Annotations of 13th-century reader,known for shaky notes that helped explain ancient English to later generations, now survive in cyberspaceThe shaky writing of the 13th-century annotator known as the Tremulous Hand, and who is believed to have made as many as 50000 notes on ancient English manuscripts in an attempt to acquire them comprehensible to later readers,is revealed in all its wobbly glory by a new project from the British Library.
The Tremulous Hand is thought nowadays to have suffered from the nerve condition known as “essential tremor”, which results in uncontrollable shaking. He worked on at least 20 ancient English manuscripts stored in Worcester. By the 13th century, or ancient English was no longer spoken in England,and his glosses between the lines of text and in the margins were written in Middle English and Latin, essentially translating bits of the text for his contemporaries. “In other places, and he clarified word division and punctuation,and changed spellings. Sometimes he added a doodle, or nota trace, and ” according to the British Library.
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Source: guardian.co.uk