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# The Exeter-Book Hand Font Collection

Project URL: exeterbookhand.com
Document Version: 1.1
Font Version: 1.0.0
OpenType Features: `liga` `fina` `aalt`

Thank you for downloading this font set! Here are a few tips for using it:

### 1. Enabling ligatures in WS Word

Ligatures are joined letterforms commonly found in medieval manuscripts. To apply this effect, you need to ensure that the OpenType feature, Standard Ligatures (liga), is enabled on your application.

This feature is on by default in most graphic design and office applications. In Microsoft Word, however, you must manually enable automatic ligature substitution on the Advanced tab of the Font dialog box:

Here is an example of the Old English word wæter using EBH Facsimile:

Ligatures ON | Ligatures OFF
--- | ---

### 2. Using alternative glyphs

All EBH fonts contain alternative glyphs for several characters. Accessing these glyphs is easy. For example, in EBH Facsimile, there are three forms of the lowercase letter Y, and each of them is assigned a combination of keys, such as `y` , `y`+`2`, and `y`+`3`:

Key | Character | Description
--- | --- | ---
`y` |  | curved Y (typical of square minuscule)
`y`+`2` |  | straight-sided Y
`y`+`3` |  | F-shaped Y (common in the insular gospel books of the 7th and 8th centuries)

By combining different keys in the same way as ligatures, you can access all alternative styles of glyphs in all four fonts. The key combinations are listed in EBH-all-glyphs.pdf.

And that's all you need to know about how to use this font collection! Below is some additional information that you may find helpful:

### What is this font collection about?

EBH (short for Exeter-Book Hand) is an open-source digital type of revival based on the hand of the scribe and illuminator who produced the Exeter MS 3501, commonly known as the Exeter Book.

This font collection covers the great majority of letter forms, punctuation and diacritical marks found in the manuscript, with an extension of the modern character set. It comes in four types:

- Facsimile is complete with Old English characters, ligatures, and archaic or special forms of letters (e.g. bowed R, long S, and three different shapes of Y). It also contains the medieval punctuation and abbreviations employed by the Exeter Book scribe.

- Alternates offers some contemporary characters interpreted in the scribal hand style (e.g. lowercase R and S), as well as letters that were not used by English scribes in the 10th century (e.g. J and W). This character set omits most of the ligatures but adds numerals, punctuation and symbols commonly used today.

- Runes covers the Old English runes that are present in the manuscript, plus the ones used in the 10th century. (In the Exeter MS 3501, runes are most often found in riddles and sporadically in the Message of the Husband and two poems with Cynewulf’s runic signatures.)

- Initials features the enlarged and often decorated letters that were used to mark the beginning of each poem. As with the other styles in this set, this font contains not only the initials that appear in the manuscript, but also the creation of new ones.

### What is the Exeter Book?

Written around AD 970, the Exeter Book is one of the four major surviving miscellanies of Old English literature. It was donated ​to the Exeter Cathedral by Leofric, Bishop of Exeter, sometime before 1072. This codex ​was ​described in Leofric’s donation list as a ​mycel Englisc boc be gehwilcum þingum on leoð-wisan geworht (‘a large English book about all sorts of things composed in poetry’), with texts ranging from religious narrative to didactic poems and riddles.

### Can you tell me more about this calligraphic style?

The Exeter Book was written in a script known as English Square minuscule, which emerged from the earlier pointed minuscule developed in the British Isles. Elegantly crafted by the Exeter Book scribe, this Square minuscule hand was deemed by Sir E. M. Thompson to be a standard example of what 10th-century scribes aspired to emulate.

In the manuscript, the overall shape of the scribal hand is very upright, with long ascenders and descenders as well as a fine balance of light and heavy strokes, whereas the ornamentation takes the form of initials made up of elements common in both Germanic and Celtic art.

### What license are these fonts released under?

These fonts are licensed under SIL Open Font License, Version 1.1. You are allowed to use them for free and modify them if you wish.

### How can I get involved with this project?

You are welcome to suggest changes by creating a new issue on github.com/rubywku/exeterbookhand or contacting Ruby at info@exeterbookhand.com.

I hope you enjoy these fonts as much as I enjoyed making them!
–Ruby Ku, Designer of EBH Font Collection