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 Kharoshtī (2nd-5th c.); A scroll of the Book of Esther (Seville, Spain); Sumerian cuneiform script on a clay tablet (2400–2200 BC)

3. 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.

4. 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 <b> or descenders, like <g> 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

6. 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

9. 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:

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.)

11. 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)

12. 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)

13. 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’)

14. 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

15. Older scripts: a comparison
FOCUS ON SCRIPTS
Which of the above are (mainly) majuscule scripts and which are minuscules?
Compare letters <a> and <g> in the scripts above and identify similarities and differences.
What can you say of the ascenders and discenders in letter <d> and <f>?
Find examples of manuscripts in each of the above scripts (you can start from these links in slide n. 18)

16. Resources and reference
Websites
palaeography at the Encyclopaedia Britannica
provides a rich repository of images, and examples of individual letters
Tutorials and courses
online tutorial from the National Archives focusing on English hands
free online course from the University of London’s School of Advanced Studies

17. Resources and reference
Palaeography in UK’s Higher Education
The website of the London Palaeography Summer School:
More resources at the University of Dundee:
John Crace’s interesting article from The Guardian, why palaeography matters:

18. Resources and reference
Selection of digital images and projects
turning the pages at the British Library
The British Library catalogue of illuminated manuscripts
Early Manuscripts at Oxford University
The rich collection of the Digital Scriptorium

19. 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, , 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