7 < 



PALEOGRAPHY 



scmiiiiii-iiil is demonstrated l>y the iiermissive use 



..( \. K. >. which HIT uncials, 'and of n, r, i, which 

 lire unciii!icd cursiv c. S.-\ <T:I| other forms, Mirli as 

 !. 1 1. n. in, i. It, 1, arc also uncial ised cmsives, anil in it, 

 like tiie Konian uncials, meiely rounded capitals 

 BJUIO, V..I. VI. p. Sis i. This Irish semi 



uncial suddenly blazes fortli in tin- iltli n-ntim -as 

 tin' most tplmdU f nil misli;i-\al scripts. The 

 noblest MMfiinrn i- tin- magnificent Book of Kells 

 now at Dublin, which was |inilial>ly written in tin' 

 7th century, though often refcried to tin- 1'tli 

 (see ll.l.rMlx.vTins ). Of somewhat later date 

 are St Chail'.H (Jo-pels, now HI Lichfield. ami 

 tin- Litidisfarne "r Durham Hook, commonly 

 called St CuthU-rt's i;o-|.els, now in the British 

 Museum, both of which were written in North- 

 umbria, where tin 1 script hail In-en IntradOMd 

 hy Irish missionaries. This Northumbrian semi- 

 niiciiil formed the IwsU of the nearly ]>erfcct 

 .line minuscule, no called because during 

 tie- icign of Charlemagne it wan introduced 

 In Ali-iiin f York, tin- fiicnil and preceptor of the 

 einiKTor, into the calligraphic school at Tours, over 

 which Alciiin piesided from T'.Ki to SO4. Alcnin 

 seems to have InOOrpOffttad certain elrnieilts from 

 the liniiiaii uncial and the Lomhardii' minuscule ; 

 anil the n'w script, recommended hy its legibility, 

 di-liuctnc-s. ami minuteness, was rapidly diffused 

 b\ Alciiin's pupils over Kuro|-, ami rapiilly su|>er- 

 Bedcd all the other monastic hook-hands. Stating 

 at the iN-ginning of the '.Ith century, it reached 

 it* highest iM-rfection at the end of the llth. 

 In the nth deformation set in; it stiffens and 

 heroines more ciamped, ligatures and contractions 

 arp introduced, and out of it crew the Block 

 Letter or (Jothic of the l.Mh centiirv, a form of 

 which still survive* in Cerinan printed books. The 

 black letter wan lined in the earliest printed books, 

 but, with the revival of learning, Italian scholars 

 returned to the licautilnl Caroline minuscule of the 

 lllh century, which was iniitateil ill the Human 

 typo now universal in Italy, France, Spain, Britain, 

 ami America, and which' is rapidly replacing the 

 lie letter in northern Europe. See I'KIXTIM;. 

 Iw the pure Caroline minuscules used for 

 Ixvokx, various cursive hands grew out of it, more 

 angular, irregular, and dillicnlt. Such are the 

 Ail-In S:i\mi ami the pointed Irish, the Domesday 

 wript (see l>i>\n-i.\i liooK), ami the deformed 

 bam Is u-e.l in English charters and the records of 

 court*. Our modern English script is based on 

 this 'court hand,' which arose out of tlie degraded 

 i .line iniiiiisciile improved, however, in the 

 n-i;ii of Kli/alM-th hy the intlueiice of the eon- 

 teni|M>rarv Italian hand. It is. however, much 

 Kti|H.iioi in legibility and distinctness to tin- modern 

 ( lei man et ipt . which, as we have seen, is to a groat 



I a -unival frmn the old Koinan cursive. 

 i'i'iilniffitin\. The ditliculty of dMiphsring 

 medi.eval MSS. ari-cs largely from the contractions, 

 abbreviation*, and ligatures which were employed 

 in i-ronoinise hiluinr and parcliineiit. To five a 

 coni|.|ete lit within reiuuinalile limits is imposilile, 

 III. IT a- tln-v vaiiisl at different |M-riods 



and in the various scripts. More than WKH) contrac- 

 tion- of Latin words wele Used ill l-'ralli-e lietweell 



tin' 7th century and the Kith, while in Kn^land Mime 

 than 1000 are found in ollicial Latin documents of 



Tudor |>eiiod alone. Tlieic ;ue. for instance, 

 Ix rccoffnisitl contiactioim for ijm.niam, Kevim for 

 and leu for ct. In one claim of MSS. i|m 

 stands for ifiinniiini, in another for i/ntiin, while 

 ofio denote* ininmniln in one script and i/niiii><iui 

 in nnother. lnlead, then-fore, of attcmiitine; to 



In^'iie the mine usual rontrnctions, which HIT 

 tahiilated in several works referral to below, it 

 will l>e more useful to explain the general prin- 

 ciples by which ineiltirval scriliw were guided. In 



most casps, if not in all, these contractions arose 



out of ligatures, and were used at first for some 



particular syllable, and then as time went on they 



^cnerulised, so as to denote a whole class. 



