Palaeography for Historians

or – let's unlock together the ideas of knights or burgesses

 

Subject taught by: Prof. PhDr. Juraj Šedivý, MAS, PhD.

Form of instruction: seminar (S:2)

ECTS: 3

Objective:

A practically oriented course designed for students of history but also of other programmes (e.g. history of art) who want to learn how to read and date or critically assess the authenticity of medieval and early modern documents (book texts as well as deeds, letters and official books from the 12th to the 17th centuries). For the more serious student, there is then the option of enrolling in Latin Paleography of the Ancient and Early Modern Period, Latin Paleography of the Gothic Period, or Latin Paleography of the Modern Period. In the introduction to this course, we will briefly discuss the origins of Latin and the ancient period of the formation of our earliest scripts, move into the Carolingian period, and concentrate on Gothic (ca. 13th-15th centuries) and Post-Gothic (ca. 16th-18th centuries) scripts, with an emphasis on the scripts used in our area. We will read period texts in Latin, German and Slovak (but no language skills are necessary - we do not translate, we just read). This is a practically oriented course, which will give graduates direct access to period sources.

Brief outline:

• Introduction (written culture, literality, palaeography as a science, the origins of writing, writing materials)
• Latin scripts in Antiquity (ca -600 to 500/700)
• Latin scripts in the Carolingian period (ca. 800 to 1200)
• Latin scripts in the Gothic period (ca. 1200 to 1500)
• Latin scripts in the early modern period (ca 1500 to 1800)

Graduation Requirements:

• Attendance - 3 hours may be missed without excuse,
• completion of ongoing activities = 20% of the grade (consists of the student's activity in class),
• final assessment during the exam period = 80% (assessment of theoretical and practical knowledge in the form of a test).

Recommended reading:

ŠEDIVÝ, Juraj: Úvod do latinskej paleografie II. Obdobie karolovské a gotické, Bratislava 2019. (at www.Academia.edu)

Extension literature (optional, only for those interested):

• HÚŠČAVA, Alexander: Dejiny a vývoj nášho písma, Bratislava 1951
• Pátková, Hana: Česká středověká paleografie, Praha 2008
• BISCHOFF, Bernhard: Lateinische Paläographie des römischen Altertums und des abendländischen Mittelalters, Berlin 1979 (2. vyd.) – alebo Tenže – anglická verzia – alebo:
• Tenže: Paléographie de l´Antiquité romaine et du Moyen Age occidental, Paris 1985.