PRIMITIVE BOOKS 



scribes of a very early day. Why so convenient an ex- 

 pedient, once suggested, should have failed of universal 

 recognition, is food for conjecture. Whatever the ex- 

 planation, it is a familiar fact that all the early Greek 

 and Roman manuscripts are altogether guiltless of at- 

 tempt at word separation, or of punctuation, and that 

 tentatives toward the use of these convenient ex- 

 pedients did not begin to show themselves until we 

 come to manuscripts of the old Roman period. Indeed, 

 it is not until about the tenth century of our era that the 

 manuscripts of Europe give evidence of the general 

 adoption of word-spacing, punctuation, capitalization, 

 and paragraphing. 



As regards capitalization, indeed, the earlier writings 

 afforded no opportunities, since the Greeks and Romans 

 of the classical time and their successors of the early 

 Middle Ages used capitals exclusively in writing their 

 books. The development of small letters the so-called 

 minuscules was a space-saving and time-saving in- 

 vention of the monks of the seventh and eighth centuries. 

 When the minuscule script had come into vogue, the 

 capitals were retained at the beginnings of sentences, 

 perhaps quite as much for their ornamental effect as 

 for any other reason. And the same motive, perhaps, 

 was instrumental in establishing the custom of para- 

 graphing, but the need of word divisions and punctua- 

 tion marks had made itself felt by scribes and readers 

 who dealt with a language not their mother tongue, 

 and these various accessories came in time to be re- 

 garded as absolute essentials. 



The full elaboration of the system of punctuation 



