Initial pages of cavalry rolls. Formal script on the left , cursive-infl ected script on the right. Left : Carl von Gersdorf 's arquebusier company, 1620. SHStADr 11237 10839/27 doc 10. Right: Moritz Herman von Oynhausen's cuirassier company, 1631. Sächsisches Staatsarchiv, Hauptstaatsarchiv Dresden, 11237 Geheimes Kriegsratskollegium, Nr 10841/2 doc 1.

Context in source publication

Context 1

... they were not poorly written: it takes as much technical expertise, as much control over the swift, small turns of hand and wrist, to produce casual slanted cursive script as it does to produce the self-conscious archaic textura of infantry first pages. This script spread out, leaned around; like cavalrymen themselves it sprawled and swaggered, as we can see in figure 5. While infantry scribes expressed their conception of their own status with stiff, formal writing, cavalry records have a deliberate dishabille. ...