Palaeography Books

Book SynopsisIf you want to learn to read and know about old handwriting, this is the only book you will need.Trade Review“This educational guide will help you master the reading of old handwriting from the 19th Century back to the court hands of the 16th. It covers the terminology used when transcribing, but the main emphasis is on practical learning in order to decipher old documents, on the importance of ‘having a go’ and persisting." * Family Tree magazine *

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Book SynopsisThis book presents the earliest South Indian inscriptions (ca. second century B.C.E. to sixth century A.D.), written in Tamil in local derivations of the Ashokan Brahmi script. The work includes texts, transliteration, translation, detailed commentary, inscriptional glossary, and indexes.

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Book SynopsisWriting is one of humanity's greatest inventions. Without it there would be no history and no civilization as we know it. But how, when and where did writing evolve? This book discusses the history of decipherment and major writing systems, from cuneiform and Egyptian and Mayan hieroglyphs to alphabets and the scripts of China and Japan.Trade Review'The most accessible and informative book available on the major writing systems of the world' - History Today'Excellent … Robinson covers so much ground in such short order that you feel he must have got something wrong or left out something important. He hasn’t' - Bookdealer'Delightful to read … difficult to put down once started' - Communication ArtsTable of ContentsI. How Writing Works 1. Reading the Rosetta Stone • 2. Sound, Symbol and Script • 3. Proto-Writing II. Extinct Writing • 4. Cuneiform • 5. Egyptian Hieroglyphs • 6. Linear B • 7. Mayan Glyphs • 8. Undeciphered Scripts III. Living Writing 9. The First Alphabet • 10. New Alphabets from Old • 11. Chinese Writing • 12. Japanese Writing • 13. From Hieroglyphs to Alphabets – and Back? • Postscript in the New Millennium

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Book SynopsisFamily and Local Historians frequently encounter the challenge posed by the writing, and sometimes the translation, of the records which might most enable them to make further progress with their research. Many pamphlets, booklets and even books have been produced over the past century to help with old handwriting and abbreviations, but this new work, written by an author who has for years run courses on the subject, is the most practical and comprehensive yet for family and local historians. Based on some fifty facsimile reproductions of documents of graduated difficulty, culled from many useful sources, it provides transcripts, and translations where appropriate, together with advice on methods of transcribing. The alphabet, with commentary, of the numerous types of letter to be found in the examples (many being in the secretary and court hands which so often cause problems), and illustrations of forms of abbreviation will greatly help to unravel the difficulties of reading. Many documents before 1733 were written in Latin and the author includes an outline of the differences between classical and medieval usage and a vocabulary to cover the section in Latin. There are examples, from the 1400s to the 1700s, of a wide range of hands found in the most usual categories of record used by family historians, such as parish registers, wills and court rolls, and in many others which disclose helpful information on families and localities. Those who use this book will not need to be persuaded of the great enjoyment to be derived from pursuing research into family or local history and the pleasures of piecing together evidence to throw new light on old times. They may also find great enjoyment in the deciphering of documents, the means to that end. For the solitary searcher or a member of a class or local society, this will be the standard work upon which to rely for many decades to come.

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Book Synopsis“An absolutely fascinating blend of history, design, sociology, and cultural poetics—highly recommended.”—Maria Popova, Brain PickingsTrade Review"If Eats, Shoots & Leaves whetted your appetite on the subject of punctuation, then you have a treat in store. Shady Characters is an authoritative, witty, and fascinating tour of the history and rationale behind such lesser known marks as the ampersand, manicule, the pilcrow, and the interrobang. Keith Houston also explains the octothorpe—otherwise known as the hashtag—and and my final comment on his book is #awesome." -- Ben Yagoda, author of How to Not Write Bad"Make no mistake: this is a book of secrets. With zeal and rigor, Keith Houston cracks open the &, the #, the † and more—all the little matryoshka dolls of meaning that make writing work. Inside, we meet novelists, publishers, scholars and scribes; we range from ancient Greeks to hashtagged tweets; and we see the weird and wonderful foundations of the most successful technology of all time." -- Robin Sloan, author of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore"Funny, surprising, and, of course, geeky." -- Michael D. Schaffer and John Timpane - Philadelphia Inquirer"Might make you look at books… in an entirely new way." -- Andrew Robinson - Nature"Houston…is a tireless researcher and an amiable teacher." -- Jan Gardner - Boston Globe"A pleasurable contribution to type history, particularly for readers who haven’t considered the ampersand in any detail." -- Carl W. Scarbrough - New Criterion"Fascinating." -- Rob Kyff - The Courant"An absolutely fascinating blend of history, design, sociology, and cultural poetics—highly recommended." -- Maria Popova - Brain Pickings"For fans of Lynn Truss’s Eats, Shoots & Leaves, this bestiary of lesser-known punctuation marks is a wonder." -- Publishers Weekly"I'm a sucker for this stuff. The @ is called a chiocciola (snail) in Italian! The & was once taught as a letter of the alphabet! The manicule has been with us for a millenium! Thank you, Keith Houston, for bringing these little mysteries out of the shadows of typographic history. " -- Constance Hale, author of Sin and Syntax"A mostly amusing, informative history of punctuation… Houston explores the roles a variety of punctuation marks have played in the popular imagination. The forgotten manicule, the modest dash and the ampersand all make appearances, as do intriguing characters from millennia past. The book is often engrossing… An unusual triumph of the human ability to find exaltation in the mundane." -- Kirkus Reviews"This book has more in common with Malcolm Gladwell than with standard history writing." -- Library Journal

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Book SynopsisSalomon surveys all the inscriptional material - documents written in ink on various surfaces, or carved into stone and metal, as well as seals - in the Indo-Aryan languages. He presents the entire corpus of these inscriptions in a way accessible to specialists in the field as well as non-specialists.Trade ReviewThe scope of this survey is certainly impressive....any student of Indian history, religion, art, language, or literature who makes use of inscriptions in any way will find a great deal of useful original, and often fascinating material here....a broad and ambitious overview....As a guide and reference source summarizing what has been done so far in the field of Indian epigraphy, this is a most valuable work. * The Journal of Asian Studies *

