Mystery initials from my new love, the Arnstein Bible

[bend_gules]

This week I discovered the extent of a collection in the British Library that I'd dipped into before, but hadn't examined carefully.

They're a group of books from Arnstein, created in the late 12th century, and they have some of the richest and most cheerful and engaging dragons I've seen.

This group includes the Arnstein Bible, MS Harley 2798

Comments

[xrian]

AQ bit more context is always helpful in figuring out strange letters. The T, for instance, is the first letter of "Tempore", the H appears to be the first letter of "hic" (an extremely common word).

The first letter could well be an M, the beginning (it appears) of "Mons sapien?a" (sapienta), which I would guess to be the Mountain of Knowledge or Wisdom. "Oons" on the other hand is an unlikely reading.

My guess for the "Mystery Q" is that it's likely an O -- most likely to be a vowel since the next couple of letters in the word (in red) are "sc". I can't tell what the rest of the word is, but Osc-- something is plausible, whereas Dsc- and Qsc- don't fit. (Wild guess: Oscul- something, which would have something to do with kissing -- Song of Songs?)

[badgersandjam]

The second one is an O (omnis) and the third one is OR (Ora)

[badgersandjam]

Oh, and the one after the OR is an H (Hic)

[aryanhwy]

The H/I/J/K one is an "H"; the word is "hic".