March 2008 : As well as some minor housekeeping, a new section has been added in the History of Scripts section on the History of Scripts in the English Royal Chancery, for those who are beating their brains out over downloaded digital documents from the National Archives in London. Speaking of which, some of our old black and white images of those documents have been replaced by colour photographs from such downloads. There is now a paleography exercise for the 16th century cursive script of the York Corporation Minute book.

February 2008 : In response to a steady trickle of emails from people who have their own little private medieval manuscript projects, I have included a section on Tips for Transcribing, mainly aimed at those just getting started. There are new scripts, a 13th century informal English chancery script as used in a royal writ and a late 13th century cursiva anglicana chancery hand, as used in royal letters patent. In housekeeping mode, it occurred to me that the Index of Scripts was growing (and is intended to further grow) into a long and rather amorphous list, so I have added more detailed descriptions of the material in separate lists for each section, linked from the main list. If that doesn't make sense, just take a look and see. If it doesn't help you, it might just help me to see exactly where I'm up to!

January 2008 : We have started with the usual problem of some link repairs, mainly in the Elephant Book. A new script has been added, a mid 16th century business hand from the York Corporation minute book.

September 2007 : A new example of 13th century cursiva anglicana chancery script has been added, showing that the aristocracy of Europe was an international elite. The usual minor corrections and updates to links continue.

August 2007 : Numerous other distractions. Progress will resume.

July 2007 : Some new material has been added to the section on Personal Devotion and Books of Hours. A small correction has been made to the paleography exercise on a 12th century bestiary, once again at the instigation of an attentive reader. New links continue to be added.

June 2007 : An introductory section has been added on Works on Astronomy and Astrology. A section has been added on the Breviary, and a little bit of tinkering has gone on in the section on The Psalter and on Music. I think I have finished manually updating the Links section. To all you people out there who keep changing your URLs, stop it or you'll go blind! No guarantees on how long it will stay correct however. Links embedded in the main text tend to get corrected when I run across them, so please be willing to let me know of any dead ones. There is a new book announcement in the Compendia of Knowledge section.

May 2007 : A new script of Italian Legal Cursive as well as a 16th century Italian Notarial Cursive has been added to the script examples. The section on The Roll has been updated, as it became apparent from a learned reader's comments that what I had written was ambiguous. Also at the instigation of a reader (You are becoming a very diligent lot!) a small correction has been made to the transcription of the 12th century insular minuscule Gospels of Maelbrigte paleography exercise. The section on Where to Find Manuscripts has been updated to keep up with rampaging developments in the digital world. I have also reorganised the Script Index page for consistency, and to make it easier to find things as I intend to add a lot of new material to this section.

April 2007 : There is now a very general introduction to Medieval French. Having been reported by a diligent user, a large transcription error in the Old Italian book hand paleography exercise has been corrected. Hands up who else noticed it!

March 2007 : Some of our script examples and paleography exercises were made using old photocopies of documents from the Public Record Office in London, faux de mieux. Well, now we have mieux, as photographs of many documents are now obtainable online from the National Archives. The script example and paleography exercise on the petition of the abbess of Barking and her barrels of wine has now been jazzed up with more lifelike images. A brief section on Handling Manuscripts has been added for the practical minded.

February 2007 : The History of Individual Letters now goes to z, completing the traditional Latin alphabet, but yes, there is a bit more to come. I have put in a script example of a German imperial diplomatic hand of the 12th century, as it is such a delightfully ridiculous script. I have also added some extra material to the paleography exercise on Small Gothic script in a 13th century Bible, showing how to read faded and nearly invisible writing with equipment bought from a toy shop.

January 2007 : After having had hordes of family visit over Christmas and the New Year, I have now got The History of Individual Letters up to x.

December 2006 :History of Individual Letters is now up to t. Some additional material has been added to the Initials and Borders section.

October/November 2006 : New script example and paleography exercise on square capitals as used in a 4th century copy of Virgil's Georgica. History of individual letters now up to r. Into the home straight now! Dianne's Medieval Writing Blog has been created as another avenue of communication between you and me.

September 2006 : History of Individual letters is now up to q. We are into the home straight now, but there are a few tricky letters left to go. There is a new section on The Missal.

August 2006 : History of Individual letters is now up to n. There is also a little update to the Domesday Book section now that you can access the entire work online from the Documents Online: Domesday Book section of the website of the National Archives in London.

July 2006 : New script sample and paleography exercise on a 16th century humanistic minuscule sample from a book of hours, showing the influence of typefaces on handwriting. History of individual letters has reached j. Some little images of scribes using wax tablets have been added here and there, and there is a note that you may one day be able to consult Domesday Book online.

June 2006 : Script sample and paleography exercise on an absolutely hideous old Italian book hand from the 7th century, for those who need convincing about why Carolingian handwriting reforms were necessary to turn handwriting into an actual communications system. Histories of individual letters have got as far as e. Advancing slowly but steadily here.