f17r

[-JKP-]

I don't think it's an amended "a". I think it's a double-story "a". It was quite normal for the double-story (double-chamber) "a" to be taller than the other lower-case letters. It was also reasonably common for scribes in the late 14th century and early 15th century to use both of them because that is when the script was transitioning between the old "a" to the new one.


The VMS You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. "a" in "mallier" is third from the left (the modern "a", second from the left, is included for height comparison):



Note especially the example from 1355, which was drawn in separate strokes so that the open top looks like a pen skip (but actually is not).