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Book SynopsisThis is the first Dictionary of English Manuscript Terminology ever to be published. Dealing with the subject of documentation - which affects everyone''s lives (from every-day letters, notes, and shopping lists to far-reaching legal instruments, if not autograph literary masterpieces) - Peter Beal defines, in a lively and accessible style, some 1,500 terms relating to manuscripts and their production and use in Britain from 1450 to the present day. The entries, which range in length from one line to nearly a hundred lines each, cover terms defining types of manuscript, their physical features and materials, writing implements, writing surfaces, scribes and other writing agents, scripts, postal markings, and seals, as well as subjects relating to literature, bibliography, archives, palaeography, the editing and printing of manuscripts, dating, conservation, and such fields as cartography, commerce, heraldry, law, and military and naval matters. The book includes 96 illustrations showinTrade ReviewReview from previous edition affords many pleasures to the curious... an intellectual inventory. * Andrew Zurcher, Times Literary Supplement *Peter Beal's expertise and vast knowledge provide a most useful selection of terms * Carlo M. Bajetta, Notes and Queries *Table of ContentsPreface ; Acknowledgements ; Illustrations ; A Dictionary of English Manuscript Terminology 1450-2000 ; Select Bibliography

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Book SynopsisPresents the inside story of one of the major intellectual breakthroughs of our time - the great decipherment of an ancient Maya script revised with the advanced developments. This title features 113 illustrations that provide details about the people and texts that have enabled us to read the Maya script.Trade Review'Coe’s thrilling account of the cracking of Mayan is like a detective story … great stuff' - Observer'A thrilling story of academic rivalry, bigotry, chewing gum and - wait for it - penis perforation' - Daily Mail'An entertaining, enlightening and even humorous history of the great searchers after the meaning that lies in the Maya inscriptions' - Anthony Burgess'Told with great vigour by Professor Michael Coe, who was himself involved; he offers an insider’s story with strong views of the personalities, competence and abilities of some colleagues' - History Today'A great story told clearly and passionately by a great Mayanist. It’s an inspiring example of the ultimate triumph of a truth in the knock-down, drag-out world of academic politics' - Science

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Book SynopsisBernhard Bischoff (1906â1991) was one of the most renowned scholars of medieval palaeography of the twentieth century. His most outstanding contribution to learning was in the field of Carolingian studies, where his work is based on the catalogue of all extant ninth-century manuscripts and fragments. In this book, Michael Gorman has selected and translated seven of his classic essays on aspects of eighth- and ninth-century culture. They include an investigation of the manuscript evidence and the role of books in the transmission of culture from the sixth to the ninth century, and studies of the court libraries of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious. Bischoff also explores centres of learning outside the court in terms of the writing centres and the libraries associated with major monastic and cathedral schools respectively. This rich collection provides a full, coherent study of Carolingian culture from a number of different yet interdependent aspects, providing insights for scholars and sTrade Review"Both selection and translation are excellent....A volume as important as it is beautiful, Manuscripts and Libraries in the Age of Charlemagne is essential to scholars and students of the early Middle Ages in history, the fine arts, sociology, and culture who may not have access to the original German publications." Uta-Renate Blumenthal, History of Education QuarterlyTable of ContentsForeword; Preface; List of abbreviations; Map: writing centres and writing provinces in the age of Charlemagne; 1. Manuscripts in the early Middle Ages; 2. Manuscripts in the age of Charlemagne; 3. The court library of Charlemagne; 4. The court library under Louis the Pious; 5. Libraries and schools in the Carolingian revival of learning; 6. Palaeography and the transmission of classical texts in the early Middle Ages; 7. Benedictine monasteries and the survival of classical literature; Bernhard Bischoff, bibliography, 1981–1993; Index of manuscripts; Index of authorities cited; General index.

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Book SynopsisThis is a study of the role of female scribes at three different religious communities in Bavaria in the twelfth century. It shows how the women's work - in extending the increased intellectual activity of the scriptoria - supported the revival of the monastic reform movements of that period.Trade ReviewReview of the hardback: 'Beach has studied her women with rigour and sensitivity providing a durable account of their work, fascinating observations on their interrelations with male counterparts, and thought-provoking reflections on their place in twelfth-century spiritual culture. As an illustration of the contribution that palaeography can make to intellectual and religious as well as bibliographical history, Women as Scribes deserves a wide readership.' The LibraryTable of Contents1. Introduction; 2. Diemut and the nun-scribes of Wessobrunn; 3. Claustration and collaboration: the nun-scribes of Admont; 4. Unlikely allies in the scriptorium: the female scribes of Schäftlarn; 5. Conclusion; Appendix A. Codicological tables; Appendix B. Ruling patterns; Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisThis book, first published in 2003, presents a detailed survey of all book scripts in use in western and central Europe from c.1100 to c.1530 (with the exception of Humanistic script). This period has been poorly served in almost all other palaeographical handbooks. By adopting a largely new classification of scripts based on objective criteria, which incorporates many of the terms currently in use, this book aims to end the confusion which has hitherto obscured the study of late-medieval handwriting. It is based upon an examination of a very large number of dated specimens, and is thus the first survey to take full advantage of the incomparable palaeographical resource provided by the Catalogues of Dated Manuscripts. The text is illustrated throughout with 600 drawings of letters and symbols. There are 160 actual-size reproductions providing datable specimens of all the scripts discussed, accompanied by partial transcriptions and palaeographical commentary.Trade Review'… excellent new handbook … an excellent tool for the empirical analysis of Gothic book hands … it serves equally as a palaeographical training manual for the later Middle Ages and as a bibliographical reference guide, and in both respects fills a vital gap …' The Times Literary Supplement'… generously illustrated … Derolez has proposed a practical and satisfactory framework … equips the interested reader with a series of useful questions to ask when looking at script, and provides guidelines for interpreting the answers …' The LibraryTable of ContentsIntroduction; 1. The manuscript book in the late Middle Ages; 2. The Carolingian heritage; 3. Praegothica; 4. Northern textualis; 5. Southern textualis and semitextualis; 6. Cursive scripts in general; 7. Cursiva antiquior; 8. Cursiva; 9. Hybrida and semihybrida; 10. Gothico-humanistica and other 'hors systeme' scripts; Appendix; Abbreviated sources; Select bibliography; Index of manuscripts reproduced in the plates; General index; Plates.

