(i) Membrane: method of preparation; quality; face of sheet hair or flesh side.
(ii) Ink: colour, consistency.
(iii) Dimensions: overall size of sheet [to be given in the preliminaries]; size of written area.
(iv) Arrangement of main text and subsidiary text: number of lines; space between lines (?); number of columns (for lists) [may be covered adequately by textual notes].
(v) Pricking and ruling.
(vi) Damage and repairs.
Note: The above is confined to materials, the design of the document and the preparation for writing. Subjects like folding, sealing, evidence of wrapping-ties, whether prepared as a chirograph (double or triple), etc., would be part of the diplomatic description of the document and should normally follow the palaeographical part of the description.
1. Script of the main text
(i) Definition of the script, including notes on variation (e.g. minuscule at line-ends in a half-uncial charter; use of majuscule forms for names); and exact accounts of changes of scribe and of interventions by correctors (whether contemporary or later).
(ii) Letter forms: notes on significant forms, including alternatives such as uncial d, g, n, r, s in half-uncial and, in minuscule, open and closed a and the 'flourished' forms of d, q, t.
(iii) Ligatures: frequent or infrequent; significant examples to be noted.
(iv) Punctuation: word division; minor pauses, major pauses, paragraphs; at ends of lines, syllabification and run-overs; citations.
(v) Corrections: insertion, deletion, transposition.
(vi) Orthography: spelling; accents.
(vii) Abbreviations: a list of abbreviation marks should be provided.
(viii) Display script: the script should be defined (uncial, rustic capital, etc.) and main characteristics noted.
(ix) Initials: size (e.g. in number of lines), script; details of any decorative elements (including form of pictorial invocation).
2. Script of subsidiary texts
Follow the same scheme as for the main text.
3. Script of endorsements
Main details should be given in the preliminaries to each charter, and care should be taken there to specify whether any of the endorsements are by the scribe of the text. If any of the later endorsements are in hands which can be identified elsewhere (e.g. in endorsements on other single sheets), details should be given (most conveniently, perhaps, in the commentary).
To be reliable, even a selective palaeographical description needs to be based on a complete collection of all the relevant palaeographical facts. Editors ought, therefore, to begin by collecting all the information available under the above headings - the amount of work involved for each charter will not be very laborious. Guidance as to what should be recorded in the descriptions can be had from the descriptions of early Insular manuscripts, e.g. Lowe CLA II (2nd edn, 1972), and from the descriptions of manuscripts in later Anglo-Saxon minuscule and in Caroline minuscule, in Ker's Catalogue and Bishop's English Caroline Minuscule.
[Based on guidelines prepared by TJB in 1974]