3/11/2023 0 Comments Tremulous behiaviorNeurologists conducting research into neurodegenerative movement disorders including Parkinson’s felt that the Tremulous Hand would be a valuable source to study. When it was established the Tremulous Hand of Worcester was not just an elderly scribe, the mystery attracted the attention of more than paleographers. Leading Theories Regarding the Tremulous Hand of Worcester It is now known that this was not the case, and an in-depth analysis of his writing proves he was writing over an extended period of time and that his tremor worsened slightly over the years. At first it was thought that his tremor was a sign that he was elderly, and some people built up a picture of an elderly monk working tirelessly to preserve and translate Old English manuscripts before they were lost to time. He was an extremely prolific writer, and it is estimated that in the twenty remaining manuscripts he glossed, there are around 50,000 annotations. Signed, Sealed, and Undelivered: Letters in Trunk Reveal Scandals and Intrigues of 17th Century Lives.Egyptian Child’s Greek Homework from 1,800 Years Ago Goes on Display.A New Find of the ‘Oldest Message in a Bottle’ Was Part of a German Experiment.All of the notes (known by paleographers as ‘glosses’) he produced are both leftward leaning and shaky, and it is the visible tremor present in his script that gives him his nickname, though ‘hand’ is another word for scribe as opposed to a description of his physical hand. But the choice of subject is not the only thing that makes the work of the Tremulous Hand of Worcester distinctive. His annotations are distinctive in that he had a particular interest in translating much earlier manuscripts, indicating he was likely a linguistic historian. He was a monk who most historians believe was based at the Worcester Priory, as all of the annotations which have been positively attributed to him are connected in some way to Worcester. ![]() ![]() ‘The Tremulous Hand of Worcester’ is the name given by historians to a scribe who made annotations on at least twenty manuscripts, particularly much earlier Old English manuscripts, during the 13 th century. Something as simple as identifying the style of writing used in a manuscript makes it possible to provide a reasonably accurate date, eliminating the need for expensive scientific tests on the velum it is written on which risks damaging the manuscript.īut there is far more than can be learned from the writing of the past than just the era and country it was written in, and indeed a monk working in the 13 th Century may be able to provide clues which help scientists and doctors looking to advance the field of neurology today. ![]() To the uninitiated they may look largely the same, but paleographers (historians who specialize in analyzing and dating ancient writing systems and manuscripts) have divided them into three main categories Caroline, Pre-Gothic, and Gothic. Similarly, distinctive are the fonts used by medieval scribes to produce the elaborate manuscripts of the era. The exaggerated loops and swirls which characterize Spencerian script look elaborate today and can make it hard for us to read, but from the mid-19 th century to the mid-1920s Spencerian was the font most people in the USA were taught at school and used in their day to day lives.Ī sample of Spencerian script. (Swchuck / CC BY-SA 3.0 ) An example everyone will be familiar with is the Spencerian script which was popular in America in the 19 th Century – both the Coca-Cola and Ford Motors logos are written in this style. The fact that printed text was reserved for official publications, books, and newspapers meant that distinctive fonts and script styles were present in hand written text. Handwriting is one of those things most people don’t really give a second thought to today – we live in a world where we are surrounded by text and the vast majority of the time it is printed rather than hand written, and children today are far more likely to receive classes in touch-typing than traditional penmanship.īefore digital word processors became widely available, mechanical type writers such as the Hansen Writing Ball in the 1860s and more recognizable models in the 1910s started to mechanize the writing process on a broad scale.
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