Schedule

• 11 January
• 18 January
• 25 January
• 1 February
• 8 February
• 15 February
• 1 March
• 8 March
• 15 March
• 22 March
• 29 March
• 5 April

11 January

• Palaeography and Book Circulation
• Types of Scripts
• Digital Texts

Read

• Bischoff, ‘Writing materials and writing tools’

18 January

• Inscriptions and Manuscripts
• Rustic Capitals and Square Capitals

Read

• Scribes and Scholars, ch. 1–2
• Bischoff, ‘The external characteristics of the written heritage’
• Bischoff, ‘Latin script in antiquity’

Transcribe

• Virgil, Georgics, square capitals, Italian, 4th century(?): Vatican City, Bibliotheca Apostolica, Vat. lat. 3256 (‘Vergilius Augusteus’), fol. 2r (right-hand page, first 15 lines, ‘Quis … fumus’)
• Virgil, Aeneid, rustic caps, from Rome, c.400: Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica, Vat. lat. 3225 (‘Vergilius Vaticanus’), fol. 27v (lines 4–end, ‘prosequitur … cursus’)

25 January

• Uncial and Half-Uncial
• Nomina sacra

Read

• Scribes and Scholars, ch. 3
• Bischoff, ‘Latin handwriting in the Middle Ages’
• Bischoff, ‘Roman and Christian antiquity’

Transcribe

• Eugippius, Excerpta ex operibus s. Augustini, half-uncial, Italian, 7th century: Vatican City, Bibliotheca Apostolica, Vat. lat. 3375, fol. 30r (lines 1–16, ‘rem stupendus … celsitudo tu es’)
• Vulgate Bible, uncial, from Wearmouth-Jarrow, c.700: Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Amiatino 1 (‘Codex Amiatinus’), fol. 50r (first column)

1 February

• Pre- and Early Carolingian Minuscules
• Describing a manuscript

Read

• Scribes and Scholars, ch. 4
• Bischoff, ‘Supplement’: Abbreviation, Punctuation, Musical Notation
• Bischoff, ‘The early Middle Ages’

Transcribe

• Ambrosiaster, commentary on Paul’s second epistle to the Corinthians, Corbie AB minuscule, from northern France, late 8th–early 9th century: London, British Library, Harley MS 3063, fol. 39v (lines 1–13, Paulus … repperitur)
• Mozarabic lectionary, Visigothic minuscule, from Burgos (northern Spain), 10th century, London, British Library, Add. MS 30844, fol. 40v (column 1, lines 2–22, ‘Epistula … a patre’)

8 February

• Carolingian Minuscule

Read

• Scribes and Scholars, ch. 5
• Bischoff, ‘The Carolingian period’

Transcribe

• Augustine, Retractiones, Carolingian minuscule, possibly from Tours, Central France, 820s–840s: London, British Library Harley MS 3012, fol. 2r (lines 3–15: ‘Augustinus. Quomodo … supradixeris.’)
• Benedict, Rule, Carolingian minuscule, from St Gall, mid-ninth century: St Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 914, p. 16 (lines 1–14, ‘Abbas … spargatur’)

15 February

• The Apparatus Criticus
• Punctuation

Read

• Tarrant, Introduction
• Tarrant, ‘Textual criticism in a post-heroic age’
• Tarrant, ‘Reading a critical apparatus’ (skim this: a reference chapter)
• Scribes and Scholars, ch. 6 (optional: Tarrant covers this in more depth)

Transcribe

• Beatus of Liébana, commentary on the Apocalypse, late Benevantan script, from southern Italy, late 11th or early 12th century: Geneva, Bibliothèque de Genève, Ms. lat. 357, fol. 152r (column 1, lines 1–25, ‘Quid faciet … reseruauimus;’)
• Alan of Tewkesbury, collection of the letters of Thomas Becket, protogothic script, from Cirencester, Gloucestershire, 1180s–90s: London, British Library, Cotton MS Claudius B. ii, fol. 17r (column 2, lines 1–20, ‘Iohannes … illas.’)

