You are going to follow an interactive presentation. This means that you will be learning new things step by step, along a given path which we have cleared for you through the briars and brambles of the manuscript.

In fact, we will be showing you quite a few different pages from various parts of the book. You can think of each page as a single glade where you are invited to stop and look around - but as we can’t let you wander back and get lost, please take your time to explore and admire whenever a page captures your interest. The undergrowth is dense, please have trust in your guide!

You can see the window is divided into two parts. Your guide is on the right-hand side - new information and tasks will appear there to help you advance. On the left, there will always be the image of a manuscript page. At certain points, you will be asked to click on parts of the page in order to progress in your journey. At other times, you will just read the guidance text here click the prompts which appear under it.

There will be a lot of new terms for you to pick up on your way. These will be marked in italics. If the burden becomes too heavy, there is a fact sheet for you to consult at any time. It’s ready to use under a separate tab in the upper right corner. There are some italicized terms for you in the next paragraph!

You should learn a lot about the reading and writing of manuscripts during your journey (we hope!), but please be aware that the footpath bypasses one particularly perilous area of the forest: paleography, i.e., the science of reading handwritten scripts. If you want to be able to read medieval English hands, there are some nice online introductions.