I will second Carolyn's recommendation of Bischoff, which I
myself used when I learned palaeography not too long ago:
Bernhard Bischoff, _Latin Palaeography: Antiquity and the
Middle Ages_. Translated by Dáibhí ó Cróinin and David
Ganz. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
A quick check of the Cambridge University Press website
reveals that this book is still available, at a paperback
price of £17.95. We were also encouraged to buy:
Leonard E. Boyle, _Medieval Latin Palaeography: A
Bibliographical Introduction_. Toronto: University of
Toronto Press, 1984.
I do not know if this is still in print, as I could not
find it on the University of Toronto Press website.
However, amazon.com claims they can get it for $16.00, so
copies are presumably still available. And of course, no
serious palaeographer should be without:
Adriano Cappelli, _Lexicon abbreviaturarum: dizionario di
abbreviature latine ed italiane . . ._. Milan: Hoepli,
many printings. (The University of Notre Dame library has
a copy of a 1990 printing, and I think there may be
something even more recent.)
Cappelli is good not only for the obvious reason of helping
to decipher abbreviations, but each alphabetical section is
preceded with a large number of forms for various letters:
27 for the letter "a," 27 for "b," 25 for "c," etc.
Great books, all three, and well worth the (relatively
small) investment.
Stephen A. Allen
The Medieval Institute
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN 46556-5692
[log in to unmask]
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|