Palaeography Books
Boydell & Brewer Ltd An Introduction to English Runes
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 *
£23.74
Thames & Hudson Ltd The Story of Writing
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
£15.29
The History Press Ltd Teach Yourself Palaeography
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 *
£16.19
Thames & Hudson Ltd Breaking the Maya Code
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
£17.09
Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures Adventures of Inanaka and Tuni: Learning to Write
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.
£7.61
Reaktion Books History of Writing
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"
£14.25
Pennsylvania State University Press A New Workbook of Cuneiform Signs
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.
£19.76
Oxford University Press The Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture
Book SynopsisThe cuneiform script, the writing system of ancient Mesopotamia, was witness to one of the world''s oldest literate cultures. For over three millennia, it was the vehicle of communication from (at its greatest extent) Iran to the Mediterranean, Anatolia to Egypt. The Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture examines the Ancient Middle East through the lens of cuneiform writing. The contributors, a mix of scholars from across the disciplines, explore, define, and to some extent look beyond the boundaries of the written word, using Mesopotamia''s clay tablets and stone inscriptions not just as ''texts'' but also as material artefacts that offer much additional information about their creators, readers, users and owners.Trade ReviewReview from previous edition Thanks are due to the K. Radner and E. Robson for the care with which they edited this voluminous book. * Bibliotheca Orientalis *Table of ContentsI. Materiality and literacies 1: Jonathan Taylor: Tablets as artefacts, scribes as artisans 2: Robert K. Englund: Accounting in proto-cuneiform 3: Grégory Chambon: Numeracy and metrology 4: Niek Veldhuis: Levels of literacy 5: Brigitte Lion: Literacy and gender II. Individuals and communities 6: Benjamin R. Foster: The person in Mesopotamian thought 7: Frans van Koppen: The scribe of the Flood Story and his circle 8: Hagan Brunke: Feasts for the living, the dead, and the gods 9: Michael Jursa: Cuneiform writing in Neo-Babylonian temple communities 10: Eva von Dassow: Freedom in ancient Near Eastern societies III. Experts and novices 11: Yoram Cohen & Sivan Kedar: Teacher-student relationships: two case studies 12: Dominique Charpin: Patron and client: Zimri-Lim and Asqudum the diviner 13: Michel Tanret: Learned, rich, famous and unhappy: Ur-Utu of Sippar 14: Nele Ziegler: Music, the work of professionals 15: Silvie Zamazalová: The education of Neo-Assyrian princes IV. Decisions 16: Sophie Démare-Lafont: Judicial decision-making: judges and arbitrators 17: Karen Radner: Royal decision-making: kings, magnates and scholars 18: Andreas Fuchs: Assyria at war: strategy and conduct 19: Anne Löhnert: Manipulating the gods: lamenting in context 20: Daniel Schwemer: Magic rituals: conceptualisation and performance V. Interpretations 21: Ulla Susanne Koch: Sheep and sky: systems of divinatory interpretation 22: John M. Steele: Making sense of time: observational and theoretical calendars 23: Fabienne Huber Vulliet: Letters as correspondence, letters as literature 24: Eckart Frahm: Keeping company with men of learning: the king as scholar 25: Heather D. Baker: From street altar to palace: reading the built environment of urban Babylonia VI. Making knowledge 26: Eleanor Robson: The production and dissemination of scholarly knowledge 27: Steve Tinney: Tablets of schools and scholars: a portrait of the Old Babylonian corpus 28: Mark Weeden: Adapting to new contexts: cuneiform in Anatolia 29: Francesca Rochberg: Observing and describing the world through divination and astronomy 30: Geert De Breucker: Berossos between tradition and innovation VII. Shaping tradition 31: Frans Wiggermann: Agriculture as civilization: sages, farmers, and barbarians 32: Barbara Böck: Sourcing, organising, and administering medicinal ingredients 33: Nicole Brisch: Changing images of kingship in Sumerian literature 34: Caroline Waerzeggers: The pious king: royal patronage of temples 35: Philippe Clancier: Cuneiform culture's last guardians: the old urban notability of Hellenistic Uruk
£40.99
The History Press Ltd Palaeography for Family and Local Historians
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.
