English Paleography and Manuscript Culture, 1500-1800

An engaging, accessible introduction to reading and understanding early modern English manuscripts. This engaging book provides an essential introduction to the manuscript in early modern England. From birth to death, parish record to probate inventory, writing framed the lives of the early modern English. The book offers a detailed technical introduction to the handwriting of the period, from "secretary hand" through the "copperplate" that defined the early British Empire. Case studies trace the significance of manuscript to British cultural identity, exploring the intersections of manuscript and print, the roles of manuscript in the bureaucracy of the early modern state, and the complex practices surrounding manuscript in the lives of early modern readers and writers. Exercises offer the opportunity to practice reading and transcription, pointing to examples ranging from John Lydgate through William Wordsworth. Richly illustrated and drawing extensively on Yale University collections, this book opens the study of early modern English manuscript to a new generation of students and scholars.

About the author

Kathryn James is Curator of Early Modern Books and Manuscripts at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

Summary

An engaging, accessible introduction to reading and understanding early modern English manuscripts

Product details

• Authors: Kathryn James, James Kathryn
• Publisher: Yale University Press Ltd
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.04.2020
• EAN: 9780300254358
• ISBN: 978-0-300-25435-8
• No. of pages: 288
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > General, dictionaries; Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, European History, HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / Georgian Era (1714-1837), ANTIQUES & COLLECTIBLES / Books, HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / Stuart Era (1603-1714), ANTIQUES & COLLECTIBLES / Paper Ephemera, British & Irish history, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Literature: history & criticism, Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700, c 1500 to c 1600, Literature: history and criticism, 1714–1837 (Georgian period), C 1600 To C 1700, 1485–1603 (Tudor period), C 1700 To C 1800, 1660 to 1714 (Restoration and the Later Stuart period), 1603–1649 (Jacobean and Early Stuart period)