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

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"