£20.25
Oxford University Press Hieroglyphs
Book SynopsisHieroglyphs were far more than a language. They were an omnipresent and all-powerful force in communicating the messages of ancient Egyptian culture for over three thousand years; used as monumental art, as a means of identifying Egyptianness, and for rarefied communication with the gods.In this exciting new study, Penelope Wilson explores the cultural significance of the script with an emphasis on previously neglected areas such as cryptography, the continuing decipherment into modern times, and examines the powerful fascination hieroglyphs still hold for us today. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Table of Contents1. The origins of writing in Egypt ; 2. Hieroglyphic script and the Egyptian language ; 3. Hieroglyphs and art ; 4. 'I Know You, I Know Your Names' ; 5. Scribes and everyday writing ; 6. The decipherment of Egyptian ; 7. Hieroglyphs in the modern world ; Notes ; Chronology ; Further Reading ; Index
£9.49
Oxford University Press CyproMinoan Inscriptions Volume 1 Analysis
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£102.50
Oxford University Press Scribes and Scholars
Book SynopsisOne of the remarkable facts about the history of Western culture is that we are still in a position to read large amounts of the literature produced in classical Greece and Rome despite the fact that for at least a millennium and a half all copies had to be produced by hand and were subject to the hazards of fire, flood, and war. This book explains how the texts survived and gives an account of the reasons why it was thought worthwhile to spend the necessary effort to preserve them for future generations.In the second edition a section of notes was included, and a new chapter was added to deal with some aspects of scholarship since the Renaissance. In the third edition (1991), the authors responded to the urgent need to take account of the very large number of discoveries in this rapidly advancing field of knowledge by substantially revising or enlarging certain sections. The last two decades have seen further advances, and this revised edition is designed to take account of them.Trade Review'For the third edition the authors have not only brought the bibliographical notes up to date but also made extensive amendments and additions, both small and large, throughout the text.' James Diggle, Queens' College, Cambridge, The Classical Review'This is a very fine book indeed. The text is written with admirable lucidity, wit and charm. The book itself is a clearly printed and stout paperback, well worth the reommended retail price of $44.95, and of course, as befits a volume produced by the Oxford University Press on this topic above all, the text is flawless. Clearly I would recommend Scribes and Scholars as a valuable acquisition for a school library which could be consulted with profit by senior students ... this book, with its overwhelming proof of the centrality of Classics in the western tradition, is essential reading.' M. Dyson, University of Queensland, Ancient History, 1992, No. 2'This enlarged version remains a valuable resource for both graduate student and scholar. Scribes and Scholars is a book which has done much good and will continue to do so.' E. Christian Kopff, University of Colorado, Classical Bulletin (1992)'The third edition of this superb work has been carefully revised to reflect advances in classical scholarship since publication of the previous edition. The work is indispensable for classical students who have not read the previous edition, and recommended for those who want recent information on an essential subject.' Gerald O'Sullivan, Stockton State College, Classical WorldTable of ContentsPREFACE; ABBREVIATIONS; NOTES; INDEX OF MSS; GENERAL INDEX; NOTES TO THE PLATES; PLATES
£39.89
British Museum Press Write Your Own Egyptian HieroglyphsNames
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.
£8.54
Cambridge University Press The Cambridge Companion to Medieval British
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.
£23.99
Oxbow Books The Social and Cultural Contexts of Historic
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
£49.50
Oxbow Books Writing Around the Ancient Mediterranean:
Book SynopsisWriting in the ancient Mediterranean existed against a backdrop of very high levels of interaction and contact. In the societies around its shores, writing was a dynamic practice that could serve many purposes – from a tool used by elites to control resources and establish their power bases to a symbol of local identity and a means of conveying complex information and ideas.This volume brings together contributions by members of the Contexts of and Relations between Early Writing Systems (CREWS) research team and visiting fellows, offering a range of different perspectives and approaches to problems of writing in the ancient Mediterranean. Their focus is on practices, viewing writing as something that people do within a wider social and cultural context, and on adaptations, considering the ways in which writing changed and was changed by the people using it.Trade Review[T]his volume, as a contribution to the research output of the CREWS project, encapsulates how the research of the CREWS core team and wider family has revolved around questions of the contexts and relatedness of writing systems and traditions * New Testament Abstracts *Table of ContentsApproaches to writing in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East Philippa M. Steele Relations between script, writing material and