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Handbook

Capital P · secretary hand

Open P

Unit 7

A P with an open bow and a slanting stem.

When is it a capital?

The bowl of a capital P tends to sit on the line, so judge by the size and width of the bowl and any decoration on the stem or dots in the bowl, not by height.

Model letter

McKerrow (1927), fig. 23, no. 3 · public domain

In practice lines

Examples of this form are on their way

Don’t confuse it with

Create a free Leo accountTaught in unit 7. Standard members get the whole course.
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Other forms of capital P

Model letters: R. B. McKerrow, An Introduction to Bibliography (1927); Jean de Beauchesne & John Baildon, A Booke Containing Divers Sortes of Hands (1570 and 1581); Giovambattista Palatino, Libro nel qual s’insegna a scrivere (1550); and manuscripts in the Folger Shakespeare Library; all public domain. They stand in until Leo’s own model letters are drawn. Secretary letters typeset in Joscelyn by Peter S. Baker (SIL Open Font License).