Advanced Old English: Scribes and Manuscripts
ENGLISH 103G
Subject & Catalog Number
Course Information
Description
Building on the basic grammar and translation skills learned in English 102, this course introduces students to Old English literature in its most immediate context: the manuscripts that preserve the earliest copies of each text. The weekly task of translation will be supplemented by consistent attention to the unique manuscript contexts of Old English literature. Special class sessions will include a visit to the Houghton Library to examine the way early manuscripts were created, and a class visit by a professional calligrapher for a hands-on demonstration of the ancient art of writing with a quill pen and ink. The texts will include selections from a historical chronicle, the OE Genesis with its illustrations, the Exeter Book Riddles, Beowulf, and others. The course will guide students through basic principles of manuscript study, such as how the manuscript folios are made, how scribes prepared them before the first word was inked, and how they were gathered into a finished book. Even though we live in an age when more and more texts are encountered in digital form (you’re looking at one right now!), the physical book endures as one of the lasting legacies of the Middle Ages. The course will culminate in a collaborative edition of an Old English text, in which each student will transcribe two folios from a medieval manuscript and turn it, step by step, into a classroom edition.
Course Notes
Students who complete both English 102 and 103 with honors grades will fulfill the College language requirement and the English Department’s Foreign Literature requirement.
Class Notes
This course satisfies the “Pre-1700 Guided Elective" requirement for English concentrators and Secondary Field students.
Recommended Prep
English 102g or equivalent.
Available for Harvard Cross Registration
NOTE: This course requires additional sections; you will be prompted to choose secondary components during the Add to Cart process