S< of these ligatures we still use. Thus, W, as 



the name implies, is a ligature for I/H ; ie and O3 

 ni^sl no explanation. The two sii].er-ciipt dots, as 

 in a or o, which express the (ieinmn iiin/niil, are 

 men-ly the ligatures n- and o-. 



The usual iniHlern si^-ii of alduevintion is the full 

 point, as in ib. or ibid, for ilm/rni, c.jr. for cj-cm/ili 

 iliiilin, or i.e. for id (ft. Itut this, which seems so 

 natural and simple a si^n, ap|>ears, when we trace 

 its history, to have arisen out of a ligature for the 

 common Latin termination -lit. Its earlier form 

 was the colon ( :), which stood for -MS, as in omnib: 

 for omnilxn. The origin of thk colon is explained 

 by t he fact that at a still earlier time we find the 

 final syllables -nuts and -tivt written "^ ami ^f, 

 where the cross stroke J , which is mi-rely the lone; 

 i, forms a ligature with the curve which 

 represents U. Of this ligature, representing -ut, 

 evcn'thing disappeared e\cept the <fots at the top 

 and hot torn of the ., leaving m: for -HIM*, or b: for 

 but. The upper dot was then omitted as needless, 

 and ultimately the use of the full {mint (.) was 

 generalised so us to denote the omission of any 

 final s\ liable. \Vhen thLs had taken jilace another 

 s|H'ciai si^rn was required for -us. This was 9, 

 so that in later documents we find cig for rjiix, or 

 omnilio. for omnibus. But in earlier MSS. the loop 



if the sign 9 is open at the top, the form u 1 

 manifestly the ligature of U and the long s. 



In viz. for videlicet, and oz. for ounce, we have 

 survivals of a very frequent abbreviation, which 

 also proves to be a ligature. The z is merely tisetl 

 by printers for their own convenience instead of the 

 correct sign 3, which is found, by tracing it back, 

 to be only a rapid and slurred way of writing the 

 semicolon ( ; ) without taking the pen from the pa] XT. 

 This sign at one time denoted only the omission 

 either of ct, as in 1mb; for lutM, or of nr, as in q; 

 {nryite. The latter, however, was originally written 

 q: where the reversed comma ( ) is the letter I , 

 and the dot stands for .-, as in many other cases, 

 such as -n for eiiim, or -r for est. This ligature 

 WSLS assimilated to the nearly identical ligatup 

 for et, when' the dot (') represents e, and tlie comma 

 ( , ) is the remains of the letter T. For a long time 

 this ligature (3 or ;) was confined to words ending 

 in itr. or ct, as in qn5 for quandoqve, quo; for 

 i/iioijite, a; for ajijMiret, o; for o/miirt, I; for licet, 13 

 for tenet, 113 for habet, K; for scilicet. Afterwards 

 it was generalised to signify the omission of any 

 final syllable, as in 03 for ounce, or in the apothe- 

 caries' signs 3 for iinriii, and 3 for ilrnclnnn. The 

 sign 9 for scruple is merely the ligature tr, the 

 long .1 being crossed by a cursive r. 



Tlie superscript comma now used to denote the 

 omission of medial syllables or letters, as in can't 

 for ciniHdt, or 1 've for / lim-c, was at first merely 

 a sii|K-rscript r, and denoted exclusively the omis- 

 sion of ; or of a syllable containing ;. such a.s rr or 

 " In English records it forms a ligature with the 

 preceding letter, as in ffjnt for fiiermit, vlsj for 

 rerlin, or rs for tret. 



The circiimllex ( - ) grew out a cursive form of 

 the uncial /;/, and originally denoted exclusively 

 the omission of i, then of n. and afterwards of 

 other letters. Thus we have onies, onis, and oes 

 for umncjt, oia anil oniia for emnia, hoiu and hoiii 

 for li'iiiiiiiiiiii, nfi and ft for HUH. The horiapnteJ 



line ( ) is one of 1 1 arliest signs of omission, 



and in some cases, if not in all, is merely a simpli- 

 fied form of the circumflex, as in 6 for cum, aflt for 

 nut: ni. a for iiniinx. Its use was, however, less 

 restricted than that of the circumflex, and we still 

 use it in the contraction Ib for libra: (pounds), the 



