Exercise on Recognizing and Dating Scripts

Drei verschiedene Schrifttypen am Kapitelbeginn einer mittelalterlichen Bibelhandschrift Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Ms Car C 1, f 5r.
Three different scripts at the beginning of the chapter of a medieval Bible manuscript Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Ms Car C 1, f 5r.

This exercise is not about reading a single script, as in the transcription exercises, but about distinguishing the scripts from each other and classifying them chronologically.

You will notice that the approximate allocation to a time span is only roughly possible and not at all easy. Even specialists can sometimes not clearly date a script. However, the examples used here are very typical and representative for the respective time, so that you should succeed in assigning them if you pay attention to the features listed in the tutorial on the history of writing.