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<\/a>In the Series of Seminars on the Evidence of Manuscripts<\/a>\nThe Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
\n(16 December 1989)
\nInvitation<\/strong><\/a> in pdf.<\/p>\n
The previous\u00a0\u2014 the first\u2014 seminar in the Series considered [First published on 22 August 2016<\/em>]<\/p>\n “We hope by choosing this topic to interest those whose concern is with texts as well as those who are primarily interested in manuscript make-up and lay-out”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Invitation Letter (shown here and downloadable here<\/strong><\/a>) states the case:<\/p>\n On our custom-designed Letterhead, with our Logo<\/a>, the Letter takes the then-Librarian’s customary form for correspondence, with double spacing in Courier type.\u00a0 Subsequently, the Invitation Letters for the Series<\/a> continue to appear on the Letterhead, which over time exhibits changes in the number of Names at head and foot, naming the Principals of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence and, soon, the Associates<\/a> of the Research Group, as they joined our number.\u00a0 However, after the “Legal Manuscripts” Seminar, the Invitation Letters emerge in printed-out and photocopied form employing closer spacing between lines (single spacing by the Invitation for the 13 April 1990 Seminar onward), as well as the Adobe Garamond<\/a> font which the Research Group chose as its official font (as described in our Illustrated Bulletin ShelfLife<\/a> and in our Style Manifesto<\/a> in its early forms).<\/p>\n Manuscripts on View<\/strong><\/p>\n The Letter proposes these manuscripts for examination from the Parker Library, with contents described thus:<\/p>\n “It will also be possible to look at the facsimile of the Textus Roffensis if needed.”<\/p>\n [Note:<\/em> That means the printed monochrome facsimile in 2 volumes plus commentary, comprising the Textus Roffensis<\/em>, edited by Peter Sawyer for the series Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile, volumes 7 and 11 (Copenhagen, 1957 + 1962).<\/p>\n [The Textus Roffensis<\/a> itself, a volume combining 2 manuscripts copied between 1122 and 1123 CE, and having the pressmark Rochester Cathedral Library, MS A.3.5, is now kept at the Medway Archives and Local Studies Center in Stroud, Rochester, Kent. A full digital facsimile is now readily available<\/a>.<\/p>\n [WebEditor’s Note:<\/em>\u00a0 Remember, these were the days, and years, before manuscripts were widely viewable on screen aided by digital photographic means.\u00a0 Looking at the Real Thing was the Main Thing, and in many cases it could be a Good Thing, while photographic facsimiles providing images of manuscript pages, or even of the whole book, might serve the cause as well.\u00a0 Photocopies, as well.\u00a0 Some of those, reproducing parts of manuscripts and printed editions, were circulated as handouts at the Seminar, and jolly useful they were, too.]<\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n Invitations were sent to:<\/p>\n David Wilson, Christine Fell, Mildred Budny, Nicholas Hadgraft, Patrick Wormald, Richard Scharpe, Leslie Webster, David Parsons, Kathryn Lowe, Carole Hough, Richard Gem, Timothy Graham, and others unreported within the Invitation Letter as drafted for reproduction and circulation.<\/p>\n Present:<\/p>\n R.I. Page, Mildred Budny, W. Cozens, Richard Dammery, Christine Fell, Leslie French, Timothy Graham, Nicholas Hadgraft, Carole Hough, Kathryn Lowe, Rosamond McKitterick, David Parsons, Alex Rumble, Richard Scharpe, David Wilson, Patrick Wormald<\/p>\n A 12-page handwritten report by Timothy Graham survives in the Research Group Archives with the 3-line title<\/p>\n Legal manuscripts, their make-up and contents: <\/em>Report of a This text records the names of those present, reports the sequence and contents of the discussions, cites the other manuscripts with legal contents brought forth by the Librarian from the Parker Library’s collection (MSS 96, 190, 201, 265, and 398), in addition to those cited in the Invitation, and sums up the conclusions.