An introduction to learning English manuscript hands of the period, exploring traditional and new tools and methods for bibliographical research, and undertaking scholarly editions.

Textbooks

• D. C. Greetham. Textual Scholarship: An Introduction. New York and London: Garland, 1994.
• Jean Preston and Laetitia Yeandle. English Handwriting 1400-1650: An Introductory Manual. Binghamton, NY: Medieval and Renaissance Texts, 1992.

Requirements

1. Attend class and participate, e.g., by reading aloud from assigned manuscripts in Preston-Yeandle and other sources, and by discussing assigned readings and seminar reports.
2. Deliver and submit a 30-minute seminar report on and with your revision and annotation of a section already in, or a new section for, the on-line course bibliography ( www.chass.utoronto.ca/~ian/9002bbbl.htm ). The current sections are dictionaries, law, government publications, printed books, Church of England, manuscript catalogues, literary criticism, science, architecture and geography, music, arts, classical mythology, and biography.
3. Prepare, with other members of the class, a on-line scholarly electronic edition of Gabriel Frend's 1599. An Almanacke And Prognostication (London: Richard Watkins and James Robertes, 1599; Henry E. Huntington 30069; 46 pages) for Renaissance Electronic Texts.
4. Pass an in-class exam in the last meeting to test your ability to transcribe from Renaissance manuscript pages contained in Preston and Yeandle and discussed in class.

Some Useful Reference Works

• A Newe Booke of Copies 1574: A Facsimile of a Unique Elizabethan Writing Book. Ed. Berthold Wolpe. London: Oxford University Press, 1962. Z 43 A3N43 Robarts
• Davis, Godfrey. Bibliography of British History: Stuart Period, 1603-1714. 2nd edn. Ed. Mary F. Keller. 1970. Z 2018 D25 Ref and Ren
• Dawson, Giles E., and Laetitia Kennedy-Skipton. Elizabethan Handwriting, 1500-1650. New York: W. W. Norton, 1966. Z 43 D264 Robarts
• Elton, G. R. England 1200-1600. London: Sources of History, 1969. DA 176 E4 Robarts
• Harner, James L. Literary Research Guide: A Guide to Reference Sources for the Study of Literatures in English and Related Topics. 3rd edn. New York: MLA, 1998. Z 2011 H34 Robarts General Reference
• Musciano, Chuck, and Bill Kennedy. HTML: The Definitive Guide. 3rd edn. Bonn: O'Reilly, 1997. QA 76.76 H94M88 Engi
• Petti, Anthony G. English Literary Hands from Chaucer to Dryden. London: Edward Arnold, 1977. Z 115 E5P47 Robarts
• Read, Conyers. Bibliography of British History: Tudor Period, 1485-1603. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959. 2nd edn. Z 2018 R28 Robarts

Tentative Schedule

• Meeting 1: Tuesday May 25
  • Tools and Methods: Renaissance printed and mss character sets.
  • MSS: Sir William Cavendish's letter to Sir Humphrey Bradborne and Thomas Babington ca. 1555 (Dawson and Kennedy-Skipton, Elizabethan Handwriting)
  • Editing: a scholarly Web edition of Wyatt's "Tagus fare well."
• Meeting 2: Thursday May 27
  • Your choice of a topic for the bibliographical assignment is due.
  • Tools and Methods: locating manuscript materials.
  • MSS: Sackville's autograph of "The Complaint of Henry Duke of Buckingham."
  • Editing: representing the character sets and structure of Gabriel Frend's Almanacke in HTML.
• Meeting 3: Tuesday June 8
  • Tools and Methods: identifying and using Early Modern English language reference works
  • MSS: Preston-Yeandle 9-12.
  • Editing: the HTML transcript of the first two printed pages of your part of Frend is due (please photocopy for all class members).
• Meeting 4: Thursday June 10
  • Tools and Methods: analyzing textual variation.
  • MSS: Preston-Yeandle 13-16.
  • Editing: transcribing and encoding ms marginalia on the Huntington copy of the Almanacke.
• Meeting 5: Tuesday June 15
  • Tools and Methods: computer-assisted text analysis.
  • MSS: Preston-Yeandle 17-20.
  • Editing: a plain-text file of your entire HTML transcript of Frend is due (give me the electronic copy; provide a single-page list of your problems for discussion).
• Meeting 6: Thursday June 17
  • Tools and Methods: seminar report 1.
  • MSS: Preston-Yeandle 21-24.
  • Editing: how to annotate the Frend text; select your part of the introduction to Frend.
• Meeting 7: Tuesday June 22
  • Tools and Methods: seminar report 2.
  • MSS: Preston-Yeandle 25-28.
  • Editing: problems in annotating and introducing Frend; an HTML plain-text file of your part of the Frend introduction is due (please hand in to me).
• Meeting 8: Thursday June 24
  • Tools and Methods: seminar report 3.
  • MSS: Shakespeare's hand and Hand D of the Play of Sir Thomas More.
  • Editing: the final e-text of your annotated part of Frend is due (hand in to me).
• Meeting 9: Tuesday June 29
  • Course summary.
  • The final e-text of your part of the introduction is due (hand in to me).
  • Transcription test.

  Some Renaissance Web Resources

  • CRRS (Scarborough College)
  • Early Modern English Dictionaries Database
  • Early Modern Literary Studies
  • Renaissance Electronic Texts