A Newly Discovered Manuscript of Vincent of Lérins’s <i>Commonitorium</i> and Shakespeare’s Hand D in <i>Sir Thomas More</i>

A newly discovered sixteenth-century manuscript leaf of Vincent of Lérins’s Commonitorium manifests a distinctive scribal habit in the formation of cursive h-a previously thought to be unique to William Shakespeare and Hand D in the manuscript play Sir Thomas More. Comparison of the scribal hand in the Vincent manuscript and Hand D suggests that they are not the same, but the pronounced similarity of the h-a ligature challenges the uniqueness of the form and may force a reevaluation of this crucial link between Shakespeare and Sir Thomas More.