Estimating the Distinctiveness of Graphemes and Allographs in Palaeographic Classification

Within the discipline of palaeography, the ‘morphological’ approach tries to describe the lettershape as a whole, so a letter may be described as a ‘Caroline a’ or as an ‘insular r’. Aspects of this approach are visible in almost all palaeographical handbooks, particularly those that provide alphabets or selections of letter-forms. An example is Albert Derolez’s, Palaeography of Gothic Manuscript Books, which also provides a useful discussion of morphology as a palaeographical method.