Palaeographist New! Jun 2026

Outside, the rain begins again. Lena Armitage, palaeographist, sleeps the dreamless sleep of the just—and of those who have spent a day in the company of the dead.

Reading these documents requires an intimate understanding of the "ductus"—the order and direction in which the strokes were made. A palaeographist must mentally reconstruct the movement of the scribe’s hand, untangling loops and ligatures that have not been used for five hundred years. It is through this work that we gain insight not into the high theology of the ages, but the daily lives, tax disputes, and love letters of the common people. palaeographist

Emma's latest project was a particularly intriguing one. She had been hired by a wealthy collector to authenticate a cache of letters allegedly written by King James I of England, a monarch notorious for his love of secrecy and coded communication. The letters, rumored to date back to the early 17th century, had been hidden away for centuries, and their existence was only recently rumored to have come to light. Outside, the rain begins again