layout: the case of the Anatolian Hieroglyphs Willemijn Waal Word division in Sicilian inscriptions Robert Crellin What is an Alphabet good for? Csaba La’da Measuring particularity and similarity in archaic Greek alphabets with NLP Natalia Elvira Astoreca Borrowing, invention, remodelling: Observations on the rare letters of the Phrygian alphabet and the problem of formation of Anatolian alphabets Rostislav Oreshko Cypro-Minoan and its potmarks and vessel inscriptions as challenges to Aegean Scripts corpora Cassandra Donnelly Ductus in Cypro-Minoan writing. Definition, purpose and distribution of stroke types Martina Polig The introduction of the Greek alphabet in Cyprus, a case study in material culture Beatrice Pestarino The death of alphabets at the end of the Bronze Age. How does the Deir ‘Alla alphabet fit the picture? Michel de Vreeze Early Egyptian writing from the perspective of the embodied practitioner Kathryn Piquette The magic of writing Philip J. Boyes
£45.00
The History Press Ltd Fifty Mysterious Postcards: Pitman Shorthand
Book SynopsisThe lines, circles, ticks, hooks, dots and dashes of Pitman shorthand used by some postcard writers during the early twentieth century are obscure to most people. Could the mysterious messages contain scandalous gossip, tales of adventure or declarations of undying love?Fifty Mysterious Postcards presents fascinating examples from the ‘Golden Age’ of the postcard, each with a message written in the dying art of Pitman shorthand. The rules of Pitman have changed since the postcards were written and posted over 100 years ago, but careful transcription has unlocked their meaning to bring stories of penfriends, sweethearts, holidays and the First World War to life once more.Trade Review“The format mostly features spreads with the postcards – beauty scenes, landmarks, cute animals – with the original name and address written longhand and the message in shorthand.” * Best of British magazine *
£14.39
John Donald Publishers Ltd Scottish Handwriting 1150-1650: An Introduction
Book SynopsisReading original documents is the only way to achieve a sound basis in historical studies and to acquire a true perspective on cultural evolution. Much modern research has been applied to Scotland's history, but until this volume there has been no comprehensive study of the country's handwriting for nearly 250 years. The main body of this book consists of facsimile texts, each facing a detailed transcript and commentary. The historical background of handwriting usage is surveyed in the introduction, with emphasis on changing fashions. There is also guidance on how to deal with early language and abbreviations. The principal aim is to assist research students, local historians, genealogists and calligraphers in their studies; but this work also recovers a lost chapter in the history of Scottish studies.
£19.00
Liverpool University Press The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts
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,'
£109.50
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Writing Matters
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
£80.75
Reaktion Books A History of Writing
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. Commencing with the first stages of information storage knot records, tally sticks, pictographic storytelling the book then focuses on the emergence of complete writing systems in Mesopotamia in the fourth millennium BC, and their diffusion to Egypt, the Indus Valley and points east, with special attention given to Semitic writing systems and their eventual spread to the Indian subcontinent. Also documented is the rise of Phoenician and its effect on the Greek alphabet, generating the many alphabetic scripts of the West. Chinese, Korean and Japanese writing systems and scripts are dealt with in depth, as is writing in pre-Colombian America. Also explored are Western Europe's medieval manuscripts and the history of printing, leading to the innovations in technology and spelling rules of the 19th and 20th centuries. Illustrated with numerous examples, this book offers a global overview in a form that everyone can follow.The author also reveals his own discoveries made since the early 1980s, making it a useful reference for both students and specialists as well as the general reader.Trade ReviewAn authoritative account ... if you're intrigued with writing's past, Fischer's book is well worth a read ... a brilliant book New Scientist It is wonderful ... to see a subject that embraces so much of human civilisation handled with the wide knowledge and breadth of vision it deserves Nature
£17.60
Tiger of the Stripe An Introduction to Greek and Latin Palaeography
£24.70
V&R unipress GmbH Living Memory
Book Synopsis
£40.79
York Medieval Press Reusing Manuscripts in Late Medieval England
Book SynopsisExplores the practices and processes by which manuscripts were crafted, mended, protected, marked, gifted and shared.
£22.79
Harvard University Press Early Tamil Epigraphy from the Earliest Times to
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.
£53.51
WW Norton & Co Shady Characters
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
£14.24
Cambridge University Press Systemic Functional Grammar
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£114.00
Cambridge University Press The Palaeography of Gothic Manuscript Books From
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.
£30.99
Cambridge University Press Writing and Society in Ancient Cyprus
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.
