148 ON ERKATA RECEPTA. 



The character denoting "and" — by how many of us was per se, 

 as associated with this, the firut Latin unconsciously learnt? — em- 

 ployed especially in the contraction for et cetera, has in modern 

 manuscript and typography lost its organic form. This is reappearing 

 now in the revived type before referred to. In Macmillan's Treasury 

 Series, and in Cassell's new edition of Shakspeare, we see it again 

 printed Et {Etc.) Although in rapid writing we do not expect this 

 form to be restored, it is quite proper that we should know what it is 

 that we write down when we execute the spirited flourish which oc- 

 casionally at the end of a sentence symbolizes the indefiniteness con- 

 veniently concealed by it. 



On old English coins the " et " has converted itself into a charac- 

 ter like a " Z." Thus on a coin in the cabinet of the Canadian Instv- 

 tute is read, EDWARD. D. G. EEX. ANGL. Z. FRANC. D. HYB. 



This pretended z is one of the favorite siffla of the scribes. We 

 have it in vis: for videlicet, in os. for ounces, . and in .01e symbols for 

 drachms and scruples — where what are apparently s's are simply 

 flourishes of contraction. In V for versicle, R for response, and R 

 again, for Recipe, a slight stroke across a portion of the letter gives 

 the hint of abbreviation. 



Domes-Day Book is full of such clerical abridgments. These so- 

 called sigla became at an early period such a source of misunderstand- 

 ing in MSS. that Justinian forbade their use in legal documents.* A 

 very common note of contraction, long retained in English books, 

 was a circumflex for the omission oi m ov n ; as comunicafio for com- 

