Two day course: 9-10 June 2025
This two-day course will provide an introduction to pre-Conquest Insular palaeography in general, and more specifically the palaeography of manuscripts containing Old English.
The first half of the course will introduce Insular script in general (Insular Half-uncial and various types of Insular minuscule). We will look in detail at a
selection of important and/or particularly interesting manuscripts, discuss how they may be dated and localized within the Insular world, and practise reading from them. On the second day, the focus will be on the tenth and eleventh centuries, and the aim will be to familiarise students with the substantial body of manuscripts containing Old English. We will look closely at a range of significant manuscripts (e.g. the Parker Chronicle, the Exeter Book, and the Beowulf-manuscript) and consider the challenges faced by scholars editing this material.
Some acquaintance with Old English would be helpful for this course, but not essential. There will be practical exercises in transcription, and specialist
characters and abbreviations will be explained from the beginning: it is hoped that by the end of the course students will be developing the skills to engage with this early-medieval material on their own.
The course is aimed at absolute beginners in palaeography, although it could benefit those with experience who want to familiarise themselves with OE material. It would be useful if participants could indicate whether they have any previous experience of palaeography when applying.
Additional Information
Essential Reading
Bischoff, Bernhard, Latin Palaeography: Antiquity and the Middle Ages, transl. by Dáibhí Ó Cróinín and David Ganz (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1990)
Michelle P. Brown, A Guide to Western Historical Scripts from Antiquity to 1600 (London: British Library, 1990)
Richard Gameson (ed.), The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, Vol. I (c. 400-1100) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012) (specifically chapters 3 and 4)
Jane Roberts, A Guide to Scripts used in English Writings up to 1500 (London: British Library, 2005 / Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2015)