£85.50
Museum Tusculanum Press Tocharian & Indo-European Studies: Volume 12
Book SynopsisTocharian and Indo-European Studies is an international scholarly journal dedicated to the study of two closely related Indo-European languages, Tocharian A and B, attested in Central Asian manuscripts from the second half of the first millennium AD. This volume contains 11 articles by some of the world''s leading specialists on Tocharian, as well as reviews of the most important publications in the field. The important article by Werner Winter was one of the last to be written by this outstanding scholar.
£42.50
Oxford University Press Indian Epigraphy A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit Prakrit and the Other IndoAryan Languages South Asia Research
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 *
£102.12
Oxford University Press A Dictionary of English Manuscript Terminology
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
£50.35
British Association for Local History Reading Early Handwriting 15001700
£12.40
De Gruyter Orthography as Social Action: Scripts, Spelling, Identity and Power
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.
£134.42
Tiger of the Stripe The History of English Handwriting AD 700-1400
£10.44
British Library Publishing Writing
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.
£32.00
Edinburgh University Press Dialect Writing and the North of England
Book SynopsisInvestigates how dialect variation in the North of England is represented in writing.
£94.50
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Signature
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
£9.49
Equinox Publishing Ltd The Disappearance of Writing Systems:
Book SynopsisThis volume gathers papers from the first conference ever to be held on the disappearance of writing systems, in Oxford in March 2004. While the invention and decipherment of writing systems have long been focuses of research, their eclipse or replacement have been little studied. Because writing is so important in many cultures and civilizations, its disappearance - followed by a period without it or by replacement by a different writing system - is of almost equal significance to invention as a mark of radical change. Probably more writing systems have disappeared than survived in the last five thousand years. Case studies from the Old and New Worlds are presented, ranging over periods from the first millennium BC to the present. In order to address many types of transmission, the broadest possible definition of 'writing' is used, notably including Mexican pictography and the Andean khipu system.One chapter discusses the larger proportion of known human societies which have not possessed complex material codes like writing, offering an alternative perspective on the long-term transmission of socially salient subjects. A concluding essay draws out common themes and offers an initial synthesis of results. This volume offers a new perspective on approaches to writing that will be significant for the understanding of writing systems and their social functions, literacy, memory, and high-cultural communication systems in general.Table of Contents1. John Bennet, Now You See It; Now You Don't! The Disappearance of the Linear A Script on Crete2. J. David Hawkins, The Disappearance of Writing Systems: Hieroglyphic Luwian3. Jeremy Black , The Obsolescence and Demise of Cuneiform Writing in Elam 4. David Brown, Increasingly Redundant: The Growing Obsolescence of the Cuneiform Script in Babylonia from 539 BC Postscript: Jerrold Cooper, Redundancy Reconsidered: Reflections on David Brown's Thesis5. Kathryn Lomas, Script Obsolescence in Ancient Italy: From Pre-Roman to Roman Writing6. Richard Salomon, Whatever Happened to Kharoṣṭhi? The Fate of a Forgotten Indic Script7. Martin Andreas Stadler, On the Demise of Egyptian Writing: Working with a Problematic Source Basis8. Claude Rilly, The Last Traces of Meroitic? A Tentative Scenario for the Disappearance of the Meroitic Script9. M. C. A. Macdonald, The Phoenix of Phoinikcia: Alphabetic Reincarnation in Arabia10. Stephen D. Houston, The Small Deaths of Maya Writing11. Elizabeth Hill Boone, The Death of Mexican Pictography12. Frank Salomon, Late Khipu Use13. Giovanni Stary, Disappearance of Writing Systems: The Manchu Case14. John Monaghan, Revelatory Scripts, 'the Unlettered Genius', and the Appearance and Disappearance of Writing 15. Chris Gosden, History without Text16. John Baines, Writing and its Multiple Disappearances
£81.00
Equinox Publishing Ltd The Disappearance of Writing Systems:
