Palaeography: reading old handwriting, 1500 – 1800: A practical online tutorial
Palaeography is the study of old handwriting. This web tutorial will help you learn to read the handwriting found in documents written in English between 1500 and 1800.
At first glance, many documents written at this time look illegible to the modern reader. By reading the practical tips and working through the documents in the Tutorial in order of difficulty, you will find that it becomes much easier to read old handwriting. You can find more documents on which to practice your skills in the further practice section.
Start here.
Related: This beautiful post (in French) by Jean Véronis at Technologies du langage on parallels between nomina sacra and SMS abbreviations.