Additional Illuminated letter "U"s will be uploaded here in the future. Please read the Terms of Use for images found on this page. All letters are restored and sometimes redrawn by Kathy Grimm.
U (named u /ˈjuː/, plural ues) is the 21st letter in the ISO basic Latin alphabet and the fifth and last vowel in the English alphabet (if W and Y are not counted as vowels).
The letter u ultimately comes from the Phoenician letter Waw by way of the letter y. See the letter y for details.
During the late Middle Ages,
two forms of 'v' developed, which were both used for its ancestor 'u'
and modern 'v'. The pointed form 'v' was written at the beginning of a
word, while a rounded form 'u' was used in the middle or end, regardless
of sound. So whereas 'valor' and 'excuse' appeared as in modern
printing, 'have' and 'upon' were printed 'haue' and 'vpon'. The first
recorded use of 'u' and 'v' as distinct letters is in a Gothic alphabet
from 1386, where 'v' preceded 'u'. Printers eschewed capital 'U' into
the 17th century and the distinction between the two letters was not
fully accepted by the French Academy until 1762. Read more . . .
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