Book SynopsisThis volume gathers papers from the first conference ever to be held on the disappearance of writing systems, in Oxford in March 2004. While the invention and decipherment of writing systems have long been focuses of research, their eclipse or replacement have been little studied. Because writing is so important in many cultures and civilizations, its disappearance - followed by a period without it or by replacement by a different writing system - is of almost equal significance to invention as a mark of radical change. Probably more writing systems have disappeared than survived in the last five thousand years. Case studies from the Old and New Worlds are presented, ranging over periods from the first millennium BC to the present. In order to address many types of transmission, the broadest possible definition of 'writing' is used, notably including Mexican pictography and the Andean khipu system. One chapter discusses the larger proportion of known human societies which have not possessed complex material codes like writing, offering an alternative perspective on the long-term transmission of socially salient subjects. There is a concluding essay that draws out common themes and offers an initial synthesis of results. The volume offers a new perspective on approaches to writing that will be significant for the understanding of writing systems and their social functions, literacy, memory, and high-cultural communication systems in general.Table of Contents1. John Bennet, Now You See It; Now You Don't! The Disappearance of the Linear A Script on Crete 2. J. David Hawkins, The Disappearance of Writing Systems: Hieroglyphic Luwian 3. Jeremy Black A , The Obsolescence and Demise of Cuneiform Writing in Elam 4. David Brown, Increasingly Redundant: The Growing Obsolescence of the Cuneiform Script in Babylonia from 539 BC Postscript: Jerrold Cooper, Redundancy Reconsidered: Reflections on David Brown's Thesis 5. Kathryn Lomas (Institute of Classical Studies, University College London), Script Obsolescence in Ancient Italy: From Pre-Roman to Roman Writing 6. Richard Salomon (University of Washington), Whatever Happened to Kharohi? The Fate of a Forgotten Indic Script 7. Martin Andreas Stadler (University of Wurzburg), On the Demise of Egyptian Writing: Working with a Problematic Source Basis 8. Claude Rilly (CNRS, France), The Last Traces of Meroitic? A Tentative Scenario for the Disappearance of the Meroitic Script 9. M. C. A. Macdonald (Institute of Oriental Studies, Oxford), The Phoenix of Phoinikcia: Alphabetic Reincarnation in Arabia 10. Stephen D. Houston, The Small Deaths of Maya Writing 11. Elizabeth Hill Boone (Tulane University), The Death of Mexican Pictography 12. Frank Salomon (University of Wisconsin), Late Khipu Use 13. Giovanni Stary, Disappearance of Writing Systems: The Manchu Case 14. John Monaghan (University of Illinois), Revelatory Scripts, 'the Unlettered Genius', and the Appearance and Disappearance of Writing 15. Chris Gosden (Institute of Archaeology, Oxford), History without Text 16. John Baines, Writing and its Multiple Disappearances.
£23.75
Stanford University Press Writing the Dead Death and Writing Strategies in
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.
£48.60
University of Hawai'i Press A History of Writing in Japan
Book SynopsisA survey of the development of writing systems in Japan, from the time of the earliest written records to the post-war period. It provides basic information on Japanese palaeography, references to the secondary literature, and reviews of central issues and events.
£21.56
Liverpool University Press Working with AngloSaxon Manuscripts
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
£30.80
Liverpool University Press Introducing English Medieval Book History
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
£109.50
Liverpool University Press Introducing English Medieval Book History:
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
£34.99
Boydell & Brewer Ltd The Dorset Rotulus: Contextualizing and
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
£96.13
Boydell & Brewer Ltd The Ashburnham Pentateuch and its Contexts: The
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
£76.00
Liverpool University Press Looking at Medieval Books: Learning to See
Book SynopsisUnlike books familiar to us from print culture, every medieval book is unique, the product of individual circumstances of planning, execution, and history. This is a fundamental difficulty for study, particularly for those beginning the investigation of texts in manuscript. There are two conventional ways of approaching this difficulty: explaining the series of processes by which a manuscript book is constructed and explaining how to construct a professional description of a manuscript book. Neither addresses a problem fundamental for beginners: what happens when a librarian presents you with a manuscript? How should you proceed? Fundamentally, this is a problem of visual examination, and taking its procedure from the grand M. R. James and M. B. Parkes, this book attempts to stimulate the visual and experiential. It attempts, in a heavily exemplified account, to explain what might be there in a manuscript to perceive and what it might mean. The argument follows a process of examination that begins with the physical bulk of what's in front of you (and its cover, or binding) and ends with traces of the book's history.Table of ContentsPrefaceWhat's in front of you? What's its shape? How big is it? The closed book: what do you see first?Opening the book: what's it made of? Membrane PaperWhere's the first leaf? What does the first leaf look like? How come it looks so neat? How does the scribe write? What texts does it contain? How's it been put together? Are there other discontinuities? Where's it been all this time? Looking at Cambridge, Queens' College, MS 10
£110.00
