Welcome to InScribe: Palaeography Learning Materials! This new project, based at the School of Advanced Study (University of London), was devised by Prof Michelle Brown (who left the School in July) and Dr Jane Winters. InScribe is a new online resource (VLE) to support the teaching of Palaeography and Manuscript Studies at a postgraduate level. This is a collaborative enterprise between the Institute of English Studies (IES), the Institute of Historical Research (IHR), the Warburg Institute and in association with the Department of Digital Humanities (King’s College, London). Our aim is to provide effective distance training in the various areas attached to Manuscript Studies; to complement (not replace) traditional teaching methodologies; to make a wide range of digital tools and resources available to those members of the public with an interest in the field; and to provide carefully selected bibliographies for each subsection within the module.

The structure of this new digital tool is based on the courses on Manuscript Studies provided by the Centre for Manuscript and Print Studies (IES) and it will both support and expand these by providing students with a range of learning materials as well as high-quality manuscript images for transcription. The module will consist of one core section introducing students to the basic principles and skills related to Manuscript Studies and Palaeography. In turn, this will be followed by dedicated ‘pathways’ leading participants to a specialist knowledge in one of four areas: Codicology, Scripts and Transcription, Diplomatic and Illumination. This aims to ensure that the resource meets the needs of students and scholars from a number of fields ranging from History and Art History to Languages and Literatures.

The module, delivered through Moodle, will go live by the end of October and it will include a number of new learning materials developed in-house. Among these there will be podcasts and clips of academics discussing relevant topics and items, often with the primary sources in front of them. The module will also feature a newly-developed transcription tool, which will allow them to acquire transcription practice before undertaking the assessment at the end of each unit. This tool has been developed in collaboration with the Department of Digital Humanities at KCL. In this initial phase, the platform will offer both the initial section and one of two pathways: Script or Diplomatic. The advanced sections on Codicology and Illumination are expected to be developed in a later phase.

For updates on the project, please stay tuned!

Contact: Fran Alvarez at Francisco.Alvarez-Lopez@sas.ac.uk