How to get into British University libraries, 1920s

[jat_sapphire]

I'm writing fiction about a schoolmaster with an external degree earned after service in WWI. I gather his degree would most likely have been granted by the University of London, though he sat his exams elsewhere. He needs to do primary research for a book he is writing, and the papers he needs to see (I looked up their real location) are at the

Comments

[sollersuk]

Sorry, I hadn't fully read the question; I see now that he already has a first degree.

He would be unlikely, even at that date, to go straight from a first degree to writing a book using original research from manuscripts without being associated with a university; most books of that type were published by the university presses who would expect more in the way of academic credentials than an external London BA. The book could quite well be the nucleus of work for a higher degree, which he would probably want anyway. In that case much the same considerations would apply: a letter from his supervisor.

Have you considered how he would obtain the necessary palaeographic and language skills to work from original manuscripts? And what type of manuscripts? He would be able to handle handwritten originals of books published in the 17th and 18th centuries, but the scripts used in the 16th century are very difficult. If you're thinking of things that exist only as manuscripts, i.e. pre printing, he should be able to manage Chaucer's time, but for anything earlier than that he would need a good knowledge of Medieval Latin/Middle English/Old English/Norman French. A friend of mine did an MA and subsequently a PhD using manuscripts, but that was from a starting point of first degrees in German and Latin, and even so found the language side difficult.

[jat_sapphire]

*depressed* That's a good point about the script. Huh, I'll think about that. Thanks for bringing it up!

[sollersuk]

A couple of years ago I shelled out slightly more than I could afford for a book on scripts. 16th century chancery hand is a major pain. Medieval Gothic is a different kind of pain; my friend described "inimicus" as "fence with 9 uprights, cus". And in the 19th century, "Nimue" was read as "Vivi...". I do so wish from the bottom of my heart that everybody had stuck with Caroline Minuscule, which is wonderfully legible. God bless Alcuin, on whose handwriting it was based.

[curtana]

I wouldn't worry about the paleography too terribly much. I had two classes (not two full-term courses, but two one-hour lectures) on medieval/early modern English paleography during my history degree, did some more work on my own reading late medieval wills for my MA thesis, and then worked afterwards as a paleographer (14th-17th century) for two years. So if one has a bit of aptitude for the skill, the basics can be picked up quickly, and then honed in the field, so to speak ;) Learning the languages involved would, in my experience at least, be a much more challenging process than learning the handwriting.

[sollersuk]

The languages are a real headache. When it comes to Medieval Latin, any Latin learned at school is not much help as Medieval developed out of Vulgar, not Classical, and the most useful thing to know is what the writer's home language was. I'll never forget the time my friend encountered "super corneram". And she found knowing German really useful for reading Old English. Friends who were studying English spent a large proportion of their first year learning Old English, including sessions in the language laboratory.