Useful preliminary steps
Since this Paleography Tool focuses specifically on handwriting styles of early modern Spanish manuscripts, it is advisable to have a minimum reading-level knowledge of the language to take full advantage of the Tool. As would be the case with any written language, having familiarity with the basic pronunciations or sounds, vocabulary, and grammar of Spanish will make it easier for the users of the Tool to gradually recognize and memorize the letters in each of the script styles featured in the Tool.
The more knowledgeable the user of this Paleography Tool is of Spanish vocabulary, the easier it will be for him/her to apply to the old Spanish handwriting styles the intuitive trial-and-error strategy that deciphering the old scripts implies. Throughout the initial learning process, when the reader confronts an early-modern Spanish manuscript directly for the first time, frequently he or she must try to guess one or more letters within a written word and quickly try a succession of limited options until finding or identifying the most likely possibilities (after all, the most common vocabulary used in most documents is fairly limited). The more the previous knowledge of the Spanish vocabulary the reader has, the faster the trial and error process will work until achieving the most accurate recognition of the given word.
In other words, a manuscript written in a strange handwriting style is much more difficult to decipher when the specific words contained in the text are terms that the reader has no prior knowledge or awareness of not even in their spoken form. Every speculation by the reader as to the possible identity of an unknown letter will open a limitless number of combinations of spellings that may not exist in the language, and this mental trial can result in a huge unproductive investment of time and lead to frustration. And frustration is probably the number one enemy of the paleography-reading learning process. Paleography-reading is a different skill than vocabulary learning, and though both interact during the paleographic reading activity, the two should not be confused at all.
Likewise, the more familiar the reader is with idiomatic, institutions-related, culturally generated and historically related expressions, the easier it will be for him or her to quickly construct the guesses that lie at the heart of the script-deciphering process. In conclusion, we strongly recommend that first-time students of early-modern Spanish paleography and first-time users of this Paleography Tool always read the typed transcriptions of the manuscripts first making certain their contents are fully understood, before engaging with the handwritten manuscripts themselves.
Finally, just in case, let us clarify that there could be a possibility that, after effectively trying to decipher a word in an early modern Spanish manuscript, the learner will still not be able to recognize the term against the existing known universe of the Spanish language vocabulary. That could be the case of a word or spelling of a word that reflects a forgotten and never-recorded noun or verb form or loan from another language, etc. But this is not the most common experience when dealing with these manuscripts. At it will definitely not be the case with any of the manuscripts contained in this Tool, which are accompanied by a Glossary feature for all the words that could pose a challenge to the beginning learner.