Tuesday, September 2, 2025

01.12.25: the Domesday Book; reading the manuscript [vi] types of abbreviation [v]; the long s

(1) Image #1: Look out for the long s: ſ, not to be confused with f; not an abbreviation but an alternative letter formation.

unuſ hō = unus homo │ a / one man

Note that the manuscript uses capitalised S rather than ſ when, for example, writing a person’s initials. But also compare certain transcriptions using what became the standardised form of [ſ] in that it was not written as a final letter whereas the manuscript does not adhere to that standardisation:

Manuscript: Comeſ . R . S ; transcript: Comes . R. S (comes: Earl).

Manuscript: ſuiſ; transcript: ſuis

(2) iſtā = istam; the derogatory use of iste in Classical Latin is not evident in Mediaeval i.e. in the same manuscript you have “in illa terra” and “istam terram” with the same meaning of ‘that’

(3) bȝ (as marked in the transcript); the sign [ȝ] is very often used to represent the dative and ablative plural endings of the third, fourth and fifth declension i.e. bus; in other manuscripts it can appear in superscript form e.g.  ſucceſſoribȝ

b; (b + what looks like a semi-colon) has the same function

ſucceſſorib; (transcript: ſucceſſoribȝ) ſuiſ = successoribus suis │ and to his successors 

(4)  Image #2: what looks like 7 is an abbreviation for ‘et’ (and); an alternative abbreviation for ‘and’ is the ampersand (&) which we still use, and, thanks to one of our members, we can see that 7 is still used in Irish

7 pea = et postea │ and afterwards

7 pea ten̅ ille iſtā tr̅am = et postea tenuit ille istam terram │ and afterwards he held that land 

No comments: