ARMA Calligraphy programme

Welcome to the Art of Reading in the Middle Ages (ARMA) curriculum linked teaching and learning resources for schools. These harness medieval digital collections from the Hunt Museum and Limerick Museum and manuscripts available through Europeana Foundation

The ARMA programme aims to explore how reading culture evolved in the Middle Ages and became a fundamental aspect of European culture. The main objectives of this programme is to digitise up to 20,000 medieval manuscripts (c. 500 and c. 1500) and make them accessible online for anyone to use copyright free.  Critically the programme will also unlock the educational potential of these digital collections by producing an online exhibition, blogs and other editorials and teaching and learning resources.

ARMA curriculum linked teaching and learning resources for primary and post primary will be gradually added to this section of the Hunt Museum’s website.

Primary School ARMA Educational Resources

Resource 1: Calligraphy in the Middle Ages

Suitability: 4th to 6th classes

Teaching Materials

Today it is easy and quick to record and disseminate information, but in the Middle Ages this process was slow and laborious. All books known as manuscripts were copied by hand using a decorative style of script known as calligraphy.

These teaching materials will enable primary school children to learn about the process and history of calligraphy by comparing and contrasting manuscript examples from Europeana’s collections and historical objects from Limerick Museum and the Hunt Museum associated with the practice of calligraphy. The children will then fashion a calligraphy pen and use it to create their own piece of calligraphy.