Dr Nigel Ramsay
Medievalist who was trained initially in legal history but then branched out into library history, art history and the history of monasticism.
Early Modern English Palaeography 1500-1700: Reading, Analysing and Editing Texts and Records
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.
Course Requirements
- No prior knowledge of Latin is needed.
- Helpful (but not necessary) if students have at least a little experience of looking at Early Modern documents.
Essential Reading
- Giles Dawson and Laetitia Kennedy-Skipton, Elizabethan Handwriting, 1500-1650: A Guide to the Reading of Documents and Manuscripts (London, 1968; and later reprints)
- Paul Harvey, Editing Historical Records (London: British Library, [2001])
- Michael Hunter, Editing Early Modern Texts: An Introduction to Principles and Practice (Basingstoke, 2009)
Location
This course will take place in Senate House.
Fees
Course fees for LIPS 2024 are below: