Marks that aren't letters

Around the words

Line-fillers

A line, loop or row of strokes run out to the end of a line. They carry no words, and transcribers leave them out.D&K-S p. 18; P&Y p. xii; Petti p. 28

The virgule ( / )

A slanting stroke used as a light pause, where we would put a comma. Common before about 1580 and rare after 1600.D&K-S p. 18; Petti p. 26

The double hyphen ( = )

Marks a word broken at the end of a line, and is often written low, below the line. Read the two halves as one word.D&K-S p. 18; P&Y p. x; Hector p. 46

Points around numbers

A roman numeral is often set between points, as in .iiij. The points only mark it off as a number.Hector p. 40

A colon after a short form

A colon or point after a word can show that it is abbreviated, as in Tho: for Thomas.D&K-S p. 21

Round brackets

Sometimes used where we would use quotation marks.Hector p. 46

The paragraph mark

A paragraph mark shaped like a doubled long s. It came to be read as scilicet, 'that is to say'.Hector p. 46

Flourishes that stand for nothing

A bar, hook or raised letter can be pure decoration and save no letters at all. If the word is complete without it, read the word as written. See moreD&K-S pp. 20–21; Petti p. 24

Corrections

Register entries often carry corrections and insertions.

Struck through

The usual way to delete in this period: a line through the word. The word is cancelled, but you can often still read it.Petti p. 29; Hector pp. 47–48

A caret ( ‸ )

A mark in the line where something was left out, with the missing words written above it. Read them in at the caret.Petti p. 29; Hector pp. 47–48

Dots under a letter

Dots under letters cancel them. An older method, rare by this period.Petti p. 29; Hector pp. 47–48

vacat

Latin for 'it is void': written beside an entry to cancel the whole of it.Petti p. 29; Hector pp. 47–48

A letter over a letter

The scribe wrote the right letter on top of the wrong one. Read the one written over.Petti p. 29; Hector pp. 47–48

Swap marks

Two small strokes mark a pair of words to be read the other way round.Petti p. 29; Hector pp. 47–48

Sources

• Petti: A. G. Petti, English Literary Hands from Chaucer to Dryden (1977)
• D&K-S: G. E. Dawson and L. Kennedy-Skipton, Elizabethan Handwriting 1500–1650 (1966)
• P&Y: J. F. Preston and L. Yeandle, English Handwriting 1400–1650 (1999)
• Hector: L. C. Hector, The Handwriting of English Documents (1958)

Facts from these books, in our own words. Page numbers are the printed pages.