Reading Old Handwriting & Paleography
Secretary hand, court hand, archaic spelling, and contractions make older documents hard to read. Here you'll find practical guidance on deciphering historical hands.
7 articles
Leo Team · August 6, 2026
A Paleography Guide for Historians: How to Approach a Hand You Have Never Seen Before
How historians can approach an unfamiliar hand by establishing context, diagnosing the script family, building a letterform key, and fixing transcription conventions before reading, including where machine help fits.
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Leo Team · August 6, 2026
Transcribing Old Documents: Conventions, Uncertainty, and What to Leave Exactly as Written
Transcription conventions for old documents: what to preserve as written, how to expand abbreviations and mark uncertainty, and where machine drafts fit in an auditable workflow.
Leo Team · August 4, 2026
Old Handwriting Translator: Why Transcription and Translation Are Two Separate Jobs
Why searches for an “old handwriting translator” collapse transcription and translation into one step, why the jobs must stay separate, and the verified workflow that keeps a citable source-language text.
Leo Team · July 22, 2026
How to Read Old Handwriting: A Practical Guide to Deciphering Historical Documents
A practical, step-by-step method for deciphering historical handwriting (identifying the hand, learning deceptive letterforms, expanding abbreviations, transcription conventions, and where HTR tools fit) aimed at genealogists, historians, and archivists.
Leo Team · July 15, 2026
Manuscript Abbreviations and Ligatures: A Reader's Guide to Scribal Shorthand
A guide to reading manuscript abbreviations and ligatures, explaining the main scribal shorthand types, common marks across languages, and when to preserve or expand them.
Leo Team · July 14, 2026
How to Read Secretary Hand: A Beginner's Guide
Beginner’s guide to reading secretary hand in early modern English manuscripts, focusing on distinctive letterforms, abbreviations, contextual reading, and how machine transcription fits.
Leo Team · July 14, 2026
Reading Early Modern Paleography: A Working Guide to the Hands, Letterforms, and Transcription
Early modern paleography guide to identifying major manuscript hands, decoding misleading letterforms and dating conventions, and using machine transcription without losing source integrity.
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