Customer Reviews

English Handwriting, 1400-1650: An Introductory Manual (Pegasus Paperbacks)

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In English Handwriting 1400-1650: An Introductory Manual, Jean Preston and Laetitia Yeandle successfully collaborate to provide a practical handbook for the student, scholar, or genealogist seeking to learn to read various handwritings in the English vernaculars of the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries. Enhanced with 31 plates of 33 manuscripts (with their transcriptions) illustrates diverse hands used by medieval scribes and later. The development of letter forms, the abbreviations used, obsolete letters, and common practices of the times are all very nicely covered. A bibliography provides recommendations for further reading. English Handwriting 1400-1650 is an invaluable, very highly recommended and competent guide for the aspiring paleographer, student of history, or genealogist working directly or through photo copies of original records.

I've been using this book for years to teach graduate students of history some introductory paleographical skills. It's a great shame that it's out of print.

This book is surprisingly clear, and well-written, with good illustrations regarding an often difficult subject - handwriting in England that does not look like anthing we are used to! This book takes the "scrawls' and makes some sense of them, and gives us access to primary materials.