![]() ![]() Hardly surprising, given they were written some four centuries apart. Just as Arial looks very different to Times New Roman, so scripts from different periods vary.įor example, an eleventh or twelfth century copy of Caesar’s De Bello Gallico (d.20.54) looks very different from a fifteenth century text of William of Ockham (f.10.15)į.10.15 – MS pastedown of William of Ockham from our Old LibraryĪs you can see, the two scripts used look completely different. ![]() These letter shapes and features together make a script. Those who could write would have been taught how to form letters in a specific style and would also learn the many abbreviations used to save time and space. Luckily, in the Middle Ages, handwriting was formally taught most people were illiterate, and even those who could read were not necessarily able to write. If I had to hand-write my thesis, it would probably look very disappointing. Above all, that meant having consistent, neat handwriting. Unsurprisingly, books were highly valued, and great care was taken in making them look the part. Composing a major work could take a lifetime the Historia Novella of William of Malmesbury breaks off unexpectedly in 1142, although William had promised to continue the History – apparently he died before he could make good on his promise. Such production was no mean feat – simply copying a pre-existing text might take weeks, (not counting the time taken to prepare parchment from animal skins, or to illustrate or bind the pages). Queens’ College Old Library, full of manuscripts and books. The Old Library here has some 30 handwritten books from before the invention of the printing press (a book, or, to use a technical term, codex, being far more likely to survive the ravages of time than a loose sheet), while other collections in Cambridge house many more. Hundreds of thousands of books were written out by monks and professional scribes – hence manuscript, literally ‘written by hand’. Before the invention of the printing press in the middle of the 15th century, everything was hand written. Typewriters, (though relatively portable!), differ little from even early printing presses – they stamp ink onto paper using a single set of letter stamps. None of my grandparents ever owned a computer and when my parents were students, they paid people to type up dissertations on typewriters. The freedom computers afford is a very recent innovation. Changing font is second nature to us, but in the Medieval world, changes in script (as hand written fonts are known) help us to learn a lot about when, where and why something was written. This means that, alongside being able to save it, edit it and do such useful things as checking it is about the right length, I can change how the post looks at the touch of a button. I’m writing this, my first blog post on Medieval Manuscripts, in a word processor before it gets uploaded.
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