Finding parallels for Month Names handwriting (Work in Progress)

[Koen G]

Some definite 'zig-zag-zigging' happening here.

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

A 1460 recopy of Epitre d'Othea.

Wow, look at those spikes!
   

Obviously, this MS can't score very high because it's not a cursive script, but still I find it very illuminating. It shows many features that are hard to find in regular cursive. I think we can assume the Month Name writer was used to writing like this, and had it show through in their cursive. 

It shares these properties with the Month Name script, which are hard to find in cursives:

• Actually long spikes on "e"
  
• hairline on "t"
  
• sharp upward curve at the bottom of "t"
  
• usually a very short horizontal top of long-s
  
• very flat, horizontal top loop of "d"...
  

In other words, the month name writer clearly had experience with this type of script (simply called "Ecriture bâtarde XVᵉ" in the catalogue). 

I'm pondering two things now:

• If people tended to base their cursive on their book script, there was probably a sliding scale of how much of the book script shone through. Does it even make sense to compare then?
  
• On the other hand, I am certain now that this person's book script shines through to a great extent. Was there sufficient regional variation in book scripts to compare these?