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Handbook

Letter c · secretary hand

T-headed c

Also called square c, horned c

Unit 3very common

A short vertical stroke under a flat bar: the classic secretary c, like the lower half of a crossed t.

Model letter

McKerrow (1927), fig. 22, no. 2 · public domain
McKerrow (1927), fig. 22, no. 3 · public domain
McKerrow (1927), fig. 22, no. 4 · public domain

Write it

Watch the quill write the T-headed c, trace it stroke by stroke, then copy it. Scribes wrote it in 2 ways; the usual one comes first.

In practice lines

Every c below was checked by hand. They are not yet sorted by form, so some show another c.

“decorum”
“carry”
“place”
“distruccon”
“touched”
“certificat”
“come”
“accomodate”

Practice lines drawn in period hands

Don’t confuse it with

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Write itWatch, trace and copy

Other forms of c

right-angle chooked-head clong-link clooped-foot cfooted citalic c
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).