French Renaissance Paleography extends into the digital realm the Newberry Library’s nearly four decades of experience offering intensive classroom-based instruction in late medieval and Renaissance vernacular paleography. Drawing on the library’s expertise with that face-to-face educational format, this digital resource aims to bring the study of early French manuscript culture to an even larger audience than can be accommodated in a classroom. This site provides a set of self-help tools to assist students, researchers, librarians, calligraphers, and designers with reading French manuscripts dating from 1300 to 1700 and understanding their contexts. It aims to foster collaborations across disciplines and generate new knowledge through the intersection of individual and group work.
The French Renaissance Paleography project is a collaborative project supported by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Thank you to many additional Newberry Library staff, including David Spadafora (President); Jennifer Thom and John Powell (Digitial Initiatives); Danny Greene and Brad Hunt (Research & Academic Programs); Hjordis Halvorson (Library Services); Jim Akerman (Maps & Modern Manuscripts); Alan Leopold, Linda Ballinger, and Jessica Grzegorski (Collection Services); Lia Markey (Director, Center for Renaissance Studies); and Andrew Belongea (Center for Renaissance Studies).
Thank you also to Ken Yang, Rachelann Pisani, Emily Dix, Stephanie Pegg, Christopher Benitez, Owen Chi-Fei Ma, David Sprague, Ellie Tamura, and Althea Tsang (Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries); and Debra Cashion and Meg Smith (Center for Digital Humanities, Saint Louis University).
We also want to thank our advisory board members: Bernard Barbiche, Bill Bowen, Konrad Eisenbichler, Rich Freedman, John Gagné, Jim Ginther, Elizabeth Goldsmith, Drin Gyuk, Alan Leopold, Sian Meikle, Carla Rahn Phillips, Guy Poirier, Brian Sandberg, Ray Siemens, Marc Smith, Jennifer Thom.
