In the Byzantine era, handwriting becomes very extravagant. It is no longer constrained to rigid lines, but rather lettershapes may extend upward or downward, in some cases even interfering with letters from another line.
Below is an example of a Byzantine era letter. Notice how the initial letters are larger and more carefully formed than the other letters.
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P.Mich.inv 1044 |
In the next example, notice how some stylized letters, like kappa and zeta, take up an especially large amount of space.
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P.Mich.inv 439 |
Back: Roman Hands
