2024 Summer School

One Day Course: Tuesday 4 June 2024

How – indeed, why – do we describe medieval manuscripts? How have these conventions evolved? And what functions might a catalogue entry fulfil? 

This course will help you to establish good practice in identifying, gathering, interpreting and sorting physical and other evidence contained in manuscripts, enabling you to undertake medieval manuscripts research in a systematic and methodical manner. It will take you through the process of compiling a description step-by-step, using manuscripts from Senate House Library. You will study the various ways in which information about manuscripts has been presented, and learn how to read and comprehend published catalogues and the work of other manuscripts researchers. It will encourage you to develop a critical practice in thinking about the way in which information about medieval manuscripts is categorised and arranged, how cataloguing as a discipline has evolved, and what a description might tell you not only about a manuscript but about the methodology of its cataloguer. 

More information is available to view on the course page.

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One Day Course: Monday 3 June 2024

How were medieval books made?  What material evidence of these processes do manuscripts contain? And how can this knowledge enhance our understanding of medieval cultural and intellectual life? 

This course will take you from cow to codex, from membrane to manuscript, equipping you with all the skills you need to begin independent research into medieval manuscripts. It will cover each stage of the book production process, exploring how component materials were made, how texts were copied and decoration planned and executed, and how books were bound, with illustrative examples drawn from a variety of manuscript libraries. You will learn about variations in practice in medieval Europe, as well as cutting-edge scientific techniques that are enabling scholars to shed new light on old books. You will also learn to identify and interpret evidence of production in surviving books, through hands-on exercises with medieval manuscripts from the collection at Senate House Library.

More information is available to view on the course page.

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Five Day Course: 3-7 June 2024

This course introduces students to key skills for the study of medieval manuscripts, from the making of parchment to reading text and imagery. The course is designed for beginners, with no previous experience or language skills. It is suitable for undergraduate and graduate students, those working in libraries and archives, and anyone with an interest in medieval books.   

By the end of this course students should:  

• Be able to describe the structure and contents of a range of manuscript material using appropriate vocabulary.  
• Be able to transcribe text from a manuscript.  
• Demonstrate awareness of choices made in the process of transcribing text and relevant debates about editing processes.  
• Be aware of a range of resources for working with manuscripts and able to apply these appropriately in their work.  
• Be ready to proceed to more specialist study. 

More information is available to view on the course page.

One Day Course: Friday 7 June 2024

How do you describe a medieval manuscript in the digital age? What impact has digitisation had upon the methodology of manuscript description? And how might these new approaches prompt new questions and research directions?  

This course will introduce you to TEI, the Text Encoding Initiative, and the main outlines of the TEI manuscript description module. Through practical exercises – converting existing descriptions into TEI or encoding information directly from manuscripts – you will learn how to use the building blocks of TEI language in structuring and encoding a manuscript description, and discover how TEI affects how information is recorded and categorised. The course will prompt you to consider the strengths and weaknesses of a standardised, digital approach to these unique, analogue artefacts, helping you to develop a reflective practice as a manuscript scholar, and integrate digital approaches in your own studies. 

More information is available to view on the course page.

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One Day Course: Wednesday 5 June 2024

Deciphering the handwriting of the past is just the first step in the process of presenting it for others to read. This course combines palaeography (the decipherment of Early Modern handwriting) with diplomatic (studying the form that past documents took) and the process of editorial intervention that enables us to present our transcription in a form that makes it accessible to others in a satisfactory scholarly way. The act of transcribing a document is always an act of editing: this day will aim to make that act a planned exercise that achieves the transformation in the best way possible.

More information is available to view on the course page .

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Two Day Course: 6-7 June 2024

This is an introductory course in Greek Palaeography, consisting of two parts:

Part I is devoted to a brief survey of the earlier history of the Greek script covering evidence from early inscriptions, through majuscule papyri to manuscripts of the Byzantine period up to the ninth century, including the first examples of Greek minuscule.  

Part II concentrates on the Greek minuscule from the ninth to the 15th century and the first printed books.

