Latin bookhands of the later Middle Ages, 1100-1500, by Samuel Harrison Thomson. Folio, xiv, [171] p., facsims, 36 cm., Cambridge : At the University Press 1969
Title-page printed in red and black,132 black-and-white reproductions of Medieval Manuscripts in Latin. Specially bound in quarter blue morocco, red leather spine label titled in gilt, spine decorated in gil, light blue cloth sides. Grey cloth slipcase. A fine copy.
Latin paleography of the classical period and beyond the Carolingian era has been well studied and described. But from about 1100 onwards we find a period of increasing national divergence in the character of book-hands used for writing, formal MSS. In this book Professor Thomson provides 132 characteristic specimens of the period 1100 1500, reproduced by lithography (in all cases in the original size). He excludes curial or chancery hands. Opposite each plate is a transcription of several lines. Above this, Professor Thomson provides comments on the distinguishing characteristics of the script. Cumulatively, the effect of these analyses is to provide a method of dating late medieval MSS and ascribing them to their country of origin."
