Friday, October 22, 2021
Not medieval enough
A monk has built a digital font resembling Teresa of Avila's handwriting. Or more generally the typical hand of that era.
The font has a couple of unnecessary oddities. K and W were not common in the Latin used in Italy, so they are thrown in undrawn, using a generic sans font. Arabic numbers are also thrown in undrawn.
Leaving the numbers out makes sense, but leaving out the K and W doesn't make sense. Latin documents in most parts of Europe included K and W in local names and local words. In such documents the undigested K and W stand out.
From the Lancashire Rolls, British legal documents in the 1100s, listing people who paid debts.
Here Polistra and Happystar are printing out the medieval document on a 'medieval' computer.
Why medieval? Because the IBM 650 on the right used the Roman system instead of decimal or binary. I'll feature the 650 in the next IBM item....
Radulfus filius Bernardi reddit Compotum de cc.li. numero de firma de Lancastra. In thesauro c. et l.li. et xv.s. et vij.d. Et in terris datis Willelmo de Valeines x.li. numero in Culfho. Et Willelmo filio Walkelini ix.li. in Stainesbeia. Et Nigello de Greselea iiij.li. et xvj.s. in Drakelawa. Et Engelrano Portario et Rogero de Sancto Albino xx.li. numero in Crokeston. Et Warino Venatori xxv.s. et j.d. de liberatione sua per breve Regis. Et Jacobo 1.s. et j.d. de liberatione sua per idem breve. Et Gibbe xxvj.s. et iij.ob. de liberatione sua per idem breve. Et Petro Bernardi vij.s. et ij.d. de liberatione sua per idem breve. Idem Radulfus r.c. de vj.li. de Cremento de Presteton. Et de vj.s. de firma de Mareton hoc anno. In th'ro lib. in ij. tallis.I get the sense that Radulf was an utgota. Other documents in the same set include AngloSaxon thorn þ, eth ð, and wynn ƿ along with the regular Latin. Scribes, like later typesetters, were flexible and adaptable. The maker of this font doesn't give the scribes enough credit. Rewriting this using the Teresa font, the Ks and Ws are obviously wrong:
Here Polistra and Happystar are printing out the medieval document on a 'medieval' computer.
Why medieval? Because the IBM 650 on the right used the Roman system instead of decimal or binary. I'll feature the 650 in the next IBM item....Labels: 2000=1000, Real World Math
¶ 9:30 AM