The development of the Greek script will be examined with relation to political events and cultural movements which shaped it through the centuries. Participants will learn how to transcribe a text from a facsimile of a Greek manuscript and examine basic codicological and palaeographical aspects, including the layout of the text, the use of ligatures, nomina sacra, abbreviations and colophons.

More information is available to view on the course page .

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One Day Course: Thursday 6 June 2024

This course will introduce students to the basic characteristics of ‘modern' manuscripts produced from 1700 onwards. This includes documents that belong to the composition and transmission of literary, philosophical and historical (notebooks, rough drafts, fair copies, etc.) as well as letters, diaries and other private documents. In this course, you will learn about changes in handwriting from the eighteenth to the twentieth century, about the conventions of writing in this period, and more generally about commonly-used methods of transcription and the principles of editing manuscripts.  This in-depth study of theoretical and methodological issues will be rounded off with practical exercises in which you will try your hand at transcribing a variety of materials. 

More information is available to view on the course page.

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Two Day Course: 5-6 June 2024

This course provides the opportunity to begin the process of independent manuscript study, analysis and description in a supported environment. You will put into practice the theoretical skills that you have learned, in the process of compiling a detailed description of medieval manuscripts. You will work on both digital facsimiles and manuscripts from the collection at Senate House Library. 

This course is aimed primarily at those who have attended one or both of the codicology courses, although it is also open to students who have had prior training in codicology but lack direct experience with manuscripts.  

More information is available to view on the course page.

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One Day Course: Tuesday 4 June 2024

This course (which would be ideal for someone who has taken an introductory course on Insular palaeography and wants to broaden their knowledge) covers developments in Insular script from the end of the first Viking Age up to the Norman Conquest. We will start by looking at the state of writing in England during the reign of Alfred, and proceed through the various forms of Insular script which developed during the tenth and eleventh centuries (principally Square minuscule and Vernacular minuscule). Welsh and Cornish scripts of this period – which influenced and were influenced by English script – will also be covered. By the end of the course, students should be familiar with the relevant script-types and with their historical and cultural background. 

There will be frequent opportunities to practise reading Insular script, and specialist letter-forms and abbreviations will be explained as they occur.

More information is available to view on the course page.

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One Day Course: Monday 3 June 2024

This course will introduce students to the earliest scripts of Britain and Ireland, from the first surviving manuscripts up to the end of the first Viking Age. Students will study the remarkable, uniquely flexible Insular script-system; they will learn to identify the different grades of script, as well as the range of features which tell us that a manuscript was produced in the Insular world.

There will be frequent opportunities to practice reading Insular script (abbreviations and specialist letter-forms will be explained as they occur) and we will look at some of the most important scribes and manuscripts of this period.

More information is available to view on the course page.

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Two Day Course: 3-4 June 2024

This course will introduce students to manorial court rolls, which record dealings with land held by customary tenure and the enforcement of social regulations throughout England and Wales. Almost all the materials are in Latin and would be distributed to students well in advance of the course. 

In the course of the week students will gain a knowledge of the nature and scope of the business of manorial courts, the formulas employed to record transactions and the evolution of manorial record-keeping, and acquire the skills to read and interpret the records which these courts produced. We will also learn about the various methods used to date manorial courts, and examine entries produced during the brief experiment in the use of English between 1653 and 1660. 

More information is available to view on the course page.

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Two Day Course: 5-6 June 2024

This course will introduce students to manorial accounting documents, both during and after the period of direct management of manorial demesnes. We will examine accounts produced by both secular and monastic owners, study the charge and discharge method of accounting, and look in detail at each of the standard sections into which manorial account rolls are divided, including grange and stock accounts. The course will look at crop yields, and briefly study the use that has been made of them by economic and climate historians. 

In the course of the week students will gain a knowledge of the nature and scope of medieval accounting practice, what can be expected to be found in the standard sections of a manorial account, and acquire the skills to read and interpret the records themselves. 

Almost all the materials are in Latin and would be distributed to students well in advance of the course. 

More information is available to view on the course page.

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