M-10: Intro to Paleography, 800-1500
9-13 Oct 2006 Baltimore
1) How useful were the pre-course readings?
1: The ‘textbook’ was excellent prep for the class. We wouldn’t have been able to do as much during the week without having first read it.
2) Were the course syllabus and other materials distributed in class useful (or will they be so in the future, after you return home)?
1-2: Yes.
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: This course was exactly what I hoped it would be. It combined the instructor’s presentation with lots of guided practice in reading hands from the span of centuries and European countries. The level was introductory, but well-paced and appropriately demanding. 2: The comparison of Caroline, Gothic, and Humanist book-hands was fascinating. This is a fabulous introduction to later and/or regional variations.
4) Was the time devoted to studying original materials at WAM well spent?
1: Yes! 2: Absolutely!
5) What did you like best about the course?
1: The time we spent studying and transcribing from MSS in the Walters. The pleasure of having an excellent instructor, who is enthusiastic and patient and clearly delights in the subject matter. 2: This course was hard work -- especially as there were just the two students -- but I learned an enormous amount about the abbreviations and book hands and also came away with a sense of what I’ll need to work on in the future. CD was a wonderful instructor: lucid, patient, and deeply interested in the material. I enjoyed having the chance to learn from her, and to see an expert paleographic observer in action.
6) How could the course have been improved?
1: As is so often the case with RBS courses, I would have enjoyed a longer time to study with this instructor!
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: Materials handled with great care.
8) If you attended the Sunday and/or Monday night lectures, were they worth attending?
2: The Sunday reception was a lot of fun -- much like the scene setter of a murder mystery.
9) If you attended the Tuesday and Wednesday evening tours of WAM and JHU’s Peabody Library, was the time profitably spent?
1: I attended the Wednesday night tour of the Walter’s Rare Book Room, which was fantastic. 2: I had to miss the Tuesday tour, but Wednesday’s visit to the WAM was a memorable introduction to a stunning collection.
10) Did you get your money’s worth? Any final thoughts?
1: Absolutely. While this is only a week-long introduction, by the end I was able to pick out distinguishing characteristics of various scripts and read MS texts I couldn’t read when I arrived. Highly recommended! 2: This was a very useful introduction to Latin paleography. My one word of advice to future students would be to work on your Latin before this course, as it can be frustrating to grapple with the Latin and medieval book-hands at the same time.
Number of respondents: 2
Percentages
Leave Tuition Housing Travel
Institution Institution Institution Institution
gave me leave paid tuition paid housing paid travel
100% 100% 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% 50% 50%
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 scholarship home
0% 0% 0% 0%
There were 2 rare book librarians (100%).