The
English
Documents

• Return to Main Screen
• Paleography Introduction
•  
• English Documents
  • Introduction
  • Techniques & Tools
    • Scripts
    • Abbreviations
    • Numbers, Calendar, Currency
    • Latin
  • Alphabet
  • Documents
    • Document Collection
    • Browse By Record Type
      • Church
      • Court
      • Military
      • Poor Law
      • Probate
      • Property
      • Miscellaneous
    • Browse By Year
      • 16th Century/ 1500-1599
      • 17th Century/ 1600-1699
      • 18th Century/ 1700-1799
      • 19th Century/ 1800-1899
  • Land, Leases, & Litigation
  • Interactive Exercises
    • Short Interactive Exercises
      • Easy
      • Intermediate
      • Hard
    • Full Exercises
      • 1-1
      • 1-2
      • 1-3
  • Bibliography

Alphabet                 

Below are sample alphabets of the four major scripts used in early modern English-language documents.

To learn more about these scripts, visit the Scripts section under Techniques and Tools.

English Round Hand

From "Round hand script" at brittanica.com

Italic Hand

From "Learning to write the alphabet" by Heather Wolfe at
The Collation: a gathering of scholarship from the Folger Shakespeare Library

From "Learning to write the alphabet" by Heather Wolfe at
The Collation: a gathering of scholarship from the Folger Shakespeare Library

The Secretary Hand: Full Alphabet

For further practice with Secretary hand, visit rycote.bodleia​n.ox.ac.uk.​

Pay particular attention to the lowercase c, e, h, r, s, u/v, w, and x.​