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Book SynopsisOf the writing systems of the ancient world which still await deciphering, the Indus script is the most important. It developed in the Indus or Harappan Civilization, which flourished c. 2500â1900 BC in and around modern Pakistan, collapsing before the earliest historical records of South Asia were composed. Nearly 4,000 samples of the writing survive, mainly on stamp seals and amulets, but no translations. Professor Parpola is the chief editor of the Corpus of Indus Seals and Inscriptions. His ideas about the script, the linguistic affinity of the Harappan language, and the nature of the Indus religion are informed by a remarkable command of Aryan, Dravidian, and Mesopotamian sources, archaeological materials, and linguistic methodology. His fascinating study confirms that the Indus script was logo-syllabic, and that the Indus language belonged to the Dravidian family.Trade Review'This book is substantial, in every sense of the word … does make a forceful case for a partial decipherment … it will become the standard reference work and the basis for any further debate.' Stuart Blackburn, South Asia Research'… deserves much credit for having pursued this enquiry to the very limits of what is now possible.' John Chadwick, The Times Higher Education Supplement'… indispensable research tool … a book of lasting value.' Florian Coulmas, Language'The best informed, most cogently argued, and important work to date on the Indus script.' Richard Salomon, Journal of the American Oriental Society'By far the most comprehensive and well researched study of the Indus script … It will certainly remain a classic source book for many years to come.' Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, American Anthropologist'… doubtless the most important study of the Indus script …' Thomas Oberlies, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies'… most complete and best-informed treatment of the subject.' Michael D. Coe, AntiquityTable of ContentsPart I. Introduction: 1. The Indus Civilization and its historical context; Part II. The Indus Script: 2. Early writing systems; 3. Deciphering an unknown script; 4. Approaches to the Indus script; 5. Internal evidence for the type of script used in the Indus Valley; 6. Internal evidence on the structure of the Indus language; 7. External clues to the Indus script; Part III. The Linguistic Context: 8. In search of the Indus language; 9. Dravidian languages and the Harappan culture; Part IV. Interpretations of Indus Pictograms: 10. The 'fish' signs of the Indus script; 11. The astronomical and astrological background; 12. The trefoil motif: further evidence for astral religion; 13. Evidence for Harappan worship of the god Muruku; 14. Evidence for Harappan worship of the Goddess; 15. Epilogue; Appendix; Bibliographical notes; References; Index.

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Book SynopsisThis beautifully illustrated book, published to coincide with an interactive landmark British Library exhibition, celebrates the act of writing from across the globe and explores its complex and diverse history.

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Book SynopsisA handy and colourful illustrated guide to reading, writing and understanding ancient Egyptian names, epithets, titles and phrases.Table of Contents1. The importance of names in Ancient Egypt; 2. People and their names: how Egyptian names are written and what they mean; 3. Gods' names and epithets; 4. The animal world: how animal names express the nature of the creature; 5. Secret names and names for posterity; 6. List of useful Egyptian words and phrases.

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Book SynopsisWritten by one of the world's leading paleographers, this book poses two fundamental questions: When did human beings beginand why have they continuedto decide that a certain number of their dead had a right to a written death? What differences have existed in the practice of writing death from age to age and culture to culture? Drawing principally on testimonials intended for public display, such as monuments, tombstones, and grave markings, as well as on scrolls, books, manuscripts, newspapers, and posters, the author reconstructs the ways Western cultures have used writing to commemorate the dead, from the tombs of ancient Egypt to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C.The author argues that the relation between funereal remains and inscription is a profoundly political one. The recurring questionWho merits a written death?demands a multifaceted reply, one that intersects such modes of human cultural history as the relation between the living and the dead, the control ofTable of Contents1. The tomb and its signs 2. From the sign to the text 3. The order of the text 4. The order of memory 5. The names and the crosses 6. Writing the great 7. The books and the stones 8. Monument and document 9. The body, knowledge, and money 10. Florence and Rome 11. From the stone to the page 12. The theaters of pain 13. Anglo-Americana 14. Ordering the corpses, ordering the writing 15. The middle class and its writing Notes Index of names.

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Book SynopsisIntroduction to the use of runes as a practical script for a variety of purposes in Anglo-Saxon England.Runes are quite frequently mentioned in modern writings, usually imprecisely as a source of mystic knowledge, power or insight. This book sets the record straight. It shows runes working as a practical script for a variety of purposes in early English times, among both indigenous Anglo-Saxons and incoming Vikings. In a scholarly yet readable way it examines the introduction of the runic alphabet (the futhorc) to England in the fifth and sixth centuries, the forms and values of its letters, and the ways in which it developed, up until its decline at the end of the Anglo-Saxon period. It discusses how runes were used for informal and day-to-day purposes, on formal monuments, as decorative letters in prestigious manuscripts, for owners' or makers' names on everyday objects, perhaps even in private letters. For the first time, the book presents, together with earlier finds, the many runic objects discovered over the last twenty years, with a range of inscriptions on bone, metal and stone, even including tourists' scratched signatures found on the pilgrimage routes through Italy. It gives an idea of the immense range of informationon language and social history contained in these unique documents. The late R.I. PAGE was former Professor of Anglo-Saxon in the University of Cambridge.Trade ReviewRemains the only book-length study providing a comprehensive and scholarly guide to the Anglo-Saxon use of runes. The new edition has been substantially updated and expanded...No serious library of Anglo-Saxon studies should be without it. -- John Hines * JOURNAL OF ENGLISH AND GERMANIC PHILOLOGY *

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Book SynopsisFaulkner's authoritative English translation of Middle Kingdom coffin texts is essential for all Egyptologists. This new edition reprints his whole work in one volume.Trade ReviewI can only highly recommend this title to everyone dealing with the difficult and sometimes tricky writings of ancient Egypt,'

