(Document) Dating Woes
Dec. 12th, 2018 08:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ermingardenThe dating for one of the documents in the final group project for my paleography course is just killing me - it doesn't have an explicit dating clause, so I've been looking at script characteristics and comparing the documentary formulae to documents on the UToronto DEEDS database (which is a phenomenal resource, by the way).
The problem? The phrasing of the document suggests a date in the late 12th century, but the paleographical analysis indicates mid-13th century. In particular, the document features a crossed Tironian et (a character that fulfills the function of an ampersand and usually looks a bit like a 7), which in an English documentary hand should indicate mid-13th century or later...the paleographical analysis is likely more reliable here than the phrase comparison, as this is a Lincolnshire document and the DEEDS comparisons skewed toward Yorkshire, so there is a definite possibility for regional variation. I'm waiting on a classmate to email me back about whether we have death dates for any of the individuals mentioned in the document, which will hopefully resolve our dilemma. However, this does throw doubt on dates obtained through DEEDS for other (Lincolnshire) documents in this project.
Either that, or we have the first documented case of a time-traveling scribe.
I normally wouldn't be this bothered by this sort of thing, but this project is the last of my academic responsibilities for the quarter - I had my last exam this morning - and I just want to be done already. But you can consider this little discussion of medieval dates a taster for what's coming up once this is finished, which is a lot of meta about Tolkienian calendars and a few thoughts on document dating practices in First Age Beleriand.
Update: the controversy has been resolved! The document seems likely to date from the second quarter of the 13th century, which fits decently well with the paleographical analysis when regional variation is accounted for; one of the phrases in the boilerplate is just odd, but the rest agrees well enough with this date.
The problem? The phrasing of the document suggests a date in the late 12th century, but the paleographical analysis indicates mid-13th century. In particular, the document features a crossed Tironian et (a character that fulfills the function of an ampersand and usually looks a bit like a 7), which in an English documentary hand should indicate mid-13th century or later...the paleographical analysis is likely more reliable here than the phrase comparison, as this is a Lincolnshire document and the DEEDS comparisons skewed toward Yorkshire, so there is a definite possibility for regional variation. I'm waiting on a classmate to email me back about whether we have death dates for any of the individuals mentioned in the document, which will hopefully resolve our dilemma. However, this does throw doubt on dates obtained through DEEDS for other (Lincolnshire) documents in this project.
Either that, or we have the first documented case of a time-traveling scribe.
I normally wouldn't be this bothered by this sort of thing, but this project is the last of my academic responsibilities for the quarter - I had my last exam this morning - and I just want to be done already. But you can consider this little discussion of medieval dates a taster for what's coming up once this is finished, which is a lot of meta about Tolkienian calendars and a few thoughts on document dating practices in First Age Beleriand.
Update: the controversy has been resolved! The document seems likely to date from the second quarter of the 13th century, which fits decently well with the paleographical analysis when regional variation is accounted for; one of the phrases in the boilerplate is just odd, but the rest agrees well enough with this date.
