 "Photo: Dawn Garcia")
Instead of reading print versions of late medieval and early modern Spanish scripts, students at the 2007 Mellon Summer Institute in Spanish Paleography will focus on transcribing handwritten texts. The program, which provides scholars with an opportunity to read and transcribe historical Spanish texts, began Monday at the Harry Ransom Center.
The institute serves as a primary source for history. Students will look at several legal documents, including wills and tax records, as well as official reports, between Spain and colonial Mexico.
Many applied to take part in the Mellon Institute, but only 15 students were accepted, including three UT history graduate students: Christopher Albi, Paul Conrad and Jesse Cromwell.
Albi, a Ph.D. candidate in history, said he chose to participate in the program to help him in his career as a teacher and scholar.
"The skills in paleography will enable me to read a wider range of documents from the 16th and 17th centuries," Albi said.
The institute is open to graduate students and junior faculty at all U.S. colleges and universities.
"These are students of history, literature, art and music, not necessarily paleographers," said Carla Rahn Phillips, director of the institute and a history professor at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
Participants also learn how to decipher abbreviations in historical texts and determine the type of each document.
Phillips said holding the Mellon Institute at UT is advantageous. The Harry Ransom Center and the Benson Latin American Collection both have extensive Spanish and Mexican document collections.
"The facilities are gorgeous and have many scripts from 16th to 18th century Spain," Phillips said.
Ultimately, transcribing Spanish language documents is much easier than transcribing documents in English.
"Spanish became a vernacular language much sooner than English did, so it's not as hard as reading Shakespeare is for some of us," she said.
The students will receive a $1,890 stipend to help cover their housing costs while at UT. The institute will continue through June 29.
Be the first to comment on this article!