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UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

M.A. Courses in:
  • Ancient History
  • Classical Art & Archaeology
  • Classics
  • Late Antique & Byzantine Studies

2008 - 2009

Published on behalf of:

The Institute of Classical Studies,
School of Advanced Study, University of London
and
King's College London, Classics Department
Royal Holloway, Classics Department
University College London, Greek and Latin Department
University College London, History Department

Greek Hands of the Palaeologan Period (13th-15th century)

Aims and learning outcomes

The course aims to bring students up to a level where they would be able to:
(a) read and transcribe texts from published facsimiles and original manuscripts and incunabula,
(b) place these texts in the cultural milieu of the period, and
(c) assess the contribution of Byzantine scholars and scribes to the revival of classical letters in Western Europe during the Renaissance.

Learning resources

The bibliographical resources of the University of London, including The Warburg Institute, Institute of Classical Studies and Senate House Palaeography Room, amply cover student needs.

Teaching & assessment methods

The course will involve 40 hours of teaching and course work, mainly transcribing texts from facsimiles of manuscripts and commenting on their layout and the script, either in class or individually. Assessment will be by three written assignments of maximum 4,000 words each.

Schedule of teaching sessions

Each session is devoted to reading and transcribing from facsimiles representative samples of literary, documentary and scholarly hands, and texts in early printed books:
  1. Introduction to the Palaeologan period, focusing on the political and cultural changes as reflected in the various hands and styles.
  2. Selected majuscule and mixed minuscule
  3. Palaeologan 'Pearl script'
  4. 'Liturgical' minuscule
  5. 'Literary' minuscule
  6. S. Italian Greek hands
  7. Cypriot hands
  8. 'Enlarged' minuscule
  9. 'Blob' style ('Fettaugenstil')
  10. Imperial chancery hands
  11. 'Metochites' style
  12. 'Metochites' and 'Blob' style
  13. 'Hodegon' style
  14. Documentary hands (Athonite documents)
  15. Scholarly hands with annotation
  16. Autographs
  17. From manuscript to the printed book; the role of Cardinal Bessarion
  18. Aldo Manuzio & Zacharias Kallierges' first editions
  19. 'Grecs du roi' by Claude Garamond
  20. 'Print' minuscule ('Druckminuskel')
The course culminates with a visit to Lambeth Palace Library and/or the British Library to examine Greek manuscripts and incunabula.

Bibliography [2 page pdf document].

Last Modified by Michael Broderick February 29, 2008