Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Disappearing Paleography
In case anybody is wondering what the enigmatic comments on the last posting are about, they refer to the intention to close the School of Paleography at King's College London and eliminate the prestigious professorship there. If any readers out there who are struggling along learning their paleography from the internet wish to find out what this is about, and perhaps contribute to the discussion about it, then click here. We all know that paleography doesn't really suck, just that it is a difficult subject that needs to be taught well and researched creatively. This becomes a bit difficult when there is nowhere to do it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Dianne,
For a year now I have been transcribing and arbitrating UK records for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormon) located in Salt Lake City, Utah. These include parish, land tax, etc. My main interest are those records through the years 1400 on up. Starting it was a bit daunting. Although the records deal with names, I found that I needed a solid background on all the different styles and needed to read other type of documents. This is where you come in. Your site and all the links that you provided have been an incredible help! And your wonderful sense of humor – you’re funny!
I have come a long way and am still learning. There have been some handwriting that I can not crack. They are pretty to look at – boy now, those “suck”. Did I ever think that I would need to learn Latin? Heck no!
I used the Mormons Family Search site to research my ancestors and felt a needed pay back. So far I have done close to 20,000 names. It’s a crazy, wicked fun time and I hate to tear myself away.
And now it’s time to….Thank You.
Barbara Wernert
I really like when people are expressing their opinion and thought. So I like the way you are writing
Hello Dianne,
I have just started a course in scottish medieval to early modern history by distance learning, from dundee university, intending to fill the year before my open university history m.a. starts in october. ( I am a parent and mature student staring into the abyss of late middle age..)The medieval era really appeals to me and I decided to specialise in it.Reading around the subject, I soon realised that if I wanted to get into this area properly, I would need to learn the languages. This was just after the Kings College news. I had never heard of paleography, then the next week I find that I am going to be doing it! Looking on the internet I came across your site. It is a marvel!I am reading my way through it, have bought some relevant texts and am going to teach myself medieval latin. After that, Celtic latin and then gaelic. It's difficult to find medieval history courses that can be afforded and done part-time or distance learning. Teaching oneself paleography is the only way. Your site has so much detail on it, I feel as if I am learning a whole new subject area.I like the humour too! The links that you give are invaluable.It is very satisfying to be able to decifer a little piece of unintelligible looking latin abbreviated script. No one can understand my joy! I love it though. It is exciting and I shall persevere. Between looking after the hens,offspring,doing Scottish history etc,in no particular order!
Thankyou for your marvellous website,
Alice Kingma Lee, Bath U.K.
Please excuse my delay in thanking you both for your support and for your website, which I have been slow to discover.
David Ganz
Post a Comment