Letter d

In Scottish documents written in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries you find two common forms for the letter d.

The first of these is the Italic d:

d


This can cause problems where it crosses the vertical stroke of a preceding letter, as in the case of the word could, below:

could


The second form of the letter d is the Secretary Hand version of the letter:

d
d


Note how similar this is to the Secretary Hand e:

e
e


The words depositiones and depryved, below, are slightly tricky, as they begin with the letters de-. In the word depryved, the clerk has used a Secretary Hand d to start the word and an Italic d to finish it. It is not uncommon for this to happen.

depositiones
depryved