riches Heures of Jean, Duc de Berry:
Anglicana and Anglicana Formata evolved (recognizable as distinctive ca. mid 13th century) because Textura was so slow to produce. Anglicana is the first move toward what we call a cursive hand, and had its origins partly in the script used to make notes in margins of manuscripts. Certain features were exaggerated in its later stages; for example, we see such things as forked ascenders and broader strokes. The hand was simplified in the beginning of the 14th century. The "Formata" is the more formal version of this hand. "Bastard" Anglicana is the most formal.
The Anglicana Formata of Harley 2253, "The Fair
Maid of Ribbesdale":
Secretary is essentially a new cursive script that
began to dominate scriptoria in the 3rd quarter of the
14th century, and most likely originated in Italy. "Bastard"
Secretary refers to the more formal version of the script.
The Secretary of British Library Harleian 5306, from the
satire known as The Tournament of Tottenham:
These three hands are continental hands that replaced the English (i.e., Anglo-Saxon) hand known as Insular, the hand in which Beowulf, for example, is written, and is also found in Irish MSS:
The Insular of The Wanderer:
in the above sample that is used in place of "w."
Each script changed during its development, depending on fashion
and other factors. To further complicate things, some manuscripts
contain hands that are hybrids of different styles.
Most letters have a head (top), a foot (bottom); many letters have an ascender (the stroke above the line) and a descender (the stroke below the line). In between the two is the stroke called a minim (minim), which can be difficult to read, as the following Latin words in a Textura hand demonstrate: immuniui, innuimini, inunimini, minimum, munimini, numinum, nummum, uiminium. Though the i's are dotted in this Old English font, medieval scribes would not have done so.Yes, there are eight words here: immuniui, innuimini, inunimini, minimum, munimini, numinum, nummum, uiminium.
What follows is a page from the Dictionnaire des abréviations,
Latines et Françaises, usitées dans les inscriptions
lapidaires et métalliques les manuscrits et les chartres
du moyen age, by L. Chassant (5th edition, 1884), a handbook
for scholars who work with manuscripts. Because ancient and medieval
scribes developed a system of abbreviation, particularly in "working"
copies as opposed to presentation copies, in order to save time
and vellum, such handbooks
When one reads medieval ancient and medieval manuscripts long
and often enough, it becomes easy to predict what certain abbreviations
must indicate in particular places. For example, n's, m's, and
a vowel + r are most frequently abbreviated, with a line over
the letter before whre one of these letters or combination of
letters should go. In additon, certain abbreviated words are
easily recognized by context: him and in, for example.
Some editors choose to emend a text with abbreviations silently--that
is, they may say in their preface that they have done so, but
one cannot tell where in the printed edition. These editors have
chosen to indicate abbreviations by italics in their edition
of the Peterborough Lapidary. They also indicate actual
changes, or emendations, they make to the text by brackets []
and explanatory notes, which I reproduce here. The ellipsis in
the first line indicates that the manuscript is illegible at
this point--though with modern infra-red techniques, perhaps
the word might be recovered if it were re-edited today.
XV. Amatitus is a ston
like to purpull red as . . .1
wyne or red rose in color. Ðe boke telleþ vs þat
þis ston is comfortable to him þat
bereþ it when wild bestees comen to
him; & it is mych comfortable in all
sorow[s]2. And it holdeþ a
man in gode beleive & stronge boþe to
body & to soule to him þat bereþ
it worþely & clenly. And whoso bereþ him
schall singe clerly & with gode voys. And as
þe boke of Moyses tellith þe, he þat
bereþ him schall3 be
welcome before þe kynges and
lordes, & delyuerly he schall worche þe
craft þat he entermeteþ of; And it makeþ
a man mek. Whoso bereþ þis stone
schall haue in him þe more mynde4 of god, & be gracious. Also
whoso bereþ þis [a]metist5
no euel spret schal haue pover to don him harme;
neiþer he schal haue no yuel dremyng any3t; neþer
in feyre ne in water / neiþer
feuer, ne he schal dred; & his catel schall encrese, &
his enemy schall neuer ouercome him
in a ri3tfull qwarell; neiþer he schall be
prisoned ne dy withoute repentauns
of his misdedes, ne long be in presoun,
but if it be in relegius; ne no horse schall founde
vnder him, he he schall not assent to eny tresoun,
neþer horse þat he re[d]yþ6 one schall neuer haue
þe wormes ne trenche. Also isodre seiþe þat
amitistus is pu[r]pel7 red
in color, & is medeled with þe
color of violet, as it were a blasinge rose, &
li3tly casting ow[t]8 as
it were schinyng bemes þat 3iuen
li3t. Also ysed seyþ þat þer
is a-noder kynde which is myche lyke to blow & he is not
al f[i]ry9 but he haþe vertu
of hete, and þer ben v kendes þer-of
as þias seyþ. Also diascorides seiþ þat
þe purpel red is most noble & better þen
þe oþer, for þe vertu
of helpit a3en dronknes, & makeþ a man
to worche, & putteþ away ydel þout3tes
& maketh gode vnderstondyng; & it
is nessh, so þat mene may graue þeryne
& writhe. Of þis color schul kynges
cloþe hem when þei holden her courtes.
1. Illegible.
2. MS. sorowþ
3. MS. schall schall
4. MS. l mynde
5. MS. metist
6. MS. reyþ
7. MS. pupel
8. MS. ow
9. MS. fry
For amusement only, I reproduce "Amethyst" from the Peterborough Lapidary (with silent emendations) in Crazy Diamond Designs Bastard Secretary font--much regularized, of course, when compared to what we find in real manuscripts, as the examples above demonstrate.
See M.B. Parkes, English Cursive Book Hands, 1250-1500 (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: U of California P, rpt. 1980).
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