Christopher,
You may also find this book useful, "Latin bookhands of the later Middle
ages, 1100-1500" by S. Harrison Thomson. London : Cambridge U.P., 1969.
Best wishes,
Judith Dartt
_______________________________________
Judith Dartt
Digital Projects Specialist
Department of Special Collections
University of Chicago Library
1100 East 57th Street
Chicago, Illinois 60637
(telephone) 773-702-2814; (fax) 773-702-3728
http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/spcl/
At 02:03 PM 1/11/01 -0500, Christopher M. Mislow wrote:
>Sapientes,
>
>I have an embarrassing confession reflecting my amateur status: all the
>medieval texts I have read to date have been *printed* versions. I have
>never laid my eyes on an original manuscript. Recently, the shortcomings
>of this inexperience revealed themselves in a frustrating manner. I have a
>book which contains photographic reproductions of many manuscripts (both of
>chroniclers such as Froissart, and also of anonymous clerical scribes), but
>I could scarcely read a word of them. The problem was not my Latin --
>which, though rusty, is serviceable with Niemeyer and a bit of effort.
>Rather, I could not make out the letters and abbreviations used.
>
>This brings me to my punchline, so to speak. Is anyone aware of any good
>"how-to" book which would enable the neophyte to learn the various styles
>of writing (e.g., Half-Uncial, Gothic, &c.) and abbreviations prevalent in
>medieval manuscripts?
>
>--Christopher
>
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