Manuscript Studies
Medieval and Early Modern

Course Notes: Introduction

• I. Towards a definition of "manuscript studies"
  • I.ii. The four branches of bibliographical study

  • I.iii. Topics in the social history of texts
    • I.iii.a The "Rescue" of Medieval Manuscripts from Grocers and Fishmongers

• II. Diplomatics

• III. Codicology
  • III.ii. Decoration and Illumination

• IV. Paleography
  • IV.ii. Historical Notes

  • IV.iii. Writing Implements

  • IV.iv. Letter Formation

  • IV.v. Special Characters in English Manuscripts

  • IV.vi. Scribal Abbreviations

  • IV.vii. Punctuation
    • IV.viii. Paleographical sample: William Herebert, OFM (early fourteenth-century England)
      • Herebert sample, with transcription
      • Herebert sample: enlargement of full page reproduced at high resolution

• V. Textual analysis (James E. Thorpe)
  • V.ii. Scribal error

  • V.iii. Kinds of edition

  • V.iv. Examples of over emendation on insufficient grounds

• VI. Linguistic competence (an example): An Outline History of the English Language

• VII. Libraries and archives
  • VII.ii. British Library Manuscript Collections

  • VII.iii. Bodleian Library Manuscript Collections

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© 1998, 2015 Stephen R. Reimer
English; University of Alberta; Edmonton, Canada
All rights reserved.
Created: 29 Oct. 1998; Last revised: 30 May 2015

email: Stephen.Reimer@UAlberta.Ca
URL: https://sites.ualberta.ca/~sreimer/ms-course.htm