(Untitled)

[viata]

Um, not sure this is the right community, but it definitely is the most appropriate I know.
I'm struggling through some 15 century texts and just totally at a loss with a few things.

1. This lettre was brought to the Meyr [of Coventry], the xix. day of Feverer, late in the evenyng ao. ixo.
Wild guess is, at 9 PM, but I have no clue what ao.

Comments

[dorsetgirl]

Could it be at 9? I'm not familiar with 15th century writing but in later work the last letter of a word is often superscript.

[viata]

Well, I'm positive it's o, not t in my book. Other than that, your guess is as good as mine.

[daev]

I think it may be "anno" = "in the year..."

[viata]

I think you're right. I've got lots of hits with "anno ixo" and other numerals. Mostly in Latin and mostly going with "regni nostri anno ixo", "pontificatus nostri anno IXo", or similar. This letter is by Edward IV and dated 1470, so it appears to be "[regni nostri] anno IXo". Thanks.

[dichroic]

I suppose it's possible that Trowyth is a name, and the person was illiterate so ssomeone else wrote and signed it for him. Failing that, I wonder if the phrase was intended to be "for troth" rather than "for truth", as in "I pledge my honor on what I have written here". (Though "troth", a pledge or oath of fideltiy, is a variant of "truth" so it's only a minor change to what you wrote.

[viata]

The author's name is John, so troth/truth seems a better choice. Thank you.

[reconditarmonia]

I was going to suggest "trowyth" as a conjugation of "trow," which occurs in various writings, but then I looked again and saw that these were the Paston Letters and it's unlikely that the many scholars who have worked on them missed or mis-transcribed a word that would make that reading make sense. :D Agree that it's probably "truth"/"troth." (I've worked on some seventeenth-century texts that are less studied and some of the published/edited versions are wrong, unfortunately.)