News Release — February 6, 2007

Harry Ransom Center Hosts Mellon Institute in Spanish Paleography

The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin hosts the Mellon Institute in Spanish Paleography, an opportunity for scholars to acquire intensive practical training in reading late medieval and early modern manuscripts of Spain and Latin America.

From June 11 to 29, 15 participants will learn to read and transcribe Spanish documentary and book scripts that scholars use as primary sources for historical and literary research.

Dr. Carla Rahn Phillips, the Union Pacific Professor in Comparative Early Modern History at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, will lead the institute. Phillips has published widely in the history of early modern Spain and its overseas empire and conducts research in public and private archives in Europe and the United States.

Phillips taught the Mellon Summer Institute in Spanish Paleography at the Huntington Library in San Marino, Calif., in 2005.

Manuscript materials from the Harry Ransom Center collections and the university's Benson Latin American Collection will be used to supplement and enrich course content. Attention will also be given to research tools for using the archives of other manuscript repositories.

The institute is part of a four-year initiative for vernacular paleography supported by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and headquartered at the Newberry Library Center for Renaissance Studies.

First consideration for participation will be given to advanced graduate students and junior faculty at U.S. colleges and universities. Applications will also be accepted from professional staff of U.S. libraries and museums and from qualified independent scholars. Proof of advanced Spanish language skills is required. Participants will receive a stipend of $1,890.

Completed applications must be postmarked by March 1. Guidelines and an application form can be found online.