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I'm trying to read the text and it seems English but the font is terrible, has the uniform and indistinguishable look of Russian cursive: https://www.reddit.com

I'm trying to read the text and it seems English but the font is terrible, has the uniform and indistinguishable look of Russian cursive: https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinfuriating/comments/7jsq7l/russian_cursive/ https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinfuriating/comments/7jsq7l/r...

ralferoo 2y ago
The style is called Blackletter or Gothic script. It was very common (maybe the most common) in Europe for several hundred years. When I was little, it had pretty much disappeared in the UK, and I only discovered it as a curiosity in a handful of books in my mum's old book collection. Apparently, when she was at school they were still taught to read it as part of learning German as most of the German texts they were given used it.
cess11 2y ago
What do you mean? It looks nothing like cursive cyrillic handwriting. A couple of characters can be tricky at first because they look different to late modern latin script, like the s that has two forms in this font. It's actually very easy to read for being an old book.
- MichaelRo 2y ago
  What very easy? "Great troubles he had in both but little he did PSEUAILE in the latter, before he had over come the FIRA and therefore minding to CHADILE the rebels..."
  - k1t 2y ago
    PSEUAILE - Prevail FIRA - First CHADILE - Chastise
  - cess11 2y ago
    Not sure what you mean, you seem to handle it well, since you only stumble on a few words in that sentence. The spelling is slightly more french than later english in some words, and some characters are a bit different, like the r you've noticed, f, s, t. Once you figure those out you'll be fluent and it won't take long.
    - thaumasiotes 2y ago
      What's going on with the word "do"? Is that an oo ligature shrunk into (almost) the space of one letter?
      - cess11 2y ago
        I think the type is a variation on a w rather than a ligature, 'dw', but I'm not entirely sure. In one of the facsimiles in the article you can see the same type in 'and so and so fwrth for that time'.
        thaumasiotes 2y ago
        There are a lot of Ws in the passage, and they all seem to have a serif at the top left. This is even true where the W is not word-initial and that serif may seem to interfere with part of the preceding letter: > The sword and the law he made to be the foundation of his governement, > in the bogs he pursued them, in the thickets he followed them,
        thaumasiotes 2y ago
        Following up, the same glyph appears elsewhere on the page you mention: > This duke before his voiage, calling at Fiscam (?) all his nobilitie unto him, caused them to sweare fealtie unto his yoong sonne William, whome he then at his journie betooke unto the governance of earle Gilbert, and the defense of the governour unto Henrie the French king. Why do we think it's more plausible that the words are being spelled "dw", "fwrth", "ywng", and "betwke" than "doo", "foorth", "yoong", and "betooke"? "Took" is still spelled that way today, and "poor" uses the same vowel as "forth". Whereas to the best of my knowledge, W can only appear as a vowel in Welsh.

ralferoo 2y ago

The style is called Blackletter or Gothic script. It was very common (maybe the most common) in Europe for several hundred years. When I was little, it had pretty much disappeared in the UK, and I only discovered it as a curiosity in a handful of books in my mum's old book collection. Apparently, when she was at school they were still taught to read it as part of learning German as most of the German texts they were given used it.

cess11 2y ago

What do you mean? It looks nothing like cursive cyrillic handwriting. A couple of characters can be tricky at first because they look different to late modern latin script, like the s that has two forms in this font. It's actually very easy to read for being an old book.

MichaelRo 2y ago
What very easy? "Great troubles he had in both but little he did PSEUAILE in the latter, before he had over come the FIRA and therefore minding to CHADILE the rebels..."
- k1t 2y ago
  PSEUAILE - Prevail FIRA - First CHADILE - Chastise
- cess11 2y ago
  Not sure what you mean, you seem to handle it well, since you only stumble on a few words in that sentence. The spelling is slightly more french than later english in some words, and some characters are a bit different, like the r you've noticed, f, s, t. Once you figure those out you'll be fluent and it won't take long.
  - thaumasiotes 2y ago
    What's going on with the word "do"? Is that an oo ligature shrunk into (almost) the space of one letter?
    - cess11 2y ago
      I think the type is a variation on a w rather than a ligature, 'dw', but I'm not entirely sure. In one of the facsimiles in the article you can see the same type in 'and so and so fwrth for that time'.
      - thaumasiotes 2y ago
        There are a lot of Ws in the passage, and they all seem to have a serif at the top left. This is even true where the W is not word-initial and that serif may seem to interfere with part of the preceding letter: > The sword and the law he made to be the foundation of his governement, > in the bogs he pursued them, in the thickets he followed them,
        thaumasiotes 2y ago
        Following up, the same glyph appears elsewhere on the page you mention: > This duke before his voiage, calling at Fiscam (?) all his nobilitie unto him, caused them to sweare fealtie unto his yoong sonne William, whome he then at his journie betooke unto the governance of earle Gilbert, and the defense of the governour unto Henrie the French king. Why do we think it's more plausible that the words are being spelled "dw", "fwrth", "ywng", and "betwke" than "doo", "foorth", "yoong", and "betooke"? "Took" is still spelled that way today, and "poor" uses the same vowel as "forth". Whereas to the best of my knowledge, W can only appear as a vowel in Welsh.