the study (critical analysis) of historical documents
Writing terms:
script
model to which scribe is aspiring
hand
what is actually written
stroke
single trace made by the pen on the page
minim stroke
short and simple vertical stroke, used to form the letters i, m, n and u
versal
special large, usually coloured and decorated, initial letter
ascender
the stem of a letter that rises above the general level of others in the line
cursive writing
joined characters, linked to aid speed of writing
Development of writing (simplified):
Twelfth to the fifteenth centuries
Book hand (also called gothic or text hand)
formal writing, solid, upright and angular, reserved for manuscript volumes, mainly for ecclesiastical use
Charter hand
an adaptation of Book hand with a tendency towards tall ascenders in certain letters
Court hand (also called business hand)
used in court or government scripts, often more cursive than Charter hand with speed of writing introducing a slight slope to the characters
Fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
Alongside an increase in literacy, handwriting developed that could be written quickly and read universally
Bastard hand
fourteenth to early sixteenth century
Pre-Secretary hand
late fifteenth to the sixteenth century
Italic hand
introduced from Europe in the sixteenth century
Secretary hand
emerged in the sixteenth century and is the principal script of sixteenth and seventeenth century documents.
(The authoritative guide to Scottish handwriting is: Grant G Simpson, Scottish Handwriting 1150-1650 (East Linton, 1998).)
Professional copyists of documents
England - scriveners
Scotland - notaries public, authorised to draw up and attest title deeds and contracts of all kinds, recording clients' title deeds into registers known as 'protocol books'.
Weights and Measures
A unified system of weights and measures was not established in Britain until 1870, with the setting up of a Standards Department by the Board of Trade. The Scots measures were then obsolete. Some common Scots measures are:
4 lippies
=
1 peck
4 pecks
=
1 firlot
4 firlots
=
1 boll
16 bolls
=
1 chalder
N.B. the above are measures of capacity rather than weight. In a very rough approximation, 1 peck of wheat was equal to 2 gallons or 9 litres; 1 peck of oats to 3 gallons or 13 litres.
For a comprehensive guide see: R. D. Connor, Weights and Measures in Scotland: A European perspective (East Linton, 2004).
Money
Prior to the Act of Union in 1707, Scottish currency differed from that of England. Throughout the seventeenth century the value of £1 (Scots) was approximately one twelfth that of £1 (sterling).
One Scots merk
=
13s 4d (Scots)
lib (Libra)
=
pound
d (denaris)
=
penny
s (solidus)
=
shilling
ob (obulus)
=
halfpenny
Summa
=
Total
Roman Numerals
Medieval writers adopted the Roman system of numerals, normally adopting lower-case
i
=
1
v
=
5
x
=
10
l
=
50
c
=
100
d
=
500
m
=
1000
The convention is, in general, to arrange the letters from left to right in order of decreasing value; the total is then calculated by adding the numerical values of all the letters in the sequence.
Example: mdcclxviii = 1000 + 500 + 100 + 100 + 50 + 10 + 5 + 1 + 1 +1 = 1768.
It is common modern practice for the numbers 4, 9, 14, 19, 24, 29, 40, 90, 400, 900, and the like to be represented by placing a lower numeral immediately before a larger. Therefore, instead of 4 being written iiii it is abbreviated to iv (in effect: 1 subtracted from 5); 9 is written ix (1 subtracted from 10), 19 is written xix (10 + {1 subtracted from 10}); 40 is written xl (10 subtracted from 50), 49 = xlix; 99 = ic (1 subtracted from 100) and so on.
However, in seventeenth century Scotland the subtraction principle outlined above was not, in general, used. Numbers written using roman numerals tended to be written out in full, eg. 19 would be written xviiii, 49 would be written xxxxviiii, and so on.
i and j. In early written Scots i and j were two representations of the same letter. When writing Roman numerals, j tended (but not exclusively) to be used rather than i when the last number represented was a 1; for instance 3 would be written iij; 6 as vj; 8 as viij.
One score = 20. It was common to speak of numbers between 50 and 100 in terms of scores. 60 was three score; 70 = three score ten; 80 = four scores; 90 = four score ten. When using Roman numerals a score was often written as two superscript x, eg. three score might be written as iiixx.
Numbers might be written in Scots, in Roman numerals or a mixture of both. eg. 87 might be written as lxxxvij, four score seven, or iiijxx and seven.
Dates
Dates were expressed either in roman numerals, words or a mixture of each.
Hundreds were denoted by a following 'c' (for centum) and 'flourish'.
Dates very often begin with jaj (this was used to represent 1000 and is possibly a corruption of 'im' or jm - originally written as four strokes or minims, the first and last elongated and the central pair evolving into an 'a' form, ie iiii → jiij → jaj).
jajvc′xxvij
can be broken down as follows:
jaj - 1000
vc′ - 500
xx - 20
v - 5
i - 1
j - 1
(1000 + 500 + 20 + 5 + 1 +1) = 1527
Common styles:
1. The yeir of god jajvc threscoir sevintene yeiris (1000 + 500 + 60 + 17 = 1577)
2. jajvic twentie tua yeiris (1622)
3. the last day of junij the yeir of god jajvc iijxx xvij yeiris (June 30 1577)
The Calendar
Be aware that there were changes to the calendar in Scotland in 1600, in Britain as a whole in 1752, and at different times in other European countries, that researchers need to take account of. The Julian Calendar (Old Style), had diverged significantly from the solar year and was reformed by Pope Gregory in 1582. The Gregorian Calendar (New Style) moved the start of the year from 25th March to 1st January and introduced an extra day (February 29th) every fourth year. To realign with the solar year it also required the loss at that time of eleven days.
In 1600 Scotland adopted 1st January as the start of the year, England did not. For example, therefore, 2nd February 1688 in England would be 2nd February 1689 in Scotland. After the Union of 1707 and until 1752 when the full Gregorian Calendar was adopted by both countries, dates between 1st January and 25th March would sometimes be written as, for instance, 15th March, 1715/6. The adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1752 required the loss of twelve days. This was done in September and 2nd September was followed immediately by 14th September. There were riots.
There was little consistency between countries as to when and how the New Style calendar was adopted. Roman Catholic countries tended to adopt it before Protestant countries, some Eastern Orthodox countries did not adopt it until the twentieth century.
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