I'm searching for an accessible (in other words, assumes no prior knowledge and set out in a way one can use without a teacher) primer for reading 17th Century English.
In particular, I'm researching a book using many original documents from James I of England and Charles I 's reign - 1600 - 1640's - and the documents which are not written in Latin (which most are not since James on the whole preferred to write in English) but am finding the Court Papers and Trial Assizes very difficult to read as they are written in old English.
It's frustrating because the documents DO exist (which is so fantastic) and are easily accessible - you can just order them up from the National Archive and then have them in your hands which I still can't quite get over, it's such a wonderful feeling to 'touch' real history!) but I am having to photocopy those which they allow me to as I honestly find them nigh on impossible to read.
So, a simple book which approaches basic Olde English from 1600's please?
Thanks so much. :-) I am indebted to anyone who can help me (I'll even credit reddit historians in the book, promise!)
Are you having difficulty with the handwriting, the words themselves, or both? If you're looking through manuscripts dating to the reign of James VI/I you're likely running into the script we refer to as 'secretary hand' which I admit can be a challenge to decipher. There are books about early modern paleography out there that might be of some use (e.g., Grant G. Simpson, Scottish Handwriting, 1150-1650, Edinburgh, 2009.). British archive websites also have a quick and dirty primer to help the budding researcher get started. (I'm thinking of the NAS's 'Scottish Handwriting' site and the NAS's paleography primer which take you through the basics of reading 16th- and 17th-century secretary hand. But, if you can read the letters but just have a difficult time deciphering the words, that becomes a little more difficult.
The thing to keep in mind is that prior to the 19th century, spelling was not at all standardized and so you have to read these documents phonetically sometimes to figure out what is being said. Though tedious, this is actually really awesome because it gives the historian (and linguist) a glimpse into period accents based on how people heard words in their heads and tried to spell them out.
Hope this is helpful, and if you have further questions, I'll try to answer or clarify as needed :)