Name this hand in Henry VIII document

[Daniel Mastrofski]

Can anyone help me ID the hand in the main body
Of text in this document from the Court of
Henry VIII?

[D B Holtz]

It's a bit difficult to be sure on my screen, but I think it is called Secretary Hand.  Here's an example:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretary_hand

DB

[Daniel Mastrofski]

Thanks DB for the pointer.  After referencing it sure looks like your on-spot.
@Ken Fraser ....Ken, would be curious if you concur here? 

Lately BBC has been airing some amazing programs on Henry VIII hosted by Lucy Worsley and many
of these shows are featuring these lovely documents....


Here is another attractive sample...

[Estefa]

Funilly, I am working with Secretary Hand at the moment. I'd also say that is it . Here are two other sources, with an exemplar:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare%27s_handwriting

Very attractive examples, the one you show here! The second seems a bit more formal – but I am no paleagrapher, and it's a bit hard to tell because the resolution is not so great  .

[Daniel Mastrofski]

@Estefa   Thanks!  I had overlooked secretary hand so many times, probably because the name sounds so boring; however,
after viewing the fine documents from Henry's Court I am very inspired to set to work with this lovely hand.  So time-period indeed!
Now to find out who Henry's scribe(s) was/were.

[AndyT]

The first is certainly Secretary; the second is probably more appropriately classed as Bastard Secretary because of the greater formality - although goodness knows there's no shortage of variants and areas of overlap.  They're both uncommonly nice examples.

[Daniel Mastrofski]

They're both uncommonly nice examples.

I agree Andy.  Most of the examples I found online were pretty chicken-stracthy. 
I'll keep my eyes out for more exemplars to share. 

[Ergative]

The first is certainly Secretary; the second is probably more appropriately classed as Bastard Secretary because of the greater formality - although goodness knows there's no shortage of variants and areas of overlap.  They're both uncommonly nice examples.

I think the second one is more properly the French version, called Batarde. I haven't got any examples to hand, but the texture of the script and the slant really looks like French manuscripts I've seen more than English ones.

[AndyT]

I have to disagree with you there, Clara, on account of the provenance.  Bastard Secretary and Batarde are very closely related, to the extent that it's often debatable whether there is any clear way to make a distinction between them, but if retaining the two terms is to make any sense I guess one might as well assign the former to British documents and the latter to French.  Some paleographers even divide French manuscripts up into Bastard Secretary and Batarde, saving the latter for writing originating in the Burgundian court ... the taxonomy of late medieval cursive scripts is either fiendishly complicated or a hopeless task depending on which way you look at it.   

[Estefa]

Interestingly, the exemplar shown in the article about Shakespeare was written by a french and an english calligrapher – Jehan de Beau-Chesne and John Baildon – so I guess there was more cultural exchange than we today often think . And that exemplar really has these slanted s and f's that look to me also quite "french", but they were obviously also used in England.

[Ergative]

Andy, clearly I need to do more research into this! I was recommended Malcolm Parkes's English Cursive Bookhands by a philologist of my acquaintance, but on further research I have discovered it's out of print (although not entirely inaccessible on alibris). If you have additional (in print) resources to recommend, I would be very grateful!

[Daniel Mastrofski]

Here are the samples I have in one of my books of the secretary hand.
Upon comparison with the sample I provided that it is close but not quite.
There are distinct differences in certain miniscules such as the "a" and "n".
The differences seem to suggest a less time consuming approach on the scribe's
document.   Then again...it's just a guess....

[Estefa]

Andy, clearly I need to do more research into this! I was recommended Malcolm Parkes's English Cursive Bookhands by a philologist of my acquaintance, but on further research I have discovered it's out of print (although not entirely inaccessible on alibris). If you have additional (in print) resources to recommend, I would be very grateful!

@Ergative I have this book, it's great, but rather theoretical and paleographically serious – I mean, if you're into that, it's a wonderful resource! I think I also got it second hand.

[Estefa]

Here are the samples I have in one of my books of the secretary hand.
Upon comparison with the sample I provided that it is close but not quite.
There are distinct differences in certain miniscules such as the "a" and "n".
The differences seem to suggest a less time consuming approach on the scribe's
document.   Then again...it's just a guess....

The ascenders of k, l etc. are also quite different … what you have here looks to me more like what David Harrs calls Bastard Secretary, or simply Bastarda … more formal than Secretary, but less than Textura.

[AndyT]

Andy, clearly I need to do more research into this! I was recommended Malcolm Parkes's English Cursive Bookhands by a philologist of my acquaintance, but on further research I have discovered it's out of print (although not entirely inaccessible on alibris). If you have additional (in print) resources to recommend, I would be very grateful!

Clara, Parkes' book is regarded as the reference for this area of study - I did have some luck with tracking down a copy but blanched when I saw the price.  Sir Edward Maunde Thompson's "An introduction to Greek and Latin Palaeography" is still in print, though, and jolly interesting it is too.  Even better, you can download a reasonable scan to preview here.  "Latin Bookhands of the Later Middle Ages" by S Harrison Thomson is also highly rated and available.

A couple of general books which I'd recommend to anyone with an interest in pre-Renaissance scripts are Marc Drogin's "Medieval Calligraphy: Its History and Technique", and Louise Brown's "A Guide to Western Historical Scripts from Antiquity to 1600".  I guess you're aware of them, Clara, but for the sake of anyone else who might be in the market, the two complement each other: Drogin has more historical examples and plenty of technical information, whilst Brown is more scholarly and definitive on paleography.  Both have good bibliographies, but Professor Brown is more up to date, and thoughtful enough to put it all in one place.