Unlocking Languages and Palaeography for Historians

Module Leader: Professor David Worthington

This module gives you the tools you need to get started with deciphering older scripts written in several northern European languages. It is team-taught, relying on the expertise and research background of several Centre for History staff. Students taking it should have an interest in languages prior to enrolling but a knowledge of other languages is not compulsory so don’t be afraid! Drawing on a wide range of digitised English, Scots, Latin and, latterly, German original materials drawn from staff’s own research in north European (including Scandinavian) archives, as well as freely available online palaeographical and language-based materials, the module allows you to develop the skills required for historians to transcribe and critique manuscript sources, from medieval to modern, while critically assessing also the importance of language for historians of northern Europe. You will thus explore linguistic nationalism, considering, for example, issues around literacy, spelling, dates, place names, personal names and the history of dictionaries.

Indicative Content

• Introduction
• Languages, literacy and writing in late medieval and early modern Northern Europe
• Scots and English
• Medieval palaeography - book, charter, court/business, set and ‘free’ hands
• Early modern palaeography (I) - italic and secretary hand
• Early modern palaeography (II)
• Modern palaeography
• German for historians of northern Europe

Coursework

• Palaeographic exercise (30%)
• Essay (70%)