This course aims to provide the tools necessary to read and accurately transcribe manuscript and printed sources (in Latin) from the late medieval period to the late seventeenth century. Since these are written in various kinds of scripts (gothic, humanistic, etc.), some time will be spent examining each of these. The course starts from printed materials, which are somewhat easier to navigate and usually contain fewer abbreviations, and will then work its way back from the seventeenth to the fifteenth and fourteenth centuries, considering different types of sources (e.g. letters, literary and philosophical texts, official documents). We will also consider different approaches to transcribing and editing manuscript material, a pressing question in an age when an increasing number of (manuscript) sources have been digitised and can be found online.

Although the course will inevitably include references to book history and production as a context, the focus will be on deciphering and transcribing various kinds of writing samples taken from a range of geographical regions including - but not limited to - Italy, the British Isles, and the Low Countries. A solid grasp of Latin (at least intermediate level) is required. (Participants wanting a refresher may wish to take, alongside this course, Latin for Research in the Humanities.) Although the course is open to mature researchers who wish to develop their facility with original Latin sources, it is especially geared to postgraduate students and early career researchers. The course will follow a seminar format and will largely rely on homework transcription exercises, to be discussed in class along with other texts. It will culminate in a test giving participants an idea of their final level of attainment.

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