Magna Carta discussion

[Daniel Mastrofski]

I've been pouring over many different copies of The Magna Carta.
I'm going to assume everyone here knows the background of the document.
I was hoping some of the experts here at FF could give us some stories
about the hand that was used.  There were four original copies, only one
is known to survive since 1215.

Here is a link to the original that you can really zoom in on and inspect.
Iron gall ink on parchment!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta#/media/File:Magna_Carta_(British_Library_Cotton_MS_Augustus_II.106).jpg



This second example (below) is a much finer exemplar of penmanship but I am not sure of it's date. 
Perhaps the experts may chime in and let us know.

Cheers!

[InkyFingers]

I am not sure if you one can decipher the Magna Carta alone.  However, if you can decipher Spanish here's a well document of the Secretary hand that is used (assuming that the Magna Carta was written using this script.)

Here's your reference: http://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/DOCU/article/view/42490

For the English speaking site, I liked this site:

http://rycote.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/palaeography

[Sid the Cat]

It looks like a court or chancery hand, which survived in the English law courts while it devolved into Secretary Hand in the fifteenth century.

[InkyFingers]

Wiki ... written in Medievil latin.  So certainly it is in the Chancery hand.  However the caps doesnt look familiar to me.  The caps seems to be a form of Merchantile aphabet perhaps?