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
Two day course: 9-10 June 2025
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. This course can be taken on its own or to complement the Introduction to English Palaeography.
Student Comments
An excellent introduction to English palaeography, pitched at the right level with some challenging work.
Very good range of palaeography examples from 1500-1700: Tudor manuscripts, catalogues, secretary hand, italic, books...
Additional Information
Bibliography
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).
Course Convenor