Paleography (Fall 2012)

Introduction to Early Modern Paleography, Folger Institute / Taught by Heather Wolfe / Fall 2012

letters -- silk floss -- most intimate/personal; finer paper bc of folding; italic hand

paper seal -- letters that are more secure; you can see if they've been intercepted by matching paper seal --> dispatch slit

tuck and seal -- least personal

sew letters shut

Glasgow, online edition of Bess of Hardwick -- sewing holes in her letters --> Portrait of C Huygens

paper not as expensive as often thought

John Spillman, license to make white letter paper at end of c16

Elizabethan/Jacobean period -- paper mostly from France through Dutch traders

Peter Beal, Dictionary of Manuscript Terminology

commonplace book: manuscript set up in advance under different commonplace headings; don't call miscellanies commonplace books

PLRE, Private Libraries in Renaissance England: http://plre.folger.edu/ if not organized under headings, either miscellany or anthology (interchangeable terms, though Marotti tries to distinguish them)

Julia Boffey, 15c manuscript -- calls it a "household book"; based on domestic situation

literary commonplace books are very rare; V.a.103 is one

later in 17c, term was being used for non-commonplace books; causes confusion

student commonplace books: Erasmus, Ascham, all recommend keeping one; but perhaps no single surviving Renaissance student commonplace books

heraldic anthologies -- common

album amicorum -- lots in Edgerton manuscripts at British Library

poetic anthology -- queen of the miscellanies

almost all scribes had 2 fonts -- running hand and italic hand

wider formal letters -- engrossing

tilde -- usually for 'm' or 'n'

before 18c, Mr also means "master," not "mister"

"stigma of print" -- James I published 2 volumes of poetry during his reign; counters Saunders' thesis; popular poem on Ann's death is anthologized often (see Folger MS V.a.162, fol. 33v; MS V.a.103, fol.3r); see http://shakespeareauthorship.com/stigma.html

Joshua Eckhart, Manuscript Verse Collectors -- argues poems are organized intentionally

most anthologies seem to be formed chronologically, though

Lancashire Record Office -- household book called "the Hodgepodge"; Alison Shell

manuscripts after 1620 include many satiric epitaphs -- major genre (not that common in 16th century)

matching hands -- no good methodology for comparing hands in Renaissance studies; need a control document

Hand D (Shakespeare); not enough evidence -- only 6 signatures, with many differences between them; unique spellings help; paper and watermarks; Steve May article in HLQ (June 2013)

Cheney's Book of Dates

How Much is That Worth? by Lionel Munby

How Heavy, How Much, and How Long? by Colin R Chapman

Gazetter of British Place Names: http://www.gazetteer.co.uk/

watermarks: pot (France, Normandy), flag split in center (Italian), three circles (Venice), Italian paper thought to be nicer

Identifying watermarks: Heawood; Briquet; Thomas L Gravell Watermark Archive: http://gravell.org

Carter Hailey, checking / measuring watermarks on all First Folios

REED, Records of Early English Drama: http://www.reed.utoronto.ca/