Court hand, also known as Business, Departmental, Documentary or Charter Hands, or Anglicana were any of a number of Gothic scripts used in medieval English law courts and later by professionals such as lawyers and clerks for record keeping. This was in contrast to book hands which were scripts used for library or liturgical manuscripts.
The script was in use throughout most of Europe from the late 12th to 17th (or even 18th in certain contexts) centuries and includes scripts such as Cursiva Anglicana, Mongrel Hand, Splayed Hand, Secretary Hand and through the latter's combination with Humanistic Hand, Mixed hand, which in turn gave rise to English Round Hand. Variants of Chancery Hand continued to be used into the 18th century until 1731.
Court hand is not a single script but rather a use case to which several of the Gothic system of scripts can be applied. Reference books often do not list scripts under court hand but rather its specific scripts as this is more useful for paleographers.<blockquote>Early business hands, the fluent practical sisters of strait-laced book hand, were developed for the ordinary business of the clerk in government, the church or commerce. The busiest clerks were, perhaps, those working in the departments and courts of government. Here were written the official administrative records (properly termed archives) which enshrine the indispensable collective memory of government. The various scripts of government clerks are referred to as departmental or court hands, because a number of the oldest departments of government organised their business on the lines of a court of justice.</blockquote>- Barrett & Iredale, 1995
Court hand refers specifically to the cursive scripts developed from the Protogothic in use for medieval court records, but also became used for charters and other documents. It is not a clearly defined term and is often used as a general term to refer to the scripts of business records before Secretary Hand; however because Secretary was also used for business, it is often considered a court hand as well.
To the Gothic cursives used from the thirteenth century and which were well developed and established in England by the mid-fourteenth century, the name anglicana often applied by palaeographers in the mid-twentieth century because of their distinctive English character.
The hand took its name from the fact that it was particularly associated with formal records of the courts of Common Pleas and King's (or Queen's) Bench, although its use was not confined to them. In the 17th and 18th centuries the writing became increasingly stylised, to the point that it was virtually illegible to any reader unfamiliar with its conventions. The hand was banned from English law courts in 1731 by the Proceedings in Courts of Justice Act 1730, which required that, with effect from 25 March 1733, court proceedings "shall be written in such a common legible Hand and Character, as the Acts of Parliament are usually ingrossed in ... and not in any Hand commonly called Court Hand, and in Words at Length and not abbreviated". Even in the 19th century, however, an ability to read court hand was considered useful for anyone who had to deal with old court records.
Court hands refer to any of a number of scripts descended from Protogothic Semicursive over a period of some 500 years from the 12th to 18th centuries in use in English royal courts or law courts for record keeping.
"It is noticeably upright and packed together with exaggeratedly long ascenders and descenders, the latter often and the former occasionally brought round in sweeping crescent shaped curves".
The table lists the characteristic letter forms of court hands throughout the 13th to 16th centuries. In the early documents there were also the following Old English letters: