Angela Andreani

1
Introducing Palaeography

• Angela Andreani

2
What is palaeography

• Palaeography is the study of ancient writing
• It is concerned with different aspects of the
  writing phenomenon, and it encompasses different
  levels of analysis

Paper strip in the ancient Indic script Kharoshti
(2nd-5th c.) A scroll of the Book of Esther
(Seville, Spain) Sumerian cuneiform script on a
clay tablet (24002200 BC)
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What is palaeography

• The decoding process which allows reading, i.e.
  deciphering, older writing systems
• The history of handwriting itself, and how its
  changes and developments may reflect historical
  and social changes
• As a science it can be used for historical
  tracing, identify local script styles or
  individual scribal hands, since it analyses the
  precise mode of delineation of letters.

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Terminology majuscule and minuscule

• Majuscule, or two-line script, identifies letters
  comprised within two imaginary parallel lines
• Minuscle, or four-line script, identifies letters
  presenting ascenders, like ltbgt or descenders,
  like ltggt as shown in the image

5
Terminology upper case and lower case

• The definitions upper case and lower case are
  used to refer to the types in printed books (and
  not letters in manuscripts). The term case
  indicates the drawers called type cases used
  for letterpress printing

Combined case with majuscules above minuscules
and 18th century press letters
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Terminology scripts

• The term script is used by palaeographers to
  indicate a distinctive style of writing, like the
  anglicana or the uncial
• Book or text script indicates scripts in which
  letters are formed separately, with few ligatures
  and many individual ducts for letters (typically
  roman scripts)

• Examples of common ligatures used to combine
  multiple letters

7
Terminology scripts

• In Cursive scripts the hand is seldom lifted from
  the page. Letters present ligatures and
  continuous ducts
• A further subdivision among cursive scripts may
  be drawn between set (more calligraphic) and free
  (more idiosyncratic and difficult to read) styles
• Distinction are not always clear in some cases
  there might virtually be no difference between
  scripts, and in some others bastard styles evolve
  out of a mixture of the two styles. However,
  these terms are useful for their descriptive
  function

8

• Book script

• Cursive script

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Older scripts in England

• Uncial a majuscule script commonly used from
  the 3rd to 8th centuries AD by Latin and Greek
  scribes. Letters are disconnected from one
  another, and word separation is typically not
  used
• This script is found for instance in the
  Vespasian Psalter (8th century). Click the link
  to view an image of the manuscript at the British
  Library Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts
• http//www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts
  /TourPopup.asp?TourID3

10
Older scripts in England

• Half-Uncial it was brought to Ireland in the
  5th century, and it then spread to England where
  it was used up to the 8th century. After the 8th
  century it developed into the insular script

• It is the script of the Book of Kells (8th/9th
  c., in the image) and of the Lindisfarne Gospels
  (7th/8th c.)

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Older scripts in England

• Insular scripts these are the scripts of the
  great works of Old English literature of the 10th
  century, like the Exeter Book (10th century)
  Vercelli Book (10th century) Ms Cotton Vitellius
  A xv (11th century, the manuscript in which
  Beowulf is preserved, (see image) and Ms Junius
  11 (11th century)

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More on insular scripts

• Insular scripts became a sort of national
  trademark, to the extent that the spread of
  Continental scripts in England brought about the
  coexistence of a set of alternative, and somehow
  competing scripts, so for instance the Caroline
  or Carolingian script (image 1), of Continental
  origin was preferred for works in Latin, whereas
  the insular scripts (image 2) would be favoured
  for works in English

• Older scripts in England

• 1)
• 2)

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Older scripts in England

• The 12th and 13th centuries mark a period of
  considerable cultural and political change, as a
  consequence of both the Norman Conquest (1066)
  and the progressive laicisation of culture
• Perhaps favoured by the need to speed up the
  process of writing, cursive scripts become more
  and more popular, and from this moment on,
  scripts generally present two variants bookhand
  and cursive (cf. Lat. cursivo, running)

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Older scripts in England

• The different kinds of script in use in the later
  Middle Ages and Early Modern England may be
  grouped into two major subdivisions
• Anglicana (closely connected to the Gothic
  script) and
• Secretary (of uncertain origin)
• Connected to the spread of Humanism in Europe,
  the Italic (from Italy) script began to spread in
  England in the later Middle Ages

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Older scripts a comparison

• FOCUS ON SCRIPTS
• Which of the above are (mainly) majuscule scripts
  and which are minuscules?
• Compare letters ltagt and ltggt in the scripts above
  and identify similarities and differences.
• What can you say of the ascenders and discenders
  in letter ltdgt and ltfgt?
• Find examples of manuscripts in each of the above
  scripts (you can start from these links in slide
  n. 18)

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Resources and reference

• Websites
• http//www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/439491/p
  aleography palaeography at the Encyclopaedia
  Britannica
• http//medievalwriting.50megs.com/scripts/letters/
  historya.htm provides a rich repository of
  images, and examples of individual letters
• Tutorials and courses
• http//www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/palaeography/
  online tutorial from the National Archives
  focusing on English hands 1500-1800
• http//www.history.ac.uk/research-training/courses
  /online-palaeography free online course from the
  University of Londons School of Advanced Studies

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Resources and reference

• Palaeography in UKs Higher Education
• The website of the London Palaeography Summer
  School http//www.ies.sas.ac.uk/london-palaeograp
  hy-summer-school
• More resources at the University of Dundee
  http//www.dundee.ac.uk/archives/palaeography.htm
• John Craces interesting article from The
  Guardian, why palaeography matters
  http//www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/feb/09/wr
  iting-off-last-palaeographer-university

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Resources and reference

• Selection of digital images and projects
• http//www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ttp/ttpbooks.html
  turning the pages at the British Library
• The British Library catalogue of illuminated
  manuscripts http//www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminate
  dmanuscripts/TourPopup.asp?TourID3
• Early Manuscripts at Oxford University
  http//image.ox.ac.uk/
• The rich collection of the Digital Scriptorium
  http//bancroft.berkeley.edu/digitalscriptorium/

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Resources and reference

• In print
• Brown, M. P., The British Library Guide to
  Writing and Scripts, London Toronto British
  Library Toronto University Press, 1998
• Cappelli, A., Lexicon abbreviaturarum, Milan
  Hoepli, 1954
• Parkes, M., English Cursive Book Hands,
  1250-1500, Berkeley University of California
  Press, 1980
• Roberts, J., Guide to Scripts Used in English
  Writing up to 1500, London and Toronto British
  Library and Toronto University Press, 2005