22 February

No class for reading week

27 February

Passion of Perpetua and Felicity transcriptions due

1 March

• Protogothic
• Dealing with Textual Variation

Read

• Tarrant, ‘The rhetoric of textual criticism/textual criticism as rhetoric’
• Bischoff, ‘From the tenth to the twelfth Century’

Transcribe

The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity 5, ‘Post paucos dies … a me contristatus’:

• Soissons, 10th century: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Latin 17626, fols 65v–66r
• St Gallen, 9th–10th century: St Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 577, p. 167, second column
• England, late 11th century–early 12th century: London, British Library, Cotton MS Nero E. i/1, fol. 162v, end of column–beginning of column 2

For manuscript descriptions, see Thomas J. Heffernan, The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), Appendix I: Manuscripts and Editions.

8 March

• Late Carolingian scripts
• Gothic Textualis
• Perpetua and Felicity edition due

Read

• Tarrant, ‘Establishing the text 1: recension’
• Bischoff, ‘The late Middle Ages’

Transcribe

• Hildegard von Bingen, Sciuias, protogothic, from County Palatine of the Rhine, 1180s: Wiesbaden, Hessische Landesbibliothek, MS 2 (‘Riesencodex’), fol. 3r (column 1, lines 1–20, ‘Incipit … compositionis’)
• Carmina burana, Gothic, from northern Italy, 1230s: Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 4660, fol. 1r (all text below the illustration)

15 March

• Gothic Cursive
• Group edition draft due

Read

• Tarrant, ‘Establishing the text 2: conjecture’
• Bischoff, ‘Writing and copying’

Transcribe

• John Capgrave, De illustribus Henricis, Gothic Cursiva libraria, from King’s Lynn, 1440–47: Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 408, p. 1 (lines 1–11, ‘Henrico … terre’)
• Giles of Rome, De regimine principum, Gothic Cursiva formata, 1460–80: Geneva, Bibliothèque de Genève, Ms. lat. 92, fol. 1r (column 1 (all)–column 2, lines 1–6 ‘⟨Ex r⟩egia … mensurari.’)

17 March

Drop date

22 March

• Gothic Hybrida and Semihybrida

Read

• Tarrant, ‘Establishing the text 3: interpolation, collaboration, and intertextuality’
• Tarrant, ‘Textual criticism and literary criticism: the case of Propertius’ (mostly a collection of examples that you can skim)

Transcribe

• Denis the Carthusian, Exhortatorium nouitiorum, Gothic Hybrida formata, from Basel, 2nd half of the 15th century: Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, MS A VII 30, fol. 1r (lines 1–14, ‘Cristus. Nemo … es?’)
• Nicolaus de Dybin (?), Sporta florum rethoricalium, Semihybrida, written by Albertus Löffler at the Dominican Monastery of Basel, 1438–9: Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, MS F VI 61, fol. 27r (lines 1–16, ‘Ingredientibus … prospexi’)

29 March

• Humanist Minuscule and Cursive
• The Beginnings of Print

Read

• Tarrant, ‘Presenting the text: the critical edition and its discontents’
• Bischoff, ‘The age of humanism’

Transcribe

• Eusebius Caesariensis, Prosper de Aquitania, Chronicon, Humanist minuscule, from Florence, c.1410: Kantonsbibliothek, Vadianische Sammlung, VadSlg Ms. 298, fol. 2r (first column, lines 1–19, ‘Adiuro … absoluerent.’)
• Carmen ad Cosmum de Medicis directum, Humanist cursive, from Italy, second half of the 15th century: Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, MS F IX 2, fol. 7r (lines 1–16, ‘Cosme … facis’)

5 April

• Manuscripts in the Early Modern Period
• Group edition due

Read

• Tarrant, ‘The future: problems and prospects’