Latin Paleography, 1100–1500

Course Description

An introduction to this neglected field, including reading, transcribing (and expanding abbreviations), identification, classification, dating and localization of the principal kinds of Gothic and humanistic book script. Examples of Latin texts (and, exceptionally, French and English ones) will be studied from photocopies, slides, and manuscript fragments. The course is designed for all those who have to deal with late medieval MSS. For many years, there has been a striking contrast in the scholarly attitude toward Latin scripts of the early and of the later Middle Ages. While the paleography of the early medieval and Caroline periods has been the object of serious academic study, late medieval scripts have hitherto mostly been examined (1) for reading literary and documentary texts and (2) for dating manuscripts. As manuscripts of the later Middle Ages are incomparably more numerous than early medieval codices, this is a paradoxical situation, one that needs to be redressed. Accordingly, this course will try to systematize our knowledge about the gothic and humanistic scripts in all their diversity of forms and styles. It will include: the examination and reading of examples of Latin texts (exceptionally French or English ones); the study of abbreviations; the typology and nomenclature of scripts, according to the Lieftinck-Gumbert system and other systems; the dating and localization of scripts; the techniques and principles of historical and diplomatic transcription and editing. Students will be required to make a series of transcriptions. The course will have a practical character, concentrating on a broad range of scripts. Starting from the tangled image presented by late medieval manuscripts, a much-needed systematization will be developed, and gothic and humanistic scripts will be given a place in the history of handwriting in the West. The course is intended for scholars and researchers, librarians and antiquarian booksellers with a strong knowledge of Latin who, sooner or later, are likely to deal with late medieval manuscripts. All students in this course must have had some previous formal introduction to paleography; in their personal statement, applicants should indicate the extent of their previous paleographic training and their knowledge of Latin, and briefly describe any relevant research projects on which they are now (or shortly expect to be) working.

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Advance Reading List

Preliminary Advices

1. Bischoff, Bernhard, Paläographie des römischen Altertums und des abendländischen Mittelalters (1st ed. Berlin: E. Schmidt, 1979; 2nd rev. ed. Berlin: E. Schmidt, 1986). – (Grundlagen der Germanistik 24), pp. 163-213.English translation: Latin Palaeography: Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Cambridge, Eng.; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990), pp. 127-168. Available in paperback ($24.95) from Bernard M Rosenthal, Inc., Box 5279, Berkeley, CA 94705. telephone 415/549-2532.
2. Brown, Michelle P. A Guide to Western Historical Scripts from Antiquity to 1600 (London: the British Library, 1990), pp. 1-12 and 72-136.
3. De Hamel, Christopher, A History of Illuminated Manuscripts, 2nd edition (London: Phaidon, 1994), Read ad libitum between pp. 108 and 256.
4. Derolez, Albert, The Palaeography of Gothic Manuscript Books, from the Twelfth to the Early Sixteenth Century, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003; Cambridge Studies in Palaeography and Codicology, 9), pp.1-27.Mr Derolez intends to use the following text in class, and hopes that students will bring copies with them.
5. Cappelli, Adriano. Lexicon abbreviaturarum. Dizionario di abbreviature latine ed italiane, 6th ed. (Milano: Hoepli, 1987).Cappelli also exists in a German edition. For the purposes of this course, any fairly recent edition of either the Italian or the German version is fine (what we have indicated is simply the latest of many printings; the 6th ed. appears to date from about 1969). There is an English translation of Cappelli’s introduction, published as The Elements of Abbreviation in Medieval Latin Paleography, translated by David Heimann and Richard Kay (Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Libraries, 1982).Note: copies of Cappelli are available from Bernard M. Rosenthal, Inc., Box 5297, Berkeley, CA 94705, telephone 510/549-2532, for $29/copy postpaid if payment is enclosed with order.
6. Students are advised to bring a Latin dictionary to class.

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Course History