This course is a continuation of the course of the Spring Term 2021 in which students became more experienced in their reading of a variety of documents written in English during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. . During the course we will revise the skills which were covered in the previous terms as well as recapping on the documents which we explored, thinking about their heavy abbreviation, unconventional spelling and difficult handwriting. This term has, more specifically, the aim of helping students transfer these skills to their own research. It is set up as a workshop in which students can discuss documents they are trying to use in their own research but which may be problematic and difficult to read. We will discuss these as a group- twelve pairs of eyes are always better than one!
Course aim
This course revises the skills needed to read documents written in English during the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries. It also provides a workshop for students to discuss documents they are using for their own genealogical and local research.
Do I need any particular skills or experience?
- This course is for improvers
- This course is aimed at students who have followed the previous three terms of the course. Newcomers are welcome but they will need extensive experience of reading old documents written in English.
By the end of the course I should be able to:
- Identify several distinct classes of document written in English during the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries.
- Decipher names, dates, numbers and standard phrases in these documents and be able to identify the more unusual phrases.
- Apply palaeography skills from one class of document to another.
- Apply palaeography skills to documents useful for personal research.
What else do I need to know?
You may like to have note-making equipment available to you in each session.
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