Years after starting FromThePage, we realized it is fundamentally a documentary editing platform. As we've gone about educating ourselves on documentary editing -- and improving FromThePage with what we learned -- we've found some resources we think might be interesting to anyone running a transcription project, whatever their discipline.
M.B. Parkes' classic English Cursive Book Hands, 1250-1500, first published by Clarendon Press in 1969, remains a foundational text for students of medieval English paleography. As the author notes in his introduction, his slim book is pedagogical and emphasizes "the major varieties of English cursive handwriting" while sidelining issues of manuscript production and common abbreviations.
The book contains actual-size reproductions of 24 manuscript extracts, carefully chosen to illustrate major book hands of the period, compiled here for the first time with hyperlinks to scans of the originals that could be located:
All links are correct and working as of February 2017. More will be added as they become available. If you know of another of the Parkes examples online, please comment or send us a note and we'll add it to this list.
1. (i) Oxford: University College, MS. 148, fol. 84r.
(ii) London: British Museum, MS. Harley 2253, fol. 134v. [image]
2. (i) Oxford: Bodleian Library, MS. Douce 257, fol. 38r.
(ii) Cambridge: Trinity College, MS. O. 1. 31, fol 16v.
3. (i) Oxford: Bodleian Library, MS. Wood Empt. 15, fol. 106r.
(ii) Oxford: Bodleian Library, MS. Digby 181, fol. 47r. [image of fol. 39r]
4. (i) Oxford: Bodleian Library, MS. Bodley 406, fol. 125v.
(ii) London: British Museum, Royal MS. 14 C xiii, fol. 236r.
5. (i) Oxford: Corpus Christi College, MS. 151, fol. 62r. [image]
(ii) Oxford: Bodleian Library, MS. Bodley 316, fol. 71v. [image]
6. (i) London: British Museum, MS. Harley 3742, fol. 4v.
(ii) Glasgow: University Library, Hunterian MS. T. 3. 15, fol 15v. [images of fol. 1r, 3v, 38r, 133r]
7. (i) Oxford: Bodleian Library, MS. Bodley 712, fol 140r.
(ii) Oxford: Bodleian Library, MS. Bodley 194, fol. 53r.
8. (i) Oxford: Bodleian Library, MS. Rawlinson C. 398, fol 49r.
(ii) Oxford: Bodleian Library, MS. Laud Misc. 517, fol. 126v.
9. (i) London: Lambeth Palace Library, Register of Archbishop Sudbury, fol. 42r.
(ii) London: Lambeth Palace Library, Register of Archbishop Arundel, fol. 135r.
10. (i) London: Lambeth Palace Library, Register of Archbishop Chichele, fol. 17r.
(ii) London: Lambeth Palace Library, Register of Archbishops Stafford and Kemp, fol. 20r.
(iii) London: Lambeth Palace Library, Register of Archbishop Bourgchier, fol. 118r.
11. (i) Oxford: Bodleian Library, MS. Bodley 144, fol. 117r.
(ii) Cambridge: Gonville and Caius College, MS 99/51, p. 11.
12. (i) Oxford: Bodleian Library, MS. Rawlinson Poetry 149, fol. 97r.
(ii) Oxford: Bodleian Library, MS. Rawlinson Poetry 32, fol. 65v.
13. (i) Oxford: Bodleian Library, MS. Laud Misc. 100, fol 76r.
(ii) Oxford: Bodleian Library, MS. Arch. Selden B. 24, fol. 49v.
14. (i) Oxford: Bodleian Library, MS. Bodley 596, fol. 2r.
(ii) Oxford: Bodleian Library, MS. MS. Hatton 2, fol. 24r, col. b.
15. (i) Oxford: Bodleian Library, MS. Bodley 456, fol. 9r.
(ii) Oxford: Bodleian Library, MS. Arch. Selden B. 10, fol. 205r. [image]
16. (i) Oxford: Bodleian Library, MS. Digby 55, fol. 146r.
(ii) Oxford: Merton College, MS. O. 2. 1, fol. 217r, col. b.
17. (i) Cambridge: University Library, MS. Ff. 3. 27, fol. 45r.
(ii.) Oxford: Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 52, fol. 151r.
18. (i) Oxford: New College, MS 305, fol. 104r.
(ii.) Oxford: University College, MS 156, fol. 1r.
19. (i) Cambridge: Gonville and Caius College, MS 282/675, fol. 25r.
(ii.) Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 467, fol. 120r.
20. (i) Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 248, fol. 100r.
(ii.) Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 431, fol. 96r.
21. London: Society of Antiquaries, MS. 223, fols. 1v, 2v, and 30v.
22. (i) Shrewsbury School, MS. viii, fol. 82v.
(ii.) Glasgow: University Library, Hunterian MS. U. 5. 3, fol. 41r.
23. (i) Worcester: Cathedral Muniments, Account Roll, C222.
(ii.) Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Hatton 11, fol. 90r.
24. (i) Oxford: Magdalen College, MS. Lat. 154, fol. 30r, col. b.
(ii.) Oxford: Balliol College, MS. 30, fol 119v, col. b. [image] [detail, column B] [detail, column B marginalia]