Short listed by The Times Higher Awards 2006 for the Most Imaginative Use of Distance Learning |
Palaeography: reading
old handwriting
1500 - 1800
A practical online tutorial
Palaeography
is the study of old handwriting. This web tutorial will help you learn
to read the handwriting found in documents written in English between 1500
and 1800.
At first glance, many documents written at this time
look illegible to the modern reader. By reading the practical
tips and working through the documents in the Tutorial in order
of difficulty, you will find that it becomes much easier to read old handwriting.
You can find more documents on which to practise your skills in the further
practice section.
This tutorial has been developed in partnership with the
School of Library, Archive and Information Studies (SLAIS)
, University College London
Tips on reading and transcribing documents.
Dating, numbers, money, measurements.
Ten documents of varying levels of difficulty, information
about the documents and their historical backgrounds.
More documents to practise on. New documents will be
added periodically.
You can also learn Latin with our online tutorial for beginners
Introduction 
Where
to start 
