Manuscript Studies
Medieval and Early Modern

IV.iv. Paleography: Letter Formation

Stroke: a single sweep of the pen; may be a single "movement" (that is, with no change of direction) or may be a "broken" stroke.

Otiose stroke: a superfluous stroke, not to be interpreted as part of a letter, a punctuation mark, or as an indication of an abbreviation.

A. Vertical strokes:

Minim: the shortest and simplest stroke: the vertical (upright) stroke used to form the letters "i," "m," "n," and "u." The word "minim" itself would be written in Gothic script with 10 minims.

Ascenders, descenders: strokes ascending or descending from the "body" of the letter. It can be useful to think of majuscules as fitting between two imaginary lines, minuscules as fitting between four lines (two lines defining the top and bottom of the body, two more distant lines defining the extent of ascenders and descenders).

Stem: the minim with ascender or descender which supports the rest of the letter.

B. Horizontal strokes:

Bar: the horizontal stroke of an "A" or "H."

Arms (hastas): the horizontal strokes of an "E," "F," or "L"; these extend from, but do not cross, the stem.

Head (top) strokes: the horizontal stroke of the "T."

C. Curved strokes:

for the most part, these are named after the letter formed from them: a "c-stroke," an "s-stroke," etc. (or one can speak of "circles," "arc," "ovals," "ellipses," etc.).

Bow (lobe): a circle appended to a stem (as in "p," "b," "q," or "d").

Limb: the curved stroke of an "h."

Cusp: where two curved lines meet.

D. Other aspects:

Shading: the presence of differing thicknesses of stroke.

Slant: the degree of variation from the true vertical.

Serif: a decorative, finishing flourish on a stroke. Scripts (and typefaces) can be classified as "serif" or "sans serif" according to the presence or absence of serifs.

Ligature: a line joining two characters (a bar crossing a pair of els, for instance).

Digraph: a character created by joining two others representing a single sound (for instance, Æ, the aesh).

Biting: when two adjoining and contrary curves (a "b" followed by an "o," for instance) overlap or share a stroke. Biting is a characteristic of Gothic and Humanistic scripts.

The following is a consise and useful clarification of some of the basic terminology in the study of handwriting. It comes from M. B. Parkes, "A Note on Palaeographical Terms," English Cursive Book Hands, 1250-1500, Oxford Palaeographical Handbooks (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969), p. xxvi.

"A script is the model which the scribe has in his mind's eye when he writes, whereas a hand is what he actually puts down on the page. The duct of a hand is the distinctive manner in which strokes are traced upon the writing surface: it represents the combination of such factors as the angle at which the pen was held in relation to the way in which it was cut, the degree of pressure applied to it, and the direction in which it was moved. A stroke is a single trace made by the pen on the page; if the stroke has no sudden change of direction, it is made in a single movement. A broken stroke is made in more than one movement, the direction of the pen being changed suddenly without its being lifted from the page. A minim stroke is the shortest and simplest stroke: that used to form the letters i, m, n, u. An otiose stroke is a superfluous stroke, one which does not form part of a letter, and which does not indicate an abbreviation. Biting occurs when two adjacent contrary curved strokes coalesce, as when b is closely followed by o. The terms used when describing letter forms are best elucidated by examples: the letter b comprises a stem or mainstroke which rises above the general level of the other letters (ascender) and a lobe made with a curved stroke to the right of the stem; the letter p a descender and a lobe; the letter h an ascender and a limb; the letter t a shaft and a headstroke. The body of a letter form is that part which does not include an ascender or descender."