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Book SynopsisBringing together advice and information from a group of eminent scholars, this title aims to develop in the reader an informed and realistic approach to the mechanisms for accessing and handling manuscripts in what may be limited time. It is suitable for students and fledgling researchers in Anglo-Saxon history and literature.Trade ReviewA clear, reliable, practical and beautifully illustrated introduction to the subject. The book envisions an audience that ranges from advanced undergraduates all the way to established scholars and even graphic artists, and while the undergraduates have the most to gain from the book, there is something here that everyone can learn from. A common aim of all these chapters is to survey what for many will be recognisable territory, but every chapter embodies original research, and it is inescapably clear that the contributors to this volume have spent a lot of time with manuscripts. The book as a whole contains 115 well-chosen illustrations, many in colour, including a generous number of full-page reproductions from a wide range of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. The quality of discussion and analysis in every single chapter is uniformly quite high, but it’s the illustrations that will ensure this book’s success as a teaching tool. This is a brilliantly conceived book, and just as brilliantly executed, and it should be required reading for all students of Anglo-Saxon England. The four pages of ‘Further reading’ at the end of the volume are a useful next step for students who have no prior experience with manuscript study. This is a valuable and well-produced book, and I plan to use it the next time I teach a seminar on Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. Thomas N. Hall, Review of English Studies 61.252At a time when the history of the book is flourishing as an academic subject, this collection of introductory papers should find a ready market. The book is generously designed, its pages handsomely laid out, with good use made of wide margins. Each of the eight main chapters has its own introductory page and is equipped with apposite and well-explained illustrations, many in color, and minimalist and non intimidating footnotes. Gale Owen-Crocker is to be congratulated for putting together an interdisciplinary overview that should appeal to teachers and their students in medieval studies more generally.Speculum, Vol. 86, No. 1Working with Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, edited by Gale R. Owen-Crocker, provides a set of beautifully illustrated discussions of key topics which will be of immense use to those starting out in the field.Years Work in English StudiesOffers students, teachers, and scholars a valuable research tool. L. Chardonnens, English Studies, Volume 93, No 4Table of Contents 1. Introduction (Gale R. Owen-Crocker, Professor of Anglo-Saxon Culture at the University of Manchester, UK and Director of the AHRC-funded project 'The Lexis of Cloth and Clothing in Britain c. 700-1450' and Maria Carmela Cesario, Lecturer in Medieval English Language and Literature at Brasenose College, University of Oxford, UK); 2. The construction and writing of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts (Alexander Rumble, Reader in Palaeography and Director of the Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies at the University of Manchester, UK) 3. Manuscript sources of Old English prose (Donald Scragg, Emeritus Professor of Anglo-Saxon Studies at the University of Manchester, UK 4. Manuscript sources of Old English poetry (Elaine Treharne, Professor of Medieval Literature at Florida State University, USA and Co-Director of the AHRC-funded project 'The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060-1220') 5. A survey of Latin manuscripts (Gernot Wieland, Professor of English at the University of British Columbia, Canada) 6. Reading between (and beyond) the lines: glosses and notes in Anglo-Saxon manuscripts (Timothy Graham, Associate Professor of History and Director of the Institute for Medieval Studies, University of New Mexico, USA) 7. Manuscript art (Catherine Karkov, Professor of Art History at the University of Leeds, UK) 8. From manuscript to computer (Stuart Lee, Acting Director of University Computing Services and a teaching member of the English Faculty at the University of Oxford, UK and Daniel O'Donnell, Associate Professor of English, Chair of the Text Encoding Initiative and Director of the Digital Medievalist Project, University of Lethbridge, Canada) Glossary Index of Manuscripts Index

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Book SynopsisThis book is the first to address medieval book history for graduate students of medieval English literature. Ralph Hanna presents a history of the English medieval book through a series of examples centred on carefully chosen texts and their physical and cultural surrounds.Trade ReviewReviews'Scholarship in this work is superb. Quotations, translations, bibliography are spot on. Professor Hanna’s lifetime of intelligent work in the field glows at all points of discussion.' MS referee'This is a first-rate book from a scholar at the forefront of palaeographical and bibliographical study; it will have a wide readership. It will be an excellent partner for the recent Owen-Crocker volume 'Working with Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts.' Series Editors'This handsome volume teaches far more than the facts of book history, manuscript culture, and Middle English Literature. It is a model of how to sleuth, how to think critically, how to enter into a detective mindset 'in which every implicit assumption of knowledge [is] teased out, queried and productively qualified.'Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und LiteraturenTable of Contents Illustrations Abbreviations Introduction Acknowledgements On the reproductions 1. Texts and their books: the case of 'Beowulf' 2. Medieval authors and texts: the Middle English 'Benjamin' Appendix: The manuscripts of 'Benjamin' 3. The history of a book: Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson C.285 4. Shared exemplars: British Library, MS Cotton Galba E.ix and its relations 5. Scribal oeuvres: ‘Chaucer’s Scribe’ and his 'Canterbury Tales' 6. A book contract and its ‘set text’: John Forbor’s Psalter Appendix: The Slaithwaite indenture: a transcription, translation and notes 7. Provenances: some medieval libraries Appendix: Selections from medieval booklists John Erghome (OESA of York) Thomas of Woodstock, duke of Gloucester The lord Welles Index of manuscripts cited Index of scholars cited

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Book SynopsisThe three types of inscription from the Athenian Agora presented in this volume are all concerned with important civic matters. The three main sections of the book are followed by combined concordances and indices, with photographs of all stones not previously published.

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Book SynopsisThis is the first detailed analysis of the fate of Lucretius'' De rerum natura from its composition in the 50s BC to the creation of our earliest extant manuscripts during the Carolingian Age. Close investigation of the knowledge of Lucretius'' poem among writers throughout the Roman and medieval world allows fresh insight into the work''s readership and reception, and a clear assessment of the indirect tradition''s value for editing the poem. The first extended analysis of the 170+ subject headings (capitula) that intersperse the text reveals the close engagement of its Roman readers. A fresh inspection and assignation of marginal hands in the poem''s most important manuscript (the Oblongus) provides new evidence about the work of Carolingian correctors and offers the basis for a new Lucretian stemma codicum. Further clarification of the interrelationship of Lucretius'' Renaissance manuscripts gives additional evidence of the poem''s reception and circulation in fifteenth-century Italy.Trade Review'The style and the structure of the volume are very clear and the book can be considered a valuable tool …' Bryn Mawr Classical ReviewTable of ContentsPreface; Introduction; 1. A sketch of the extant Lucretian manuscripts; 2. The indirect tradition of Lucretius; 3. The capitula of DRN; 4. The correcting hands of O; 5. The marginal annotations of Q1; Conclusion; Appendix 1. Capitula Lucretiana; Appendix 2. Apparatus fontium Lucreti (ante a.d. millesimum); Appendix 3. The corrections and annotations of O; Appendix 4. The foliation of the Lucretian archetype; Appendix 5. The fate of OQS in the early modern period.

