Speaking of Catesby

Some of the earliest books on EEBO (early English books online) date from
Richard's reign, & I'm guessing are abstracts of legal decisions made.
However, I find the text itself nearly impenetrable - the typeface is
difficult (Gothic?) the language appears to be a sort of Franglais, & there
are many abbreviations (as we see in Latin originals from that time). The
versions digitized have handwritten annotations in the margins, which lead
me to believe these books were used as reference material for possible
precedents to use in future legal wrangles. Anyway on one page the name
Catesby is very distinguishable. Does anyone know if these materials have
been examined for possible relevance or context?

A J

P S - I could perhaps post a sample page to the files area when I get to my
work computer, if anyone is interested.

From: A J Hibbard
To:
Sent: Tuesday, April 30, 2013 2:32 PM
Subject: Speaking of Catesby


> Some of the earliest books on EEBO (early English books online) date from
Richard's reign, & I'm guessing are abstracts of legal decisions made.
However, I find the text itself nearly impenetrable - the typeface is
difficult (Gothic?) the language appears to be a sort of Franglais, & there
are many abbreviations (as we see in Latin originals from that time).

If you go to the genealogy website www.rootschat.com there's a section on
there where you can post scans of difficult handwritten documents like this
and experts will try to decipher it for you. They're very good and very
friendly and helpful.

Thanks for the suggestion. I suppose if people can read the handwriting of
that era, printed text should be a breeze!

A J


On Tue, Apr 30, 2013 at 9:10 AM, Claire M Jordan
<whitehound@...>wrote:

> **
>
>
> From: A J Hibbard
> To:
> Sent: Tuesday, April 30, 2013 2:32 PM
> Subject: Speaking of Catesby
>
>
> > Some of the earliest books on EEBO (early English books online) date from
> Richard's reign, & I'm guessing are abstracts of legal decisions made.
> However, I find the text itself nearly impenetrable - the typeface is
> difficult (Gothic?) the language appears to be a sort of Franglais, & there
> are many abbreviations (as we see in Latin originals from that time).
>
> If you go to the genealogy website www.rootschat.com there's a section on
> there where you can post scans of difficult handwritten documents like
> this
> and experts will try to decipher it for you. They're very good and very
> friendly and helpful.
>
>
>