One of the most difficult aspects of Ph.D. training for those studying the pre-modern world must be Paleography–the study of old handwriting. Never will I forget dutifully taking the only paleography course available to me at Arizona State University: a “video” course. This consisted of a series of video-taped lectures (of fairly awful quality) by some very good and well-meaning scholars who attempted to teach students about a VERY wide variety of pre-modern handwriting styles. I gained very little in the way of practical information. I managed to pass this one unit course feeling very dissatisfied.

Feeling worried and wary, I managed to obtain a copy of the now out-of-print: English Handwriting, 1400-1650 : An Introductory Manual by Preston & Yeandle. This was a god-send that I took with me on my first major research trip to London. Optimistically entering the British Library in October 2001, I thought I could easily read the many manuscript sources that I would discover at the BL Instead, I spent the first week flailing about unable to read ANYTHING placed in front of me. I found myself in the office of the curator crying and terrified that it would take my entire time in London to be able to read Secretary hand.

The kind curator refrained from laughing in my face and merely encouraged me to slog along and that eventually, I would be able to read the manuscripts. She was right, but without Yeandle, I doubt I would have accomplished as much as I did.

That experience taught me that one must continually practice paleography. Otherwise, each time you approach these sources you will nearly have to start over and get the “hang of it” all over again. I dreamed that  I would find some online course or source for practicing paleography. Fortunately, such online resources now exist and these are the subject of this post.

The first site to come up with something useful was the Scriptorium:
Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts Online. This online paleography course comes to us from Cambridge University. It is a good start for learning and practicing the paleography skills that English historians of the pre-modern world need. The course provides 28 lessons that take the student through increasingly difficult manuscripts and hands. The students can practice their own transcription of very good sources. The feedback is immediate and one can “test” oneself as well.

The site is rather dated and clumsy–there is a lot of clicking back and forth around the site to get through a lesson. Still, as an early resource, it is remarkable. The hands-on experience of transcription and feedback is invaluable. You can filter the lessons by the dates of the manuscripts to help you get experience with documents from your particular time-period. You can also work your way through from easier to more difficult manuscripts (some people have VERY bad handwriting in the past, just as they do today!)

The site contains historical information about the history of handwriting, further reading, transcription conventions and more. This is a good course. Graduate students will benefit enormously from working through the course–especially if they do not have access to a paleography course in their graduate program.

Another, and probably better, online paleography course may be found at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/palaeography/ This course comes from the British National Archives and capitalizes on the Cambridge success and makes a much bigger impact. As the site tells you about the interactive tutorial: “Each document is offered alongside: an historical background;a glossary; notes on the palaeography; a sample alphabet taken from each document and a full transcript.”

This is a gold mine of information and a very useable paleography course. The course provides all of these things for each document as well as a printable version of the document and a pop-up version. The interactive exercise is easy to use and allows you to zoom into the document image to get a good look while transcribing. Again, the feedback is immediate and you can work line by line.

The site also offers a fun game, “The Ducking Stool” that requires the player to correctly transcribe words to raise the victim from the water. My first attempt saw the poor woman submerged entirely. Further practice examples are provided with the admonishment to continue practicing–and I will!