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Book SynopsisThe scholarship and teaching of manuscript studies has been transformed by digitisation, rendering previously rarefied documents accessible for study on a vast scale. The Cambridge Companion to Medieval British Manuscripts orientates students in the complex, multidisciplinary study of medieval book production and contemporary display of manuscripts from c.6001500. Accessible explanations draw on key case studies to illustrate the major methodologies and explain why skills in understanding early book production are so critical for reading, editing, and accessing a rich cultural heritage. Chapters by leading specialists in manuscript studies range from explaining how manuscripts were stored, to revealing the complex networks of readers and writers which can be understood through manuscripts, to an in depth discussion on the Wycliffite Bible.Table of ContentsIntroduction. The matter of manuscripts and methodologies Orietta Da Rold and Elaine Treharne; Part I. How Do We Study the Manuscript?: 1. Describing and cataloguing medieval English manuscripts: a checklist Richard Beadle and Ralph Hanna; 2. Reading a manuscript description Donald Scragg; 3. Reading and understanding scripts Julia Crick and Dan Wakelin; 4. Working with images in manuscripts Beatrice Kitzinger; 5. The sum of the book: structural codicology and medieval manuscript culture Ryan Perry; Part II. Why Do We Study the Manuscript?: 6. Networks of writers and readers Elaine Treharne and Orietta Da Rold; 7. The written word: literacy across languages Jane Gilbert and Sara Harris; 8. The Wycliffite Bible Elizabeth Solopova; 9. Editing medieval manuscripts for modern audiences Helen Fulton; 10. Where were books made and kept? Tessa Webber; Part III. Where Do We Study the Manuscript?: 11. Charming the snake: accessing and disciplining the medieval manuscript Sian Echard and Andrew Prescott; 12. The curation and display of digital medieval manuscripts Suzanne Paul; 13. The trade A. S. G. Edwards; Further reading; Index.

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Book SynopsisOriginally published in 1915, this book was intended to encourage students of medieval history to take up palaeography. Jenkinson details the various types of 'court hand' that may be seen on medieval records, and emphasises that the study of palaeography must necessarily be accompanied with an equal emphasis on the history of administration.Table of ContentsIntroduction. Palaeography as an essential preliminary to research on medieval history; Part I. Court Hand: 1. The curia; 2. The courts of chancery and exchequer; 3. The purely judicial courts; 4. The growth of administration; 5. The three varieties of record making; 6. The close of the medieval period; 7. The real court hand; 8. Summary; Part II. The Scientific Study of Court Hand: 1. Early schools of handwriting; 2. The work of administrative history; 3. What is palaeography; 4. Palaeography as an exact science; Conclusions.

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Book SynopsisThe scholarship and teaching of manuscript studies has been transformed by digitisation, rendering previously rarefied documents accessible for study on a vast scale. The Cambridge Companion to Medieval British Manuscripts orientates students in the complex, multidisciplinary study of medieval book production and contemporary display of manuscripts from c.6001500. Accessible explanations draw on key case studies to illustrate the major methodologies and explain why skills in understanding early book production are so critical for reading, editing, and accessing a rich cultural heritage. Chapters by leading specialists in manuscript studies range from explaining how manuscripts were stored, to revealing the complex networks of readers and writers which can be understood through manuscripts, to an in depth discussion on the Wycliffite Bible.Table of ContentsIntroduction. The matter of manuscripts and methodologies Orietta Da Rold and Elaine Treharne; Part I. How Do We Study the Manuscript?: 1. Describing and cataloguing medieval English manuscripts: a checklist Richard Beadle and Ralph Hanna; 2. Reading a manuscript description Donald Scragg; 3. Reading and understanding scripts Julia Crick and Dan Wakelin; 4. Working with images in manuscripts Beatrice Kitzinger; 5. The sum of the book: structural codicology and medieval manuscript culture Ryan Perry; Part II. Why Do We Study the Manuscript?: 6. Networks of writers and readers Elaine Treharne and Orietta Da Rold; 7. The written word: literacy across languages Jane Gilbert and Sara Harris; 8. The Wycliffite Bible Elizabeth Solopova; 9. Editing medieval manuscripts for modern audiences Helen Fulton; 10. Where were books made and kept? Tessa Webber; Part III. Where Do We Study the Manuscript?: 11. Charming the snake: accessing and disciplining the medieval manuscript Sian Echard and Andrew Prescott; 12. The curation and display of digital medieval manuscripts Suzanne Paul; 13. The trade A. S. G. Edwards; Further reading; Index.

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Book SynopsisFrom its first adoption of writing at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age, ancient Cyprus was home to distinctive scripts and writing habits, often setting it apart from other areas of the Mediterranean and Near East. This well-illustrated volume is the first to explore the development and importance of Cypriot writing over a period of more than 1,500 years in the second and first millennia BC. Five themed chapters deal with issues ranging from the acquisition of literacy and the adaptation of new writing systems to the visibility of writing and its role in the marking of identities. The agency of Cypriots in shaping the island''s literate landscape is given prominence, and an extended consideration of the social context of writing leads to new insights on Cypriot scripts and their users. Cyprus provides a stimulating case to demonstrate the importance of contextualised approaches to the development of writing systems.Table of Contents1. The advent of literacy on Cyprus; 2. Scripts and languages in geometric cyprus; 3. 'Understanding' undeciphered scripts and unidentified languages; 4. Visible languages and Cypriot identities; 5. Cypriot writing at home and abroad.

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Book SynopsisThe epigraphy of 1st-millennium-BCE Italy has been studied for many years, but these studies have largely concentrated on the languages encoded in the inscriptions and their semantic meanings. This book takes a more holistic approach that looks not only at content, but also the archaeological contexts of the inscriptions and the materiality of their ''supports'': the artefacts and monuments on which the inscriptions occur. The first writing in Italy was not a local invention, but was introduced by the Phoenicians and Greeks in the 9th8th centuries BCE. It was taken up by number of indigenous communities over the subsequent centuries to write their own languages, before these were eventually submerged by the spread of Latin. In a series of theoretical, methodological and interpretative essays, Ruth Whitehouse explores what can be learned about how writing was used by these communities and what it meant to them. The bodies of data considered relate to Venetic an

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Book SynopsisInvestigates how dialect variation in the North of England is represented in writing.

