The Latin Manuscript Book from Antiquity to the Middle Ages

This course will explore the history of the manuscript book: how it was made, papyrus and parchment, the different scripts used to copy texts and how they developed from the Roman Republic to the High Middle Ages. The class will meet in the Regenstein Library and students will be able to work with manuscripts there and in the Newberry Library, as well as with digitised manuscripts. By mastering the foundational types of writing, the students will develop skills for reading all Latin-based scripts, including those used for vernacular languages. In addition to learning how to transcribe different scripts we shall consider how to date scripts, who commissioned and copied manuscripts, and how they were read. What were the features of a manuscript culture and how was it different from our own experience of reading?