Medieval and modern paleography

Teacher(s)

Van den Abeele Baudouin;

Language

French

Prerequisites

Basic knowledge of Latin is an advantage.

Main themes

The course goes over types of writing in use between the 12th and 18th centuries - writing in books, cursive script, diplomatic script. Their relationships to each other and their development, procedures for dating examples and how to actually write in the various scripts, all this is covered. Students will learn systems of abbreviation and work through exercises in decoding.

Aims

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	Upon completion of the course in Medieval and Modern Paleography, students should be able to : characterize, in theoretical and practical terms, the main types of Western writing systems; master the principal systems of abbreviations; decipher a medieval manuscript in Latin or in French.

The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.

Content

This course concerns the knowledge and the decipherment of medieval and early modern writing. A theoretical part is devoted to the production of manuscript documents. The majority of the lectures are practical, involving the weekly transcription of documents written in Latin or in French, from the 10th to the 18th century. A session of two hours is reserved to an introduction to medieval miniatures.

Teaching methods

A few theoretical courses are followed by a majority of courses devoted to practical exercices of transcription.

Evaluation methods

One part (4/20 points) concerns the evaluation of the texts transcribed during the year.
The main part consists of a written examination (16/20 points) comprising theoretical questions and the transcription of three sections of documents in Latin and in French. 

Other information

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Online resources

A Moodle site puts at the disposal of the students the Powerpoint presentations and some transcriptions of documents.

Bibliography

• Un dossier de cours est réalisé chaque année par l'enseignant, qui le transmet aux étudiants.

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Teaching materials

• Un dossier de cours est réalisé chaque année par l'enseignant, qui le transmet aux étudiants.

Faculty or entity

HIST