Making and Interpreting Historical Records, 100-1600

Catalog description

Accessing the past through the cultural record provides us with the ability to read primary sources for ourselves; and determine the reasons behind, and resources given over to, the production of documents and manuscripts. This course will introduce students to the places and spaces that created literary and historical texts, the materials and skills involved, and the methods by which these artifacts were produced. In this course, students will be introduced to the essential skills of epigraphy, paleography, codicology and diplomatics, which involve learning how to read inscriptions, manuscripts, and single-leaf documents, like writs and charters. Students will be immersed in first-hand learning in Special Collections, and will work collaboratively on a project that brings to light thoroughly interpreted and edited early textual materials from archive to publication.