Latin Bookhands of the Later Middle Ages, 1100-1500 by Thomson, S. Harrison - 1969

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969. 1st. Hardcover. First Edition. Folio. (vii), 132 black & white reproductions of calligraphed texts from France, Germany, Britain, and Iberia with descriptions on facing pages. Printed by W. S. Cowell Ltd. at the Butter Market, Ipswich. Green cloth with gilt lettering, upper page edges stained blue in publisher's dustjacket printed in red and blue. Slight bump to upper rear corner else fine in very good dustjacket ( short closed tears; age-toning and minor marks to covers). This guide to Latin literary codices copied in Europe and England between A.D. 1100 and 1500 places abundant resources at the disposal of those who work with manuscripts and wish to estimage their dates and places of origin. In this book Professor Thomson provides 132 characteristic specimens of the period 1100-1500, reproduced by lithography in the original size. 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 manuscripts and ascribing them to their country of origin.