<\/p>\n The opening of the Report<\/em> sets the scene:<\/p>\n The meeting was opened by the Librarian who sounded the key-note for the day’s proceedings by saying that the aim was to focus on the significance of text within manuscripts and so provide a balance to the previous meeting of the Seminar, which had concentrated on pictures.<\/p>\n The closing paragraph closes the curtain:<\/p>\n As the meeting dispersed, it was apparent that a great deal of ground had been covered in the day, and that through the pooling of specialists from the fields of legal history, linguistics and manuscript studies in the presence of the manuscripts themselves, progress had been made towards a more sensitive appraisal of the documents on which our knowledge of Anglo-Saxon Law rests.<\/p>\n The Report<\/em> described the presentations and discussions in detail, allowing the knowledge at the distance of time and space of much of the character and sequence of the proceedings, with presentations (followed by discussions) by Carole Hough and by Christine Fell before lunch, and by Patrick Wormald after lunch, when the manuscripts themselves emerged into view.<\/p>\n Thus is recorded the essence of<\/p>\n The notes on the day flesh out the elements sketched in the Invitation Letter, adding living tissue to its skeleton framework.\u00a0 For example, they add these 2 further manuscripts to those listed in the Invitation Letter: MS 96<\/a> and MS 398<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Research Group Archives also retain a copy of the printout of Christine Fell’s presentation, entitled “Some questions of layout-and legal manuscripts”, composed or shaped \u2014 as some of its asides indicate \u2014 specifically for this meeting of the Seminar.<\/p>\n And thus, with the first 2 Seminars in the series accomplished in 1989, there followed a steady stream of Seminars on a richly varied range of topics, as well as manuscripts.<\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n The next Seminar considered<\/p>\n That meeting of the Series<\/a> previewed, or showcased, a publication in preparation by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence for instructing students in manuscript studies.<\/p>\n The manuscripts selected as case-studies, or specimens, for the Palaeographical and Textual Handbook<\/strong> included 3 of the manuscripts considered in the Seminar on “Legal Manuscripts”:<\/p>\n Some subsequent meetings in the Series focused specifically upon one or another of the manuscripts tabled at the “Legal Manuscripts” Seminar:<\/p>\n
\n\u201cAnglo-Saxon Manuscript Illustrations as Evidence for Daily Life\u201d<\/a>
\n(Parker Library, July 1989).<\/p>\nThe Invitation<\/h3>\n
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Speakers<\/h3>\n
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<\/a>[Note:<\/em> In time, 3 of these examined manuscripts came to figure in the Illustrated Catalogue<\/a> (2 volumes, 1997) emanating from the long-term, integrated research work on selected Anglo-Saxon and related manuscripts at The Parker Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. (The stages of the research work are recorded, for example, in the Annual Reports to the Leverhulme Trust, described in our Publications<\/a>.)\u00a0 The entries record, as reported in the catalogue itself, some results of the work of the Seminars.<\/p>\n\n
\nA Witness to “Archbishop Wulfstan<\/a>‘s Commonplace Book) ]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nParticipants<\/h3>\n
Report<\/h3>\n
\nmeeting of the Seminar on the Evidence of Manuscripts
\nheld in the Parker Library on Saturday 16th December 1989.<\/p>\n\n
\ncontained in the Textus Roffensis<\/em>:
\nhis Laws now numbered 84 and 74.<\/li>\n
\nCorpus Christi College, MSS 173, 383,\u00a0 96<\/a>, 190, 201, 265, and MS 398<\/a><\/li>\n
\nMilly Budny
\nAlex Rumble
\nPatrick Wormald
\nR.I. Page
\nRosamond McKitterick and
\nRichard Dammery.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nPrintout<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Cover](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Pal-Textual-Handbook-Cover-for-Seminar-with-border-232x300.png\")
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<\/a><\/p>\nFacsimiles, Diplomatic Texts and Editions\u201d<\/strong><\/a>
\nParker Library, March 1990<\/h3>\n\n