One of the treats of my Thanksgiving was an up-close-and-personal analysis of my 14^th century musical manuscript by Metropolitan Museum fellow Eric Weaver. I was reasonably sure of its date, based on the staff structure and mensuration, but Eric taught me an immense amount about parchment, calligraphy, illumination, monastic culture, and medieval guilds in the 30 minutes or so that he discussed my musical fragment. In short, he took an object I see above my hi-fi every day and made an epoch come alive—conversationally and off-the-cuff.

This National Archives tutorial on deciphering handwritten documents isn't quite as cool as hanging out with Eric, but it's the next best thing.