leo academyBeta
Handbook

Letter d · secretary hand

Back-dashed d

Also called slashed d

Unit 4Mostly earlier handscommon

A small c-like bowl with a heavy straight stroke through its top, sloping steeply back to the left; no forward link.

Model letter

McKerrow (1927), fig. 22, no. 4 · public domain
McKerrow (1927), fig. 22, no. 5 · public domain

In practice lines

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

“deluded”
“and”
“touched”
“reformed”
“word”
“accomodate”
“second”
“ingrossed”

Practice lines drawn in period hands

Don’t confuse it with

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Other forms of d

looped dcompact d
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).