Practical Paleography

Practical Paleography is an informal series of paleography sessions meeting every two weeks from November 2014 through March 2015; these sessions are sponsored by Early Modern Manuscripts Online (EMMO) for the staff and readers of the Folger Shakespeare Library. Each session will focus on transcription and mark-up (i.e., XML encoding) of a few 16th and/or 17th century manuscript pages from the Folger collection – announcements with information about particular manuscripts to be transcribed will appear a week or so before each session.

No experience or registration is required, and you can attend as many or as few sessions as you like. Short handouts will be provided, and full transcriptions of the manuscripts we examine will appear here on this Folgerpedia page a week or so following the session. You may want to bring a laptop to try your own transcriptions or take notes.

Here's a link to some introductory pages on the early modern alphabet and common abbreviations: Alphabet Book.

We are particularly eager to work on manuscripts suggested by participating staff and readers. If you have a manuscript page or two that you would like to have the group examine, please contact Heather Wolfe and/or Paul Dingman in advance of the session(s) you’d like to attend.

This initial series of Practical Paleography has concluded; it ran every other Tuesday from November 18 until March 24 (10 meetings) in the Board Room, 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM, right after tea. See manuscript details about individual sessions below and full transcriptions. The next series of Practical Paleography starts on Tuesday, May 5 and runs until September 8 following the same pattern, every other Tuesday in the Board Room, 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM. If you haven't attended one yet, stop in and give paleography a try.

Nov. 18

Brief introduction to secretary hand and common abbreviations. Intriguing recipes from the following manuscript collections:

V.a.430 – Cookery and medicinal recipes of the Granville family ⇒ Transcriptions

V.b.301 – Cookbook of Grace Blome ⇒ Transcriptions

Dec. 2

Quick review of alphabet then a look at some interesting letters from the following manuscript:

X.c.61 – Papers of the Rattray family of Craighall ⇒ Transcriptions

Transcriptions of specific letters completed by this group:

X.c.61 (119) – Letter from John Ogilvy of Balfour to James Rattray of Craighall, … 1674 September 9 ⇒ Transcription
X.c.61 (137) – Letter from John Ogilvy of Balfour to James Rattray of Craighall 1677 April ⇒Transcription

Dec. 16

Further examination of secretary hand and review of alphabet before working with a volume of a poetical miscellany:

V.a.245 – Poetical miscellany (manuscript)⇒ Transcriptions

Dec. 30

A very brief review of the alphabet and some of the common abbreviations used in secretary hand and then a look at two letters with seasonal references from the Papers of the Bagot Family⇒ Transcriptions

Transcriptions of specific letters completed by this group:

L.a.156 – Letter from Walter Bagot to an unnamed knight ⇒ Transcription

L.a.176 – Letter from William Bagot (Walter's son), Oxford, to Walter Bagot, 1619 November 7 ⇒ Transcription

Jan. 13

Introduction to Dromio, the Folger's online transcription/collation tool, and semi-diplomatic conventions and then a chance to practice both transcribing and encoding secretary hand with some poetry from a volume of poetical miscellany :
V.a.245 – Poetical miscellany (manuscript)⇒ Transcriptions

Jan. 27

A quick refresher on the use of Dromio and conventions of semi-diplomatic transcription, and then practice transcribing a mixed secretary/italic hand with a newsletter about some maritime matters: L.c.2102 – Newdigate family collection of newsletters ⇒ Transcriptions

Feb. 10

An introduction into the way numbers were written in manuscripts of the time, and then an opportunity to transcribe some interesting lists of items (with numbers) in V.b.147 – Inventories of the Townshend family ⇒ Transcriptions

Feb. 24

An educational experience with quill pens, iron gall ink, and rag paper followed by a turn at transcribing an early modern recipe for black ink from V.a.159 – A Miscellany (sometimes known as Giles Lodge's Lute-Book). ⇒ Transcriptions

Mar. 10

A quick review of numbers and then a more specific look at how numbers are used in references to money in early modern manuscripts. Several examples of amounts will be shown in snippets from L.d.101–775 – Bacon-Townshend collection ⇒ Transcription

Mar. 24

A brief review of features in Dromio and then a chance to transcribe some chivalric romance, specifically a few pages about the adventures of St. Denis and his horse from V.a.139 – Gawdy Brampton's rhyming version of Richard Johnson's very popular literary work. The famous histories of the seven champions of Christendom ⇒ Transcription

Upcoming Sessions

May 5
May 19
Jun. 2
Jun. 16
Jun. 30
Jul. 14
Jul. 28
Aug. 11
Aug. 25
Sep. 8

May. 5

The first of ten sessions in the second series of Practical Paleography running through summer 2015. After a brief explanation of secretary hand along with some of its common abbreviations, there will be a quick overview of Dromio, the Folger's online transcription-collation tool. Then a look at two interesting family letters, one from the Papers of the Bagot family and the other from the Bacon-Townshend collection.

L.a.161 – Bagot Family Papers ⇒ Transcription

L.d.18 – Bacon-Townshend Collection ⇒ Transcription

May. 19

A recap of how to use dromio, the Folger's online transcription-collation tool, including a brief overview of the tag set. Then an opportunity to transcribe L.a.63, a letter from Walter Bagot's eldest son Lewis to his father. Lewis is writing from commons [at one of the Inns of Court]. He mentions The Kynnersley-Trew case, being followed hard by Sir Walter Chetwynd and Mr. Wolseley (Wouslye). Bagot Family Papers ⇒ Transcription

June. 2

A look at numbers, including Roman numerals and Arabic numbers, or a combination of the two. Also covered will be days, dates and Regnal years (including how to modernize dates). Worksheets will provide examples.