Full Description
The Notory Art of Shorthand (Ars notoria notarie), an important
yet understudied late medieval work, is newly edited here and presented
for the first time in English translation along with an introduction and
commentary. This unique treatise on shorthand writing is a hybrid of
literary genres that sheds much light on late medieval scribal culture.
Following in a medieval tradition of works such as the Secret of
Secrets, the innovative Ars notoria notarie points forward to
early modern hermetic writers such as Agrippa von Nettesheim and John
Dee, the latter having owned one of the three manuscripts of the work.
The Ars notoria notarie relates to disciplines ranging from
paleography to magic. It has multiple identities: a unique branch of one
of the most popular magic treatises of the Middle Ages, the Ars
notoria; a rare report on medieval paleography and the notarial
trade; an exposé of a unique medieval cipher based on the famous
Tironian notes; an eclectic university text bringing together
authorities from Pliny and Aristotle to Donatus and Bede; a remarkable
source for the liturgy of Thomas Becket; and, finally, a distinctive
contribution to the epistolary genre known as the mirror for princes.
