529 



PALAEOGRAPHY. 



PALAEOGRAPHY. 



230 





mixed in beer. The subsequent varnishing fixes the colours, imparts 

 a gloss, and defends the work from the weather. 



Distemper Paintiny. The brushes for large surfaces differ from 

 those used in oil : they are wider and flatter, and are termed distemper- 

 brushes ; but the tools for small work are similar. Whiting takes the 

 same place in this branch that white lead holds in oil ; the colouring 

 substances are similar, but ground in water ; and the fluids are water 

 and melted size. 



The whiting having been reduced to a stiff paste with water in 

 which alum has been dissolved, the colouring matter is added, and the 

 whole thinned with warm size. It must then stand till it gets cold, 

 and it is not fit for use unless it thille, or forms a slight jelly. It is 

 best to strain it after it has chilled, as the colouring substances will 

 sometimes sink. Before applying this, the work must be cleaned ; for 

 if there remains any substance which the fresh applied colour will 

 soften and mix with, the work will not present a uniform appearance, 

 but will be cloudy. The best work is painted first in oil, then flatted, 

 and finished in distemper ; but seldom more than one coat of distem- 

 per can be applied with advantage, for which reason care should be 

 taken to cover every part equally, and particularly that the brush 

 touch no part that is once dry ; for this last reason several men are 

 employed together, that the whole of any surface (as a ceiling) may be 

 covered before any part has time to dry. 



It is a generally received opinion among painters that white lead is 

 the best material for painting work of all descriptions, with a view to 

 ita preservation, and they affirm that black paint is useless in that 

 respect. Now, presuming that the durability of paint depends on the 

 insolubility of the materials used in its composition, we might infer 

 that black, which is composed of one of the most imperishable bodies 

 known, namely carbon, in the state of lampblack, is more durable than 

 white, which is made of carbonate of lead, a substance slightly soluble 

 in water : and the following facts confirm this. To be able to judge 

 fairly, we must have black and white of the same age equally exposed, 

 and on the same material. These conditions are all fulfilled on finger- 

 posts and other public notices exposed by the highways and on wooden 

 grave-rails in country churchyards, which are almost invariably painted 

 and written either black and white or white and black. Those with 

 black grounds and white letters may often be seen with merely the 

 illegible remains of the inscriptions while the ground is quite perfect. 

 But the black writing frequently remains not merely till the white 

 ground is washed away, but often till the surface of the wood, except 

 where it is occupied by the letters, is decomposed to the depth of 

 more than a sixteenth of an inch, actually leaving the inscription 

 in relief. 



A more important circumstance connected with the use of white 

 lead, however, is the extremely deleterious nature of this substance. 

 House painters are much affected in their health in consequence. 

 Zinc white hag been introduced, and largely recommended, as a substi- 

 tute for white lead ; but the latter substance seems to possess qualities 

 which enable it to beat down all opposition. Kuhlmann has recom- 

 mended the adoption of sulphate of barytes. He declares that it is 

 better than either white lead or oxide of zinc, more durable, and less 

 injurious. It may be made either into dry cakes like white lead, or 

 still better as a paste. Kuhlmann communicated a paper on this 

 subject to the Academy of Sciences, at Paris, in 1858. 



A patent process has been adopted for producing plain white 

 polished surfaces in house painting. Carbonate of lead or zinc white 

 u ground up with turpentine, partially dried, and mixed with copal 

 body varnish ; this jaint is laid on, in many successive coatings, 

 increasing the proportion of varnish at each stage. When dry, the 

 surface is rubbed smooth with pumice dust or rotten stone, and 

 polished with the hand. A kind of decorative painting is thus 

 managed. Scroll*, flowers, or other devices are cut out of paper, and 

 pinned to the wall or other surface ; the surface is stippled with 

 any suitable paint to produce a dead ground ; when the stippling is 

 dry, the paper is removed, and the ornament is left in high and light 

 relief. In another method, tho device is painted with a solution of 

 sugar, starch, gelatine, and gum ; the whole surface is then stippled 

 over ; and when dry, the stipple is washed off from the gelatinised 

 surface. 



Concerning painter's colours, it may here be stated that a manufac- 

 tory was established at Battersea a few years ago, for making such 

 colours by galvanic agency. During galvanic action, chemical decom- 

 <u always takes place in the cells ; and by a careful choice of the 

 liquid* employed, sedimentary deposit* of mineral colouring substances 

 may be obtained. Practically, very brilliant colours were obtained, 

 and sold in cakes ; but tin: profit! were not sufficient to render the 

 speculation a permanent one. Another adventure has been that of 

 obtaining a base for pigments from serpentine and other rocks contain- 

 ing silicates of magnesia and iron, by the action of certain acids ; the 

 bases thus obtained are mostly yellow, blue, and green. For the 

 most part, however, painters are supplied with colours prepared by 

 method* long practised. 



The extent of this trade may in some degree be shown by the 

 fact that painter's colours to the value of nearly half a million sterling 

 are yearly exported from this country. 



PALEOGRAPHY (from iroAouJt, old, and ypaQb, tcritiny), compre- 

 hends the study of ancient writing from tho earliest periods until the 



invention of printing in the 15th century, or rather until that art 

 became common at the commencement of the Kith. 



