Klíč k novověké paleografii

A Key to Modern Paleography is a practical tool for reading early modern and modern paleographic texts (from the early 16th century through the early 20th century). It focuses on two types of script – Czech and German neo-gothic script, particularly their cursive forms, which developed side by side, mutually influencing each other through the passing of the General School Code in 1774.
Because the significant individualization of scripts, due to the development of education and literacy and the related broad range of documents, represents one of the main problems for an ability to read texts from the period under scrutiny, the book strives to demonstrate some of the most frequently used forms of the letters of the Czech and German neo-gothic cursives and to illustrate the variability of graphemes due to the writer’s individual expression. In addition to these graphemes, the book also includes twenty Czech and twenty German textual examples, including paleographic transcription and explanatory comments, as well as an overview of the most frequently used abbreviations.