f17r

[-JKP-]

I haven't seen or read Nick's book so I cannot comment directly on what he has written about 17r, only indirectly on what has been repeated or said about it. I have a different viewpoint.

   

• My opinion is that the line over the cȝ is a macron, a normal and common abbreviation symbol. There are letters left out. The word needs to be expanded, and the expansion of abbreviations in the Middle Ages depended on the language. The "z" is probably not a "z", it is probably the abbreviation symbol ȝ (which is "m" rotated 90 degrees clockwise). It often represents "m" or "em" and was used by some scribes to write "rum" instead of the more conventional 4-shaped "rum" character. It MIGHT be a z, but it is written more like ȝ so both possibilities should be considered.
  
• I do not believe there is an "h" in mallier. In the Middle Ages, in Gothic scripts, "h" did not have a long straight horizontal hump, it was either convex or concave. It looks to me like the same handwriting as 116v and he does not write "h" like that (look at the "h" letters on 116v, they have rounded humps on the lower part, and tails). Note the first letter in the fourth word on 17r—it's "h" with a round hump and a tail, just as on 116v and it does not resemble the second "l" in maller. He does write "l" (ell) with somewhat inconsistent angular loops here and on f116v. There are two ells in a row followed by an "i" with a long leading serif (which is also the way the "i" chars are  written on f116v, with long leading serifs).
  
• I do not think the second letter is an "e". I think it is a double-chamber "a". The gap on the bottom is moderately common. Many scribes wrote it this way and many scribes in the late 14th century and early 15th century combined double-chamber and single-chamber "a" in the same sentence (sometimes even in the same word). It was a transitional period after which single-chamber "a" became more common.
  
• I don't think anyone knows for sure how to interpret the first letter in the third word. It has a crooked lower leg. It could be "l", "b", "k" or Rx or who knows?
  

Here's a lightly color-differentiated version: