Medieval Handwriting: Decoding Marseille's Archives
Learn to read late medieval handwriting and explore 14th-15th century Marseille through notarial records.
Learn to read late medieval handwriting and explore 14th-15th century Marseille through notarial records.
Dive into the fascinating world of medieval paleography with this Harvard course focusing on 14th and 15th century Marseille. Learn to decipher notarial cursive, the handwriting style used across Europe in the later Middle Ages. Explore household inventories that offer glimpses into daily life in medieval Marseille. Through progressive exercises, you'll master letter forms, abbreviations, and editing marks unique to this period. This course provides a rare opportunity to access and understand millions of unpublished medieval texts, opening new avenues for historical research. While some knowledge of Latin or Romance languages is helpful, the course welcomes all interested in exploring medieval documents firsthand.
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What you'll learn
Recognize and interpret notarial cursive handwriting from the 14th-15th centuries
Identify basic letter forms and their variations in medieval handwriting
Decipher common abbreviations used in late medieval documents
Understand editing and navigation marks in notarial records
Analyze household inventories to gain insights into medieval material culture
Develop skills to approach and read unpublished medieval texts
Skills you'll gain
This course includes:
Live video
Quizzes, assessments
Access on Mobile, Tablet, Desktop
Limited Access access
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Module Description
This course offers an introduction to medieval paleography, focusing on notarial handwriting from 14th and 15th century Marseille. Students will learn to read and interpret notarial cursive, a handwriting style widely used across Europe in the later Middle Ages. The curriculum covers the basic forms of each letter, including variations and potential misidentifications, as well as standard abbreviations and editing marks. Participants will work with household inventories, gaining insights into the material culture of medieval Marseille. The course emphasizes hands-on practice, with quizzes and assessments to track progress in reading skills. While some knowledge of Latin or Romance languages is helpful, the course is designed to be accessible to those without extensive language background, offering a unique opportunity to explore medieval documents firsthand and understand the "paper revolution" of the later Middle Ages.
Fee Structure
Instructor
Distinguished Medieval Historian and Pioneer in Deep History Studies
Daniel Lord Smail serves as the Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of History at Harvard University, where he has established himself as a leading authority on Mediterranean societies between 1100 and 1600 and deep human history. His innovative research combines traditional medieval history with anthropological approaches, focusing on legal culture, material life, and social dynamics in medieval Mediterranean cities, particularly Marseille. His scholarly contributions include numerous acclaimed books such as "Imaginary Cartographies" (1999), "The Consumption of Justice" (2003), "On Deep History and the Brain" (2008), and "Legal Plunder" (2016). His work spans diverse subjects from women and Jews to legal history and spatial imagination, while pioneering the field of neurohistory. His current research examines the story of a formerly enslaved North African woman in fifteenth-century Marseille who achieved self-manumission. Smail's excellence in both research and teaching has been recognized with prestigious awards, including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Joseph R. Levenson Memorial Teaching Prize (2007), the Everett Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Award (2014), and an honorary doctorate from the Universeit Antwerpen (2023)
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