BachelorDragon.png

The petition ‘Save the Bachelor Celtic’ has closed with as many as 7227 signatures!

Read this word of thanks from Nike Stam.

Publications in print

Irish palaeography

OʼNeill, Timothy, The Irish hand: scribes and their manuscripts from the earliest times to the seventeenth century with an exemplar of Irish scripts, Mountrath: Dolmen Press, 1984.
Byrne, Francis J., A thousand years of Irish script: an exhibition of Irish manuscripts in Oxford libraries, Oxford, 1979.
Ní Úrdail, Meidhbhín, The scribe in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Ireland: motivations and milieu, Studien und Texte zur Keltologie, 3, Münster: Nodus Publikationen, 2000.  

Preliminaries; 1. Introduction; 2. The Ó Longáin scribal family; 3. Material contained in the Ó Longáin manuscripts; 4. Script and print: interactions and reciprocal influences; 5. Conclusion; Appendix: manuscript reproductions; Bibliography and indexes. 

OʼSullivan, William, “Insular calligraphy: current state and problems”, Peritia 4 (1985): 346–359.  
comments: Reviews The Irish hand (1984) by Timothy O'Neill

Early works:

OʼCurry, Eugene, Lectures on the manuscript materials of ancient Irish history, delivered at the Catholic University of Ireland during the sessions of 1855 and 1856, Dublin, 1861.
Internet Archive: <link>, <link> Internet Archive – Originally from Google Books: <link>, <link>, <link> Internet Archive – multiple copies: <link>
OʼDonovan, John, A grammar of the Irish language: published for the use of the senior classes of the College of St. Columba, Dublin: Hodges and Smith, 1845.
Internet Archive: <link> Internet Archive: <link> Internet Archive: <link> Internet Archive – originally from Google Books: <link> Internet Archive – originally from Google Books: <link> Digitale-sammlungen.de: <link> Digitale-sammlungen.de: View in Mirador
429–435 direct link
Ó Mhachaire, Seoirse [Ó Mh., S.], Casán na Gaoidhilge: an introduction to the Irish language, Belfast, 1841.
Google Books: <link>
229–233

Although general surveys are few and far between, much can be learned from studies on particular manuscripts, for instance:

Breatnach, Caoimhín, “Manuscript abbreviations and other scribal features in the Liber Flavus Fergusiorum”, Ériu 61 (2011): 95–163.  
The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive analysis of manuscript abbreviations and other scribal features in a section comprising twenty-four folios of the important fifteenth-century manuscript now known as the Liber Flavus Fergusiorum (RIA MS 476 (23 O 48)). Some issues with regard to the expansion of manuscript abbreviations will also be discussed, and it will be seen that several abbreviations serve many more functions than their original ones.
Ó Concheanainn, Tomás, “The Book of Ballymote”, Celtica 14 (1981): 15–25.
OʼSullivan, William, “The Book of Uí Maine formerly the Book of Ó Dubhagáin: scripts and structure”, Éigse 23 (1989): 151–166.
OʼSullivan, William, “Notes on the scripts and make-up of the Book of Leinster”, Celtica 7 (1966): 1–31.
Oskamp, Hans P. A., “The first twelve folia of Rawlinson B 502”, Ériu 23 (1972): 56–72.
Oskamp, Hans P. A., “The Yellow Book of Lecan proper”, Ériu 26 (1975): 102–121.

Insular script and Latin palaeography

OʼSullivan, William, “Manuscripts and palaeography”, in: Dáibhí Ó Cróinín (ed.), A new history of Ireland, vol. 1: Prehistoric and early Ireland, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. 511–548.
Background, especially on the earliest stages.
Brown, T. Julian, “The Irish element in the Insular system of scripts to circa A.D. 850”, in: Heinz Löwe (ed.), Die Iren und Europa im früheren Mittelalter, 2 vols, vol. 1, Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1982. 101–119.
Bischoff, Bernhard, Latin palaeography: antiquity and the Middle Ages, tr. Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, and David Ganz, original title: Paläographie des römischen Altertums und des abendländischen Mittelalters, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Lindsay, W. M., Early Irish minuscule script, Saint Andrews University Publications, 6, Oxford, 1910.  
Reprinted in 1971 (Hildesheim).
Internet Archive: <link>
Lindsay, W. M., Notae Latinae: an account of abbreviation in Latin mss. of the early minuscule period, c. 700-850, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1915.  
comments: For the supplement, see Bains 1936a
Internet Archive: <link> Internet Archive: <link> Internet Archive: <link> Internet Archive: <link> Internet Archive: <link>
Bains, Doris [author], A supplement to ‘Notae Latinae’: abbreviations in Latin mss. of 850 to 1050 A.D., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1936.  

Supplement to Lindsay, Notae Latinae (1915).

Internet Archive – available on loan only: <link>
Draak, Maartje, Construe marks in Hiberno-Latin manuscripts, Mededelingen der Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, Afd. Letterkunde, Nieuwe Reeks, 20.10, Amsterdam: Noord-Hollandse Uitgevers Maatschappij, 1957.
On the use of construe marks, as the title suggests.
Dumville, David N., Abbreviations used in insular script before A.D. 850: tabulation based on the work of W. M. Lindsay, Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic Manuscript Studies, 2, Cambridge: Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, University of Cambridge, 2004.
Dumville, David N., A palaeographer's review: the insular system of scripts in the early Middle Ages, 2 vols, vol. 1, Kansai University Institute of Oriental and Occidental Studies, Sources and Materials Series, 20.1, Suita, Osaka: Kansai University Press, 1999.
Dumville, David N., A palaeographer's review: the insular system of scripts in the early Middle Ages, 2 vols, vol. 2, Kansai University Institute of Oriental and Occidental Studies, Sources and Materials Series, 20.2, Suita, Osaka: Kansai University Press, 2007.
Cappelli, Adriano, Lexicon abbreviaturarum = Dizionario di abbreviature latine ed italiane, 6th ed., Manuali Hoepli, Milan: Hoepli, 1961.
Cappelli, Adriano, Lexicon abbreviaturarum = Dizionario di abbreviature latine ed italiane, 2nd ed., Manuali Hoepli, Milan: Hoepli, 1912.
Moscow State University, Faculty of History – A. L. Ponomarev: <link>

Miscellaneous

On punctuation, word separation and related matters
Saenger, Paul, Space between words: the origins of silent reading, Figurae, Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1997.
Parkes, Malcolm B., Pause and effect: an introduction to the history of punctuation in the West, Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1992.
Parkes, Malcolm B., “The contribution of Insular scribes of the seventh and eighth centuries to the ‘grammar of legibility’”, in: Malcolm B. Parkes, Scribes, scripts and readers: studies in the communication, presentation and dissemination of medieval texts, London: Hambledon Press, 1991. 1–18.

Websites

In development: Links (codicology and palaeography)
Palaeography
Manuscripts
Fonts and software