This course provides training in the skills needed to read the handwritten materials that constitute evidence for historical investigation of the production and circulation of information outside the medium of print. While the specific scripts to be studied will vary from semester to semester, depending upon whether the course is focused upon Latin paleography, Greek paleography, or vernacular paleographies, students will learn to read and transcribe manuscripts, to expand abbreviations appropriately, to recognize the chronological and geographical extent of particular scripts, to develop strategies for reading difficult scripts, to find the specialized reference works to assist them in studying handwritten materials, and to understand the historical arguments that have been constructed on the basis of analysis of scripts and the "archaeology of the book." The course also provides training in basic codicology and editorial techniques for establishing a text and recording variant readings. Prereq: Some familiarity with the language of the materials.