Please note that this weekend course will recycle some documents used in the 2022 ContEd weekly classes.
This weekend event will enable those keen to undertake research using original historical documents to begin reading the scripts used in England post 1550. We will look in detail at the main scripts in use across this period (Secretary, Italic and Mixed Hands), through practical examples from common record types. We will cover original sources such as property records, wills, accounts and correspondence.
The principal focus will be on documents written in English, although some in Latin may be included (no prior knowledge of Latin is required).
The weekend will provide the opportunity to cover both theoretical and practical aspects of palaeography and reading handwriting. We will look at reading strategies and tips throughout, as well as key reference and study resources for further study.
The course tutor is an experienced archivist and will use documents from collections she has worked with as examples, as well as from published and online sources. Teaching methods will range from short lecture-style talks on theory and historical context, as well as in-depth practical sessions focusing on reading documents, either individually, in pairs or as a class.
This course covering this time period is offered in this weekend format for the first time, to complement the two Medieval Records and Medieval Handwriting weekends which ran in the 2023-24 academic year. It builds on the popular early modern palaeography weekday evening class (20 hours) which ran in autumn 2022, as well as two over-subscribed palaeography day schools previously run for Hereford WEA.
This event will close to enrolments at 23:59 BST on 23 October 2024.