62: Introduction to Handwriting in the West [M-80]
11-15 July 2005
1) How useful were the pre-course readings?
1: A Potencie of Life was too general for the course. Michelle Brown’s A Guide to Western Historical Scripts from Antiquity to 1600 was very helpful. 2: Useful for background and some review at night. The reading list was not compiled by the instructor, however. Perhaps best to update it with his choices. 3: The readings were most useful as an overview of the content to be covered. However, during the first class NB noted that the reading list on the web page was not actually the one that he had compiled. 6: Not useful, but they weren’t provided by the instructor.
2) Were the course syllabus and other materials distributed in class useful (or will they be so in the future, after you return home)?
1: All materials handed out were useful, especially the guide from McKerrow. Any additional tools like this would be helpful. 2: The course outline was brief and was updated each day. It fit the style of the class, and the lengthy list of books being discussed and passed around (from the RBS collection) was very useful. 3: Yes, very much so. More handouts to take away delineating the various scripts might be helpful. 4: All classroom materials were relevant and interesting! 5: Yes, both. 6: There was very little distributed to take home.
3) What aspects of the course content were of the greatest interest or relevance for your purposes? Was the intellectual level of the course appropriate?
1: The course was rigorous and extremely relevant to my work. Most useful were the hands-on exercises with RBS’s collection of MSS, in which we transcribed documents and dated them. 2: Most useful was the discussion and history of scripts and handwriting. Working through many kinds of documents chronologically was very enlightening, both in revealing practices and also in learning about various kinds of evidence relating to date, use, and importance. 3: The intellectual level was quite challenging at times, but it made for very thoughtful and thought-provoking discussion. The course content was quite interesting throughout the time periods covered. 4: I enjoyed the entire week, but I was particularly interested in how the European influences of handwriting spread to America and helped shape the history of handwriting in America. 5: It was even better than I expected, and my expectations were relatively high. The practice with documents, particularly when working together, was helpful. 6: The hands-on exercises were definitely most interesting and relevant -- transcribing c15/c16 documents and analyzing a c18 document.
4) If your course had field trips, were they effective?
1: The trip to UVa’s Special Collections was a wonderful opportunity to see letters written by the “Feathery Scribe,” Alexander Pope, Samuel Johnson, Thomas Hardy, and the like. 2: Our tour of the new Special Collections library was such a bonus! Our session with literary and historical MSS was a thrill -- what treasures are here at UVa in addition to the vast resources of RBS. 3: Yes. 4: Our visit to Special Collections was both useful and enjoyable. Having NB’s input and expertise made the material come alive. 5: Yes. It rounded out the picture we’d been getting from the reams of historical documents from the RBS collections being passed around in class. 6: Time spent looking at examples of handwriting of literary persons was worthwhile as well as exciting.
5) What did you like best about the course?
1: My favorite exercise involved viewing a single document together in class on an Elmo projector, which transmits an image of the actual document onto any screen; we practiced transcribing the very difficult-to-read script together as a class under NB’s instruction. I was constantly amazed by NB’s ability to offer a historical context for these documents, which, for so many of us, were hard to place. He has a profound knowledge of history and literature, which enables him not only to date and identify the documents in question, but also to understand their significance in relation to other events, processes, and technologies over the course of time. 2: Most instructive was the session during which we all tried to decipher a MS in Elizabethan handwriting (projected via the document camera). Also, talking about our class projects and seeing the many added things that NB had to add. 3: The delightful commentary provided by NB relating the course materials to the social and historical context of Europe and America was quite amazing. 4: NB’s incredible knowledge of the subject matter. He’s amazing! 5: NB. 6: The chance to examine multiple examples of late-medieval-to-c18 documents. The RBS collection is unequaled for providing this sort of experience with original materials.
6) How could the course have been improved?
1: A workbook with a timeline and basic guidelines/procedures for identifying handwriting would be useful to reinforce what we learned in class. An ungraded test or quiz might also be of use. 2: It is hard to balance holding something up close with watching the instructor from afar, but I liked it best when we were all focused on the same document. Listening while passing things was sometimes challenging. 3: Since this is only the second time this class has been offered, it appears to be a work in progress that will be refined as it is offered more. 5: It would have been nice to come away with a better sense of the placing and dating of the hands in question. 6: I would have liked less emphasis on handwriting manuals and more on actual applications of handwriting; also, more explicit treatment of the way handwriting changed.
7) We are always concerned about the physical well-being both of the RBS teaching collections and of materials owned by UVa’s Special Collections. If relevant, what suggestions do you have for the improved classroom handling of such materials used in your course this week?
1: Regina Rush and Margaret Hrabe helped ensure that all materials were safely handled. Thanks! 2: What fabulous collections for this course! Maybe more use of the document camera and having it handy from the outset. 3: Our class was quite small, but the Morris Room tables seem almost too small to handle the amount of materials and reference works that accumulated on them during the week. 6: Materials were fine; people were too cold. The new building has over-enthusiastic air conditioning.
8) If you attended the Sunday and/or Monday night lectures, were they worth attending?
1. Yes. 2. Yes! Jane Siegel’s lecture was awesome -- delivered so professionally -- very fun, but it also fed right into our handwriting class. 4. I didn’t attend Sunday’s lecture, but Monday’s was both enjoyable and informative. 5. Oh, yes. 6. Both were very much worth attending.
9) If you attended Museum Night, was the time profitably spent?
2: Yes, and as a non-student of Introduction to Descriptive Bibliography, I still got to enjoy the paper and printing museums -- THANK YOU for that. Linotype and Jane Eyre were great, too. 5: Although unconnected with the subject of our class, the museums (and we did get to go to the DesBib museums) were very interesting and education and fun.
10) Did you get your money’s worth? Any final thoughts?
1: Prepare, prepare, prepare! Try transcribing documents from Michelle Brown and others before the course begins. This was the most challenging aspect for many of us. I recommend the course for anyone who regularly works with MSS; though taught as an introduction, the course structure is designed to accommodate those who are even quite experienced with MSS. 2: We all felt in awe os NB, his amazing knowledge of just about everything in the whole world. When/where else could I ever have had this opportunity? A life experience I will always remember. 3: This class is well worth taking, especially in contrast with our contemporary electronic daily environment. It will be interesting to see how the class develops in the future. I would be interested in taking it again at a later date. 4: NB’s knowledge of this material is amazing. I highly recommend it! 5: My, yes. The class is really about documentary (i.e. not book) hands. 6: (1) Yes, yes, yes (even though it wasn’t my money). (2) Take it!
Number of respondents: 6
Percentages
Leave Tuition Housing Travel
Institution Institution Institution Institution
gave me leave paid tuition paid housing paid travel
83% 33% 50% 50%
I took vaca- I paid tui- I paid for my I paid my own
tion time tion myself own housing travel
0% 0% 0% 0%
N/A: self- N/A: Self- N/A: stayed N/A: lived
employed, re- employed, with friends nearby
tired, or had retired, or or lived at
summers off exchange home
17% 67% 50% 50%
There were four rare book librarians (67%), one curator (18%), and one special collections library assistant (17%).