These texts are from Middle English and most of the letters are composed of minimsııııııııııs.
The
In Middle English, several letters such as u, iu ~ v, vi, ww, mm, and n n etc., were all written using a sequence of a particular short downstroke of the quillpen/quill, called a minim (in Medieval texts)minim.
This is how A dotless i was a single minim looked like:
- i would be one minim: ı
- u, v and n would be two: ıı
- m and w would be three: ııı
TheSo the word 'minim' itself would've been written using only minims:
ıııııııııı
It would be ten undifferentiated minims and would've been extremely confusing.
Purveyance
The first word in the question that looks like 'putueaunce' is purueaunce, which was a variant spelling for purveyance. There were identical minims for u and v, so they've been used interchangeably.
From A Concise Dictionary of Middle English (Gutenberg): confirms this spelling:
Purveyaunce, sb. providence, provision, plan, means of getting, equipment, W; purveiancepurveiance, S2, C3; purueancepurueance, S2.—AF. purveaunce, OF . pörveänce; Lat. providentia.
Or it could be porveaunce which was the Anglo-Norman spelling for purveyance (as pointed out by Andrew Leach and Greybeard in the comments beneath the question).
There are 132lots of quotations for purueaunce/purveiaunce/porveaunce in the Middle English Compendium. And having many different spellingsvariants of the same wordspelling:
From the Dictionary of the Scots Language: also has some quotes using different spellings for purveyance, some of which are purveance, purueianse, purueance, purvyaunce, pourveance, pourueaunce etc.
Purvyance, Purviance, Purveance, n. Also: purwi-, pwrvi-, purwy-, powrvi-, pourwi-, purwe-, purveii-, purvey-, purvoy- and -aunce, -ans; Pervians.
[ME and e.m.E. purueance (1297), purueianse (a1330), purvyaunce (Rolle), purveyaunce (1465); also, porveance (1297), -ueyonce (1340), -vyawns (c1485), pourveance (Gower), -ueaunce (Caxton), foreknowledge, providence, a statute, act of providing, requisition of provisions, provisions, OF por- (1180 in Greimas), pourveance, porvaience (L. prōvidēntia Providence n.).]
The same spelling (purueaunce) is also used inHere's a quote from Sebastian Brant's The Ship of Fools (vol.2) and I think its meaning is clear fromwhere the surrounding contextsame spelling of purveyance can be found:
Who that maketh for hymselfe no purueaunce
Of fruyt and corne in somer ...
Utility
The second word is utility (as pointed out by Kate Bunting). There were identical symbols (minims)minims for u and v, and. Some sources such as OED claim that they were not exactly the same but were graphic variants of the same letter. yv was used forat the beginning of a word and iu elsewhere. The first letter is therefore a v.
FromFurthermore, Middle English scribes adopted a practice of replacing an i with a y. Take for example the word mine, it was min in Middle English, so it would've been written ıııııı and would've been indistinguishable from other combinations of relevant letters such as win, nim, nun etc. It was therefore replaced by a y (e.g. myn for 'mine').
The National Archives concurs that y was used for i, and u and v were interchangeable:
Use of y for i, for example myne = mine.
Interchangeable i and j. Iohn = John. Maiestie = Majesty.
Interchangeable u and v, such as euer = ever. vnto = unto
A single minim looks like:
Several minims can make up a single letter, or even a group of letters. In particular, minims are usually used for the following letters:
One minim: "i", "j"
Two minims: "n", "u", "v"
Three minims: "m", "w"
[How to read Medieval texts - Harvard University Website]
There are 23many citations for utility/utilité/vtylyte in the Middle English Compendium. There are a few spellingsSome of the spelling variants they've used for utility includingare vtylytevtylyte, vtilite, utilite etc. One of the quotations is:
p.39 : Next folowith the vtilite of the helthe of a kyng.
FromThe spelling vtylyte can also be found in the Dictionary of the Scots Language:
Utilité, -ie, n. Also: -ee, -ey, utilyte, utillitte, -itie, -atie, wtilit(i)e, wtilletie, utelit(i)e, -ete.
[ME and e.m.E. vtilite (Chaucer), vtylyte (1514), vtilitie (1528), OF utilitet, -tei, utelite, L. ūtilitāt-.]
I foundHere's a quote from Sebastian Brant's The Ship of Fools (vol. 2) on Google BooksSebastian Brant's The Ship of Fools (vol. 2) where utility is indeed written as vtylyte:
In respect of the wele of a hole comonte
Conioynynge thynge honest with his vtylyte