Lewes History Group

Friends of The Keep Archives (FoTKA) Zoom talk

Dr David Wright: From Manuscript to Print – the progress of writing and texts from classical inscriptions to illuminated manuscripts and the age of printing

It is easy to forget the often perilous transmission of ancient literature, from its initial writing down by way of fallible manuscript copying and the deliberate corruption of texts, to the revolution of moveable printing in the 1450s. But even then, how secure was an author’s text?

The talk covers the long journey from first-century inscriptions via the glories of illuminated manuscripts to the fourteenth century Humanist scholars and the age of printing.

From about 1750 the science of textual criticism occupied some of the most acute human minds in the restoration of corrupt texts. Centuries of laborious writing with quills came to an end only with the invention of the steel pen in 1828.

Dr David Wright is a classical scholar and a Fellow of both the Society of Antiquaries and the Society of Genealogists. He taught classics and palaeography at University College London after having completed his doctoral thesis on the text of Book 37 of Pliny’s Natural History.

Dr Wright is currently Principal of the Institute for Heraldic and Genealogical Studies at Canterbury.

Dr David Wright

This talk is free, and all are welcome.

Please register in advance for this talk as soon as possible, via:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZctce2qqDwpEtyP2Y67UYfvBTISIadyVGXp

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the talk. Please join the talk 5 to 10 minutes before 17:30.

You can use a tablet, phone or computer: all will work. However, you will have better experience of the talk if you use a computer.

For more information, please contact info@fotka.org.uk

Friends of the Keep Archives

We are delighted to announce the publication of two new books in our ‘Lewes Street Stories’ series. Over the last few years Lewes History Group members have researched several Lewes streets, bringing to light many interesting insights into the past life in the town.

The two new books are ‘Mill Road, South Malling’, by Chris Taylor, and ‘Lewes Street Stories: Chapel Hill’ written by Mary Benjamin, Meg Griffiths and Shân Rose.

Building on earlier accounts available on the Lewes History Group website, both books provide fascinating and surprising insights, and are liberally illustrated with photographs.

Both books will be published on 10 September 2022, and will be on sale (price £7.50) at our Heritage Open Days exhibition at Lewes House on 10 and 11 September. You will also be able to buy copies at the Tourist Information Centre from 10 September, at our monthly talk at King’s Church on 12 September, and by mail order.

Baptism, confirmation, marriage, death and burial records spanning 457 years of Sussex history are now available to search online at Ancestry.

The entire Sussex Parish Registers collection has been digitised for the first time and brought online through an exclusive collaboration between the East Sussex and Brighton and Hove Record Office, the West Sussex Record Office and Ancestry.

Access to Ancestry is free at The Keep and all libraries across East and West Sussex.

The records are searchable by parish on the Ancestry website.

Parish records image at The Keep website