Book of Hours, the Netherlands, second half of 15th century Medieval Studies Program Description

Cornell’s Medieval Studies Program is designed to provide students with expertise and professional success in the fields of particular departments, the members of whom will likely form the majority of the students’ Special Committees.  But Medieval Studies also presents graduate students with combinations of scholars in clusters of study that might not be as visible in traditionally defined departmental graduate training.  At the right are listed just some of the possible clusters of graduate study available in Medieval Studies, with the names of members of the Medieval Studies Graduate Field who regularly teach and mentor students in those clusters, and some information about courses or other resources.  For further information about individual faculty listed here, see http://www.arts.cornell.edu/medieval/People/faculty.htm.

This section also contains information for undergraduates and from Cornell University's Procedural Guide for the graduate field of Medieval Studies, in addition to a comprehensive list of the Medieval Studies course offerings since 1993. More information on student life is available under the "People" heading.

Archaeology; Art History; Asian Studies; Celtic Studies; English Literature & Language; Gender & Sexuality Studies; German Studies & Germanic Philology; History; Iberian Peninsula Studies; Latin Language & Literature; Linguistics; Literary & Critical Theory; Musicology; Near Eastern Studies; Old Norse Studies; Paleography & Textual Studies; Philosophy; Romance Literary & Linguistic Studies; Russian Language & Literature

 Cornell University Facilities

Undergraduate Concentration in MS

 Procedural Guide for the Graduate Field of MS

 Course Descriptions



Paleography and Textual Studies

Latin Paleography:

Field Member:  Carin Ruff

A regular course in Latin Paleography is offered, devoted in approximately equal measure to the dating, localization, and reading of scripts, and to codicological methods in the study of medieval manuscripts.  The primary emphasis is on Latin bookhands from late antiquity to the invention of printing, but students with interests in earlier or later periods or vernacular texts have a chance to work on projects in their areas of specialization.  Some attention is given to current manuscript-based research in ancient and medieval literacy and the informational structure of the manuscript page (word division, punctuation, layout, apparatus, glossing, etc.).

English Paleography and Codicology:

Field Members:  Andrew Galloway, Carin Ruff

Courses and mentoring in Anglo-Saxon, late-medieval, and early Modern English codicology, paleography, textual editing, and history of the book are offered through the English Department.