This week's puzzle...
Jun. 6th, 2011 07:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xenithIf I saw this online, I'd assume it was a computer printout of a scan of a photo for the benefit of tourists. Which it probably is, except hand-printed on vellum.
It's a big sheet, folded. Across the top it has three--I'm sure there's a general term-- emblemy thingies. Something like this (which is the Treaty of Union, between England & Scotland) but without the decorative stuff between them.
Left to right:
Lion passant on a crown, which I think is supposed to represent the English monarch, and next to it another crown with "CR"
English rose
Royal Arms
Scottish Thistle
Lion sitting on Crown of Scotland, holding sword and spectre?
Left corner there's another emblemy thing which I should know but can't place (large liony thing holding a round shield.)
I'll note here all the crowns are of this style (from the House of Stuart arms),
rather than this one (St Edwards?) which I think has been in use since Charles II.
First line of text is not unlike that from the Union of Treaty (the first image). Old English/Blackletter/Gothic script? The closest I've found is this font but without the horizontals. So n m o u v all look the same, and it's no possible to work out which verticals belong together. I'm tending to think it's been copied by someone who copied what they thought they saw or was working from a hard to read original.
The last two words are Dei Gratin, makes the first word Cn------, or Dei Gratia and the writer has screwed up the final letter. The same words occur on the Treaty in the same font. I would love to have a higher res version of that so I can use it to work out the other letters. (ETA) "Carolus Secundus Dei Gratia" would seem to be the line, which narrows down the time frame anyway.
The bulk of the text might as well have been written in Martian. It probably is. An previously unrecorded treaty between England, Scotland and Mars.
Questions? Comments? Place to look for help?
It's a big sheet, folded. Across the top it has three--I'm sure there's a general term-- emblemy thingies. Something like this (which is the Treaty of Union, between England & Scotland) but without the decorative stuff between them.
Left to right:
Lion passant on a crown, which I think is supposed to represent the English monarch, and next to it another crown with "CR"
English rose
Royal Arms
Scottish Thistle
Lion sitting on Crown of Scotland, holding sword and spectre?
Left corner there's another emblemy thing which I should know but can't place (large liony thing holding a round shield.)
I'll note here all the crowns are of this style (from the House of Stuart arms),
rather than this one (St Edwards?) which I think has been in use since Charles II.
First line of text is not unlike that from the Union of Treaty (the first image). Old English/Blackletter/Gothic script? The closest I've found is this font but without the horizontals. So n m o u v all look the same, and it's no possible to work out which verticals belong together. I'm tending to think it's been copied by someone who copied what they thought they saw or was working from a hard to read original.
The last two words are Dei Gratin, makes the first word Cn------, or Dei Gratia and the writer has screwed up the final letter. The same words occur on the Treaty in the same font. I would love to have a higher res version of that so I can use it to work out the other letters. (ETA) "Carolus Secundus Dei Gratia" would seem to be the line, which narrows down the time frame anyway.
The bulk of the text might as well have been written in Martian. It probably is. An previously unrecorded treaty between England, Scotland and Mars.
Questions? Comments? Place to look for help?
