Lettering the Beowulf Manuscript with Cheryl Jacobsen

The Beowulf Manuscript is the earliest epic written in the English vernacular, but few have looked at the manuscript with the experience of a working scribe. Cheryl Jacobsen will talk about her commission to recreate the renowned 140-page manuscript stroke by stroke in English minuscules—and a page-by-page translation in modern English—on goat skin. Cheryl shares insight on how the medieval scribes may have been thinking and working as they did their jobs. She also talked about some future projects and challenges they pose, such as working on papyrus.

Cheryl Jacobsen is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Lettering at the University of Iowa Center for the Book. She teaches several semester-long calligraphy classes as well as a hands-on history class analyzing historical manuscripts. She is the author of “A Modern Scribe Views Scribes of the Past” in Scraped, Stroked, and Bound: Materially Engaged Readings of Medieval Manuscripts (Brepols 2013). She also runs a freelance studio creating all sorts of exciting modern calligraphic projects and assemblage art. She specializes in organizing things visually and beautifully whether it be words or objects.