The earliest specimens of writing occur upon stone, metals, wood, 

 baked clay, wax, linen, the bark and leaves of trees, and the prepared 

 skins of quadrupeds, goats, sheep, and calves. Writings upon the first 

 named substances coma more properly under the title of INSCRIPTIONS ; 

 those upon the bark of trees are fully treated of under the article 

 PAPYRUS ; it is therefore to some account of the principal character- 

 istics of vellum or parchment manuscripts that the present notice is 

 devoted. 



In the earliest centuries we find much importance att-vched to the 

 correct transcription of the works both of profane and theological 

 authors, and as early as the 5th century, if not earlier, schools or asso- 

 ciations of scribes were formed; who worked under definite and 

 stringent rules. To a female scribe in one of these schools at Alex- 

 andria we are indebted for the famous copy of the Scriptures known 

 as the ' Codex Alexandrinus,' written at the commencement of the Sib. 

 century, and now preserved in the British Museum. So great was the 

 care taken to have correct copies of important works, that Jerome 

 informs us that Pamphilus, the martyr, transcribed the works of Origen 

 with his own hand ; while distinguished men like Ambrose and 

 Alcuin did not disdain the duty of comparing and revising the tran- 

 scripts executed by the professional scribes. Balunius cites decrees of 

 the chapters against careless and bad copying, or transcriptions from 

 vicious texts. In all the principal monasteries was a scriptorium , or 

 writing-room, in which the s/:riba, scrip/or, or scribe, could pursue his 

 work in quiet, generally assisted by a dictator, who read aloud the text 

 to be copied, the transcript was then gone over by a corrector, aud 

 afterwards handed over to the miniatur, who added the ornamental 

 capitals and artistic designs. 



The word parchment is supposed to be derived from Pergamus, a 

 city of Asia, in which the skins of sheep were largely prepared for 

 manuscript purposes. Vellum, velin, prepared from the skin of the calf, 

 ritulus, reati, from which it takes its name. The extreme whiteness 

 and fineness of vellum may be taken as a sure sigu of great antiquity. 

 The finest vellum manuscripts are all prior to the 8th century. 



Although a small cursive handwriting is occasionally met with even 

 as far back as the 4th and 5th centuries, it was not until the close of the 

 8th that the minuscule writing became general The broad capital 

 letter in which the words are unbroken, and which has been designated 

 as the rustic, is the prevailing character in manuscripts of the 4th 

 and 5th centuries. The Vatican Virgil of the 4th ceutury is a mag- 

 nificent specimen of this style. The uncial and semi-uncial prevailed 

 from the 6th to the 8th century. In the latter century fine minuscule 

 Roman writing was not uncommon, and a fine example of this exists 

 in the manuscript known as the Psalter of Charlemagne, in the 

 Imperial Library at Vienna. Minuscule became general in Latin MSS. 

 of the 9th, and Greek MSS. of the 10th century. The Latin MSS. of 

 the 9th century are comparatively rare. They are for the most part 

 written on fine thin vellum, in a small and very graceful character : 

 the letters rather slanting to the right-hand. The manuscripts of the 

 10th century are more numerous than those of the preceding century , 

 the letters are more upright, rounder, and fuller in shape, the vellum 

 is commonly thicker and firmer. A magnificent specimen of the style 

 of the loth century, in the hand- writing of the famous St. Dunstau, 

 abbot of Glastonbury, is preserved in the British Museum. It records 

 a grant by King Eadred of the monastery of Reculver to the church of 

 Canterbury, in the year 949. One is at first struck, by observing that 

 no trace of the ignorance which at this time darkened Europe, can be 

 discovered in the numerous and exquisitely finished manuscripts of 

 this century. But the fact may be partly accounted for by remember- 

 ing the enormous dotations made to the religious orders, and their 

 prosperity, in consequence of that very belief in the approaching end 

 of the world, which degraded general society by the neglect of temporal 

 interests to which it led. In the llth century, owing probably to the 

 general destitution, parchment was extremely rare, and it was in this 

 century that the practice seems to have been most general of erasing 

 ancient and so-called profane manuscripts in order to transcribe recent 

 theological treatises upon the vellum thus acquired. 



To manuscripts thus erased and again written upon, the name has 

 been given of PALIMPSKSTS, and to this word we refer the reader for a 

 fuller description of such manuscripts. The handwriting of the llth 

 century bears a striking general resemblance to that of the 9th, the 

 characters are small and closely written, and have a considerable slope. 

 It seems probable that the small size of the writing may be in part 

 cc'iunted for by the difficulty of procuring parchment. The writing 

 of tho early part of the 12th century is not unlike that of the 10th, 

 with the exception of the illuminated capitals, the peculiarities of 

 which are described further on. The letters, however, particularly in 

 English manuscripts, are larger and thicker. The vellum is mostly 

 stout, and not so white. At the close of the century the beautiful and 

 clear Roman writing was gradually becoming superseded by the intro- 

 duction of an angular character, to which the term of modern Gothic 

 has been applied. In the 13th century this Gothic character became 

 universal. Even the round o was transformed into an elongated 

 hexagonal. Abbreviations, hitherto rare and simple, became in this 

 century numerous and ab.ttruse. In addition to certain strongly 

 defined peculiarities in illumination, of which we shall presently speak, 



