Welcome to this quick and dirty overview of resources and ideas for teaching Anne Bradstreet with digitized material. The material here was discussed at the “Textual Editing and the Future of Scholarly Editions” conference May 25-26, 2021. Specifically, these are … Continue reading
Tag Archives: American Antiquarian Society
For several years, I have been creating paleography assignment for my book history courses. Well, when I say “creating” I really mean linking this excellent website with self guided tutorials from the National Archives. In addition to providing an informative … Continue reading
(This post is a slightly edited version of the talk I gave at the Society of Early Americanists “London and the Americas, 1492-1812” conference at Kingston University, July 17-21, 2014. The presentation was part of a round table entitled “Puritan Studies … Continue reading
When I sent the my book off for publication, there was some uncertainty about who exactly this notetaker was. The catalog record at the American Antiquarian Society reads “[Pinch/Pyncheon?, John]. sermon notes; possibly those of John Pinch (1625-??).” Only after … Continue reading
This is not the cover but the outermost remaining page of John Pynchon’s sermon notebook. If it looks familiar, that might be because this is the image that ended up on my book cover. (The cover gets many compliments, by … Continue reading
Reading 17th-century handwriting can be difficult. Daniel Russell’s handwriting here is quite consistent, even if the shapes of the letters are unfamiliar to the modern reader. In fact, Russell’s notebook contains careful copies of his own sermons, so the handwriting … Continue reading
Although Daniel Russell records copies of his own sermons in this notebook, the style is common for auditor notes. The oblong format (not unlike the modern reporter’s notebook or steno pad) allows the recorder to go all the way to … Continue reading
The inside cover of Daniel Russell’s book shows the sturdy simplicity with which it was constructed. Visible are the two ties that to which the gathered leaves of the text block were sewn and also attached to the boards that … Continue reading
Daniel Russell’s notebook is covered in a more typical binding, probably calf. The book is small and functional with only a bit of blind tooling. The label attached to the spine was placed on much later. Courtesy of the American … Continue reading
Richard Russell’s book contained rules on each page to delineate space at the head, foot, and outer margin. The side margin was a particularly important space for sermon notes, as this is where the auditor could put in notations of … Continue reading