Introducing Palaeography
Angela Andreani
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)
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.
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
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
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
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
Book script
Cursive script
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:
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/TourPopup.asp?TourID=3
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.)
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)
More on insular scripts
Older scripts in
England

1)

2)
• 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
• 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’)
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
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)
Resources and reference
• Websites
– http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/439491/paleograp
hy palaeography at the Encyclopaedia Britannica
– http://medievalwriting.50megs.com/scripts/letters/historya.htm
provides a rich repository of images, and examples of individual
letters
• Tutorials and courses
– http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/palaeography/ online
tutorial from the National Archives focusing on English hands
1500-1800
– http://www.history.ac.uk/research-training/courses/onlinepalaeography free online course from the University of London’s
School of Advanced Studies
Resources and reference
• Palaeography in UK’s Higher Education
– The website of the London Palaeography Summer School:
http://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/london-palaeography-summerschool
– More resources at the University of Dundee:
http://www.dundee.ac.uk/archives/palaeography.htm
– John Crace’s interesting article from The Guardian, why
palaeography matters:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/feb/09/writi
ng-off-last-palaeographer-university
Resources and reference
• Selection of digital images and projects
– http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ttp/ttpbooks.html
turning the pages at the British Library
– The British Library catalogue of illuminated manuscripts
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/To
urPopup.asp?TourID=3
– Early Manuscripts at Oxford University
http://image.ox.ac.uk/
– The rich collection of the Digital Scriptorium
http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/digitalscriptorium/
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, 1250-1500,
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