386 Sir Edward Maunde Thompson [March 19, 



tlie other hand, we must remember that the many examples that have 

 survived probably owe their long life to the fact that they have been 

 always regarded as of special value, and have thus been carefully 

 kept, while ordinary copies, transcribed in the common handwriting 

 of the day, and probably far more numerous than the majuscule 

 codices, have been allowed to perish. However, extant examples 

 prove to us that capital writing was employed in the production of 

 important manuscripts, both in the square letter and in the rustic 

 letter. But, as the latter form could be more expeditiously written, it 

 was more frequently used than the square type. Again, the incon- 

 venience of the square type almost immediately caused another 

 modification ; the scribe took to rounding off the angles of the letters, 

 and a script which has received the name of Uncial writing was deve- 

 loped. From the fourth century, then, we have surviving examples 

 of manuscript volumes in these large letters. But the system could not 

 last ; the square letter seems to have soon fallen into desuetude ; 

 then the rustic hand gradually dies out, leaving the uncial in posses- 

 sion of the field, only, however, to fall eventually into a decrepit and 

 imitative state, and to disappear before the beautiful literary small 

 hand which, by the beginning of the ninth century, had at length, after 

 many vicissitudes, fully developed from the current forms of hand- 

 writing. 



One or two fragments exist to show us the early practice of 

 writing in capital letters. A fragmentary papyrus was recovered from 

 the ashes of Herculaneum, inscribed with a poem on the battle of 

 Actium in a light style of rustic letters, which was probably in fairly 

 general use for literary purposes in the first half of the first century. 

 The words are separated from one another by a full point, as in 

 inscriptions; and long vowels are in many instances marked with 

 an accent — long I being indicated by doubling the letter in height. 



Another fragment of interest is a scrap of a sheet of papyrus, 

 which contained a writing exercise of some young scholar in Egypt, 

 perhaps of the first or second century ; now in the British Museum. 

 A line from the second book of the -^neid was the text chosen for 

 this copy : — 



" Non tibi TyudaricUs facies invisa LacaenaB." 



The fragment shows a few imperfect repetitions of this line copied in 

 rustic capitals, with some slight variations from the normal shapes. 

 The letter D is exaggerated ; and (a matter of more interest) the 

 (Z-shaped B, the development of which in the cursive alphabet has 

 already been noticed, is employed instead of the usual capital. 



But, as already said, we have to descend to the fourth century to 

 find examples of complete volumes in this large character. The 

 " Codex Palatinus " of Virgil, now in the Vatican Library, is the best 

 written manuscript of that time, and in the beautiful regularity 

 of its rustic writing resembles the sculptured inscriptions of an 