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Book SynopsisObject Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Why do we sign our names? How can a squiggle both enslave and liberate? Signatures often require a witnessas if the scrawl itself is not enough. What other kinds of beliefs and longings justify our signing practices? Signature addresses these questions as it roams from a roundtable on the Greek island of Syros, to a scene of handwriting analysis conducted in an English pub, from a wedding in Moscow, where guests sign the bride's body, to a San Franciscan tattoo parlor interested in arcane forms. The signature's history encompasses ancient handprints on cave walls, autograph hunters, the branding of slaves, metaphysical poetry, medical malpractice, hip-hop lyrics, legal challenges to electronic signatures, ice cores harvested from Greenland, and tales of forgery and autopens. Part cultural chronicle, part travelogue, Signature pursues the identifying marks made by peTrade ReviewThis is a true ‘essay film’ of a book, with multiple associative bridges flying out from its topic, into the air of pure insight. I’m thrilled to add my name to its covers. * Jonathan Lethem, author of The Fortress of Solitude *Table of Contents1. The Dotted Line 2. S for Signature a. Real Fake b. On the Shores of Syros 3. Autograph Collecting a. “To Adam, from Big Daddy” b. A Victorian State of Mind c. Reading Character d. Criminal Signatures e. Autograph Fever 4. The Origins of Signature a. To Astuvansalmi b. There is Nothing Funny about Elk c. The Self, Extended d. Cave Signatures e. Seals and Signets 5. Signing the Body a. I Am You b. Erotic Inscription c. Autographic Skin 6 Digital Signatures, Signaling Digits a. Signing Machines i. Typewriter ii. Film iii. Gramophone b. Fingerprinting c. Electronic Signatures 7 Paw Prints & Ice Cores a. Doctrine of Signatures b. Animal Tracks c. Epigenetic Signatures d. Ice Cores Epilogue Acknowledgments

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Book Synopsis‘Ferrara’s book is an introduction to writing as a process of revelation, but it’s also a celebration of these things still undeciphered, and many other tantalising mysteries besides.‘ - The SpectatorThis book tells the story of our greatest invention. Or, it almost does. Almost, because while the story has a beginning – in fact, it has many beginnings, not only in Mesopotamia, 3,100 years before the birth of Christ, but also in China, Egypt and Central America – and it certainly has a middle, one that snakes through the painted petroglyphs of Easter Island, through the great machines of empires and across the desks of inspired, brilliant scholars, the end of the story remains to be written.The invention of writing allowed humans to create a record of their lives and to persist past the limits of their lifetimes. In the shadows and swirls of ancient inscriptions, we can decipher the stories they sought to record, but we can also tease out the timeless truths of human nature, of our ceaseless drive to connect, create and be remembered.The Greatest Invention chronicles an uncharted journey, one filled with past flashes of brilliance, present-day scientific research and the faint, fleeting echo of writing’s future. Professor Silvia Ferrara, a modern-day adventurer who travels the world studying ancient texts, takes us along with her; we touch the knotted, coloured strings of the Incan khipu and consider the case of the Phaistos disk. Ferrara takes us to the cutting edge of decipherment, where high-powered laser scanners bring tears to an engineer’s eye, and further still, to gaze at the outline of writing’s future. The Greatest Invention lifts the words off every page and changes the contours of the world around us – just keep reading.‘The Greatest Invention is a celebration not of achievements, but of moments of illumination and “the most important thing in the world: our desire to be understood”.‘ - TLSTrade ReviewBrisk, simple to follow and unfussy – though the author has a way with a helpful metaphor, for which we non-experts are grateful . . . Ferrara’s book is an introduction to writing as a process of revelation, but it’s also a celebration of these things still undeciphered, and many other tantalising mysteries besides. -- Daniel Hahn * Spectator *In Silvia Ferrara’s conception of it, writing is a fragile object, nurtured over many phases of human development . . . The Greatest Invention is a celebration not of achievements, but of moments of illumination and 'the most important thing in the world: our desire to be understood.' -- Lydia Wilson * The Times Literary Supplement *Ferrara says she wrote the book the way she talks to friends over dinner, and that’s exactly how it reads. Instead of telling a chronological history of writing, she moves freely from script to script, island to island . . . She is constantly by our side, prodding us with questions, offering speculations, reporting on exciting discoveries . . . . her book doubles as a manifesto for collaborative research. -- Martin Puchner * The New York Times Book Review *[An] intellectually stimulating, chattily written survey of the invention and significance of writing in both the ancient and modern world. * Minerva magazine *Part reconnaissance, part time machine, part ode to our complex species, Ferrara's enchanting book unearths not only our writing systems but our humanity itself. -- Amanda Montell, author of Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English LanguageFrom Crete to Easter Island, everywhere in between, and back again, Ferrara illuminates the sheer magic that the invention of writing actually was, while also sharing the pure joy of being a scientist. Plus, the translation is exquisite. -- John McWhorter, author of Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black AmericaDeftly translated by Portnowitz, Ferrara’s book is more than a cook’s tour of the history, present, and future of writing . . . Ferrara capably conveys the sensory magic of writing: sound made visible and tangible. * Kirkus Reviews *Silvia Ferrara is enviably expert in an enviably attractive and important field - early scripts and their decipherment or (as cryptographers would have it) decoding. Dr Ferrara sheds swathes of light on how we developed writing systems throughout the world, and her own specialism, Cypro-Minoan, reveals that two islands, Cyprus and Crete, are critical to one truly "great invention", the advancement of human civilisation. -- Paul Cartledge, author of Thebes: The Forgotten City of Ancient Greece and The Spartans

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Book SynopsisIndividual agents are frequently evident in early writing and notational systems, yet these systems have rarely been subjected to the concept of agency as it is traceable in archaeology. This book addresses this oversight, allowing archaeologists to identify and discuss real, observable actors and actions in the archaeological record. Embracing myriad ways in which agency can be interpreted, ancient writing systems from Mesoamerica, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Crete, China, and Greece are examined from a textual perspective as both archaeological objects and nascent historical documents. This allows for distinction among intentions, consequences, meanings, and motivations, increasing understanding and aiding interpretation of the subjectivity of social actors. Chapters focusing on acts of writing and public recitation overlap with those addressing the materiality of texts, interweaving archaeology, epigraphy, and the study of visual symbol systems. This book leads to a more thorough and meaningful discussion of agency as an archaeological concept and will be of interest to anyone interested in ancient texts, including archaeologists, historians, linguists, epigraphers, and art historians, as well as scholars studying agency and structuration theory.Trade ReviewThrough the lens of agency, contributors successfully rethink the nature of ancient texts. In so doing they ably demonstrate that when a new theoretical orientation is applied to a taken-for-granted category of data it invigorates both the data and our understanding of the past. Marcia-Anne Dobres, University of Maine

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Book SynopsisThe chapters in this edited volume explore the sociolinguistic implications of orthographic and scriptural practices in a diverse range of communicative contexts, ranging from schoolrooms to internet discussion boards. The focus is on the way that scriptural practices both index and constitute social hierarchies, identities and relationships and in some cases, become the focus for public language ideological debates. Capitalizing on the now robust body of literature on orthographic choice and debate in sociolinguistics and anthropological linguistics, the volume addresses a number of cross-cutting themes that connect orthographic practices to areas of contemporary interest in sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology. These themes include: the different social implications of self vs. other representation and the permeability of the personal/social and the public/private; how scriptural practices ("inscription") serve as sites for social discipline; the historical and intertextual frameworks for the meaning potentials of orthographic choice (relating to issues of genre and style); and writing as a broader semiotic field: the visual and esthetic dimensions of texts and metalinguistic "play" in spelling and its ambiguous implications for writer stance.

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Book SynopsisJourney back in time 3,800 years to Nippur, a city in ancient Babylonia, as a girl sets out on a quest to become a scribe. Follow along as Inanaka learns how to make a tablet and write her name, solves the many puzzles of the cuneiform writing system, and prepares with her family for a festival, all with the help (some of the time, at least) of her dog, Tuni.

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Book SynopsisBased on Daniel C. Snell’s original workbook and informed by his decades of teaching, this new and improved textbook provides an introductory course in basic cuneiform signs. Using a method of repetition that asks the student to actively produce the signs as well as passively read them, it efficiently teaches more than one hundred basic signs in their Neo-Assyrian forms, all of which have been chosen for their recurrence and usefulness to the student. The workbook includes instructions and drills, frequent quizzes to reinforce retention, and notes that both provide context about the ancient cultures that used cuneiform and introduce modern scholarly conventions.Designed for beginning students of cuneiform languages and cultures, A New Workbook of Cuneiform Signs is an easy and intuitive way to learn cuneiform. It is a valuable resource for students and teachers alike.

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Book SynopsisThis book offers an introduction to medieval English book-history through a sequence of exemplary analyses of commonplace book-historical problems. Rather than focus on bibliographical particulars, the volume considers a variety of ways in which scholars use manuscripts to discuss book culture, and it provides a wide-ranging introductory bibliography to aid in the study. All the essays try to suggest how the study of surviving medieval books might be useful in considering medieval literary culture more generally. Subjects covered include authorship, genre, discontinuous production, scribal individuality and community, the history of libraries and the history of book provenance.Trade ReviewReviews'Scholarship in this work is superb. Quotations, translations, bibliography are spot on. Professor Hanna’s lifetime of intelligent work in the field glows at all points of discussion.' MS referee'This is a first-rate book from a scholar at the forefront of palaeographical and bibliographical study; it will have a wide readership. It will be an excellent partner for the recent Owen-Crocker volume 'Working with Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts.' Series Editors'This handsome volume teaches far more than the facts of book history, manuscript culture, and Middle English Literature. It is a model of how to sleuth, how to think critically, how to enter into a detective mindset 'in which every implicit assumption of knowledge [is] teased out, queried and productively qualified.'Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und LiteraturenTable of Contents Illustrations Abbreviations Introduction Acknowledgements On the reproductions 1. Texts and their books: the case of 'Beowulf' 2. Medieval authors and texts: the Middle English 'Benjamin' Appendix: The manuscripts of 'Benjamin' 3. The history of a book: Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson C.285 4. Shared exemplars: British Library, MS Cotton Galba E.ix and its relations 5. Scribal oeuvres: ‘Chaucer’s Scribe’ and his 'Canterbury Tales' 6. A book contract and its ‘set text’: John Forbor’s Psalter Appendix: The Slaithwaite indenture: a transcription, translation and notes 7. Provenances: some medieval libraries Appendix: Selections from medieval booklists John Erghome (OESA of York) Thomas of Woodstock, duke of Gloucester The lord Welles Index of manuscripts cited Index of scholars cited

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Book SynopsisThis book offers an in-depth study of the poetics of creative writing as a subject in the dramatically changing context of practice as research, taking into account the importance of the subjectivity of the writer as researcher. It explores creative writing and theory while offering critical antecedents, theoretical directions and creative interchanges. The book narrows the focus on psychoanalysis, particularly with regard to Lacan and creative practice, and demonstrates that creative writing is research in its own right. The poetics at stake neither denotes the study or the techniques of poetry, but rather the means by which writers formulate and discuss attitudes to their work.Trade ReviewWithout Contraries is no progression, says William Blake. And Dominique Hecq agrees, demonstrating how she sets theory and creative practice into active, often disruptive but always productive relation. Hecq's meditations are at once personal and compendious - through their ultimately deeply pragmatic inquiries and insights, many readers will find, will begin to feel, a way forward, into more significant and thoughtful creative engagements.;Michael Theune, Illinois Wesleyan University, USA;How might we conceive of a poetics of creative writing? This study explores the possibilities of such a poetics with wide-ranging rigor, mobilising selected critical theory, philosophy, literature and the author's extensive knowledge of psychoanalysis to link the epistemologically-neglected subjective processes of creativity in the practice and research of creative writing. An impressive intervention, extending contemporary debates about creative writing research.;Marcelle Freiman, Macquarie University, AustraliaTable of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction 1 What Poetics for Creative Writing? 2 Critical Antecedents, Theoretical Directions 3 Obituaries, Contestations, Proclamations: The Theory Question 4 Craft, Knowledge, Theory, and the Designing of Poetics 5 Styling the Subject of Creative Writing 6 The Ego in the Mirror 7 Between Thought and the Real in Creative Writing and Philosophy 8 Inking the In-between 9 On Experiential Knowing as Creative Writing Research Mode 10 Dramatic Encounters: Language, Craft, Theory 11 Food for Thought: Investigating Aesthetic Care 12 Poetics of Autogenesis: On Becoming and the Canon Afterword: Poetic (a)Topos

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Book SynopsisThe exciting discovery of new music from the Middle Ages sheds new light on knowledge of the medieval motet. From its origins in the thirteenth century, the Latin-texted motet in England and France became the most significant and diverse polyphonic genre of the fourteenth, a body of music important both for its texts and its variety of musical structures. However, although the motet in England plays a vital role in the music-historical narrative of the first decades of the 1300s, it has too often been overlooked in modern scholarship, due largely to its preservation in numerous but almost entirely fragmentary sources. In 2017, substantial new fragments of medieval polyphony came to light. They originated at the Benedictine monastery of Abbotsbury, a major institution located high above Chesil Beach on Dorset's Jurassic Coast. The two leaves once headed an imposing musical scroll, and preserve significant portions of four large-scale Latin-texted motets from early fourteenth-century England. Discovery of this source brings to the fore a massive seven-section motet on St Margaret, hitherto known only through highly fragmentary snippets of two of its four voices, as well as a unicum with extraordinary features addressed to the Virgin Mary and St Nicholas. When coupled with the remaining motets, one on the Ascension and the other on the Virgin Mary, the Dorset motets expand our understanding of how the English developed their own approaches to the genre, forging styles and techniques quite independently of the continental norms against which earlier scholarship has judged (and sometimes demeaned) them. This book introduces the manuscript and its provenance in Abbotsbury, relates it to other scrolls of late medieval music, contextualizes its motets within the larger corpus of contemporary Latin-texted motets, and analyses and reconstructs each of the motets, providing complete performable transcriptions of three of these compositions as well as three of its large-scale comparands. Spurred by the Dorset discovery, this monograph, the first in thirty-five years devoted to the medieval motet in England, offers a new evaluation of the richness of the English repertory in its own terms.Trade ReviewThe Dorset Rotulus is engagingly written, carefully argued, and lavishly illustrated. It will be a stimulating read for anyone interested in early musical culture and offers particular models for further analysis and reconstruction. * SPECULUM *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. The Source and Its Contents 2. Contexts and Designs 3. Voice-Exchange Motets and Ascendenti sonet geminacio/ Viri Galilei 4. Margareta pascens oves and Its Large-Scale Comparands 5. Rota versatilis: Towards a Reconstruction 6. The Curious Case of Regina preminencie/ Gemma nitens/ ...mater es intacta 7. Introducing Naufragantes visita/ Navigatrix inclita/ T. Aptatur/ ...velox perpetrat 8. The Musical Rotulus: Artifact, Image, and Attributes 9. Epilogue: Conclusions and Speculation Appendix. Transcriptions, Texts, and Translations of the Four Dorset Motets Ascendenti sonet geminacio/ Viri Galilei Margareta pascens oves Regina preminencie/ Gemma nitens/ ...mater es intacta Naufragantes visita/ Navigatrix inclita/ T. Aptatur/ ...velox perpetrat Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA fresh interpretation of an enigmatic illumination and its contexts. The Ashburnham Pentateuch is an early medieval manuscript of uncertain provenance, which has puzzled and intrigued scholars since the nineteenth century. Its first image, which depicts the Genesis creation narrative, is itself a site of mystery; originally, it presented the Trinity as three men in various vignettes, but in the early ninth century, by which time the manuscript had come to the monastery at Tours, most of the figures were obscured by paint, leaving behind a single creator. In this sense, the manuscript serves as a kind of hinge between the late antique and early medieval periods. Why was the Ashburnham Pentateuch's anthropomorphic image of the Trinity acceptable in the sixth century, but not in the ninth? This study examines the theological, political, and iconographic contexts of the production and later modification of the Ashburnham Pentateuch's creation image. The discussion focuses on materiality, the oft-contested relationship between image and word, and iconoclastic acts as "embodied responses". Ultimately, this book argues that the Carolingian-era reception and modification of the creation image is consistent with contemporaneous iconography, a concern for maintaining the absolute unity of the Trinity, as well as Carolingian image theory following the Byzantine iconoclastic controversy. Tracing the changes in Trinitarian theology and theories of the image offers us a better understanding of the mutual influences between art, theology, and politics during Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Losing and Finding the Ashburnham Pentateuch 1. Early Trinitarian Texts and Debates 2. The Trinity in Early Christian Images 3. Carolingian Conceptions of the Trinity 4. Carolingian Image Theory 5. The Carolingian Reception of the Ashburnham Pentateuch Conclusion: Possible Motivations for the Ashburnham Pentateuch Erasures[TS1] Coda: The Afterlife [TS2] of the Ashburnham Pentateuch

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Book SynopsisFrom the earliest scratches on stone and bone to the languages of computers and the internet, A History of Writing offers an investigation into the origin and development of writing throughout the world. Illustrated with numerous examples, this book offers a global overview in a format that everyone can follow. Steven Roger Fischer also reveals his own discoveries made since the early 1980s, making it a useful reference for students and specialists as well as a delightful read for lovers of the written word everywhere.Trade Review"[An] authoritative account. . . . If you're intrigued by writing's past, Fischer's book is well worth a read. . . . Brilliant."-- "New Scientist, on the first edition" "[It] is wonderful . . . to see a subject that embraces so much of human civilization handled with the wide knowledge and breadth of vision it deserves."-- "Nature, on the first edition"

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Book SynopsisWriting is not just a set of systems for transcribing language and communicating meaning, but an important element of human practice, deeply embedded in the cultures where it is present and fundamentally interconnected with all other aspects of human life. The Social and Cultural Contexts of Historic Writing Practices explores these relationships in a number of different cultural contexts and from a range of disciplinary perspectives, including archaeological, anthropological and linguistic. It offers new ways of approaching the study of writing and integrating it into wider debates and discussions about culture, history and archaeology.Table of ContentsList of contributors Acknowledgements Abbreviations 1. Introduction: writing practices in socio-cultural context Philip J. Boyes, Philippa M. Steele and Natalia Elvira Astoreca 2. Towards a social archaeology of writing practices Philip J. Boyes 3. The lives of inscribed commemorative objects: the transformation of private personal memory in Mesopotamian temple contexts Nancy Highcock 4. A cognitive archaeology of writing: concepts, models, goals Karenleigh A. Overmann 5. The materiality of the Cretan Hieroglyphic script: textile production-related referents to hieroglyphic signs on seals and sealings from Middle Bronze Age Crete Marie-Louise Nosch and Agata Ulanowska 6. Visual dimensions of Maya hieroglyphic writing: meanings beyond the surface Christian M. Prager 7. Visibility of runic writing and its relation to Viking Age Society Sophie Heier 8. Words beyond writings: how to decrypt the secret writings of the masters of psalmody (Yunnan, China)? Aurélie NévotContents 9. A script ‘good to drink’. The invention of writing systems among the Sora and other tribes of India Cécile Guillaume-Pey 10. Why did people in medieval Java use so many different script variants? A.J. West 11. Cultures of writing: rethinking the ‘spread’ and ‘development’ of writing systems in the Bronze Age Mediterranean Theodore Nash 12. Script, image and culture in the Maya world: a southeastern perspective Kathryn M. Hudson and John S. Henderson 13. Writing and elite status in the Bronze Age Aegean Sarah Finlayson 14. Why με? Personhood and agency in the earliest Greek inscriptions (800–550 BCE) James Whitley 15. Names and authorship in the beginnings of Greek alphabetic writing Natalia Elvira Astoreca 16. Marking identity through graphemes? A new look at the Sikel arrow-shaped alpha Olga Tribulato and Valentina Mignosa Bibliography

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