Conrad Ferdinand's List: 1.1 Reading Resources

Alphabet of German handwritings since the middle ages

"Lire une texte manuscrit semble souvent difficile, surtout lorsque celui-ci date de plusieurs siècles. Par exemple, le trait de plume n'est pas aussi regulier que le notre: l'écriture avec la plume d'oie, ancêtre de notre stylo, donnait des épaisseurs variables aux caractères (suivant son inclination, la force avec laquelle le rédacteur appuyait la plume sur le support papier ou parchemin, etc.). De même, chaque lettre pouvait avoir une hauteur plus importante que les autres, suivant son emplacement dans un mot, ou sur une ligne. Il n'y avait pas non plus, à proprement parler, de règles d'orthographes (elles ne se sont précisées qu'avec le temps, et l'on trouve souvent des textes écrits "phonétiquement" par le rédacteur). Pour couronner le tout, nos ancêtres utilisaient de nombreuses formes d'abréviations et en avaient recours assez fréquemment (contraction, aphérèse, notes tironiennes). Mais rassurer vous, nous verrons tous ces problèmes au fur et à mesure. "

"The slate of course lessons offered below has been carefully structured around a selection of resources. Each lesson includes a central manuscript, for which the student is invited to supply a semi-diplomatic transcription in a workspace provided within the course. Alphabets of minuscule and majuscule letter-forms and of brevigraphs and other abbreviations are available, as are a zooming function. Students may also consult supplementary information on dating and describing the hand(s) of the manuscript. Each lesson concludes with a short test, usually of about ten questions, that examines students' abilities to transcribe short selections from the manuscript, afterwards supplying the 'correct' answer along with commentary and suggestions for further consideration. Students may at any time consult an exemplary transcription of each course manuscript, and are especially urged to do so once the lesson is otherwise complete; a PDF version of this file may be downloaded (and printed) to take away as a model. A student who has experienced particular trouble with a given lesson, or who would like further practice of a similar kind, may like to pursue the 'follow-up' suggestions available in the toolbar in the bottom frame."

"Palaeography is the study of old handwriting. This web tutorial will help you learn to read the handwriting found in documents written in English between 1500 and 1800. At first glance, many documents written at this time look illegible to the modern reader. By reading the practical tips and working through the documents in the Tutorial in order of difficulty, you will find that it becomes much easier to read old handwriting. You can find more documents on which to practise your skills in the further practice section."

" Daily Paleographical Gallery from the Beinecke Library's Osborn Collection (Yale University)"

"Welcome to Scottish Handwriting.com, the website offering online tuition in palaeography for historians, genealogists and other researchers who have problems reading manuscript historical records written in Scotland in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. The emphasis of the website is on practical help to improve the palaeographical skills, rather than on the academic study of Scottish handwriting."

"The pages below are drawn from the holdings in the rare book section of the Dept. of Special Collections. They are to give you some idea as to what we have that can be used in the study of the history of typography and book design. The images of the printed material can be quite large; all sizes are given below the thumbnail. "