- Court hand
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Court hand was a style of handwriting used in medieval English law courts. Originally used by the official courts, it later came into use by professionals such as lawyers and clerks. "It is noticeably upright and packed together with exaggeratedly long ascenders and descenders, the latter often and the former occasionally brought round in sweeping crescent shaped curves.
By the middle of the 17th century the writing had become so stylized that it was primarily being used for formal documentation."[1] Notoriously illegible, it was banned in 1731.[2] Even in the nineteenth century, however, an ability to read court hand was considered useful for anyone who had to deal with old court records.[3]
Contents
Cultural influence
Court hand was referred to in T. H. White's 1938 novel The Sword in the Stone.
References
- ^ Plymouth City Council, "Quills and court-hand writing."
- ^ New Oxford American Dictionary (OUP, 2nd ed., 2005), p. 390; see John Barrett and David Iredale, Discovering Old Handwriting (Osprey Publishing, 1995: ISBN 0747802688), p. 47.
- ^ Wright and Martin, Court-Hand Restored, pp. vii-viii.
See also
External links
Sources
- Andrew Wright and Charles Trice Martin, Court-Hand Restored or, The Student's Assistant in Reading Old Deeds, Charters, Records, Etc., Reeves & Turner, 9th ed., 1879.
- Charles Johnson and Hilary Jenkinson, English Court Hand A.D. 1066 to 1500: Illustrated Chiefly from the Public Records, Clarendon Press, 1915.
Categories:- Writing
- Latin calligraphy
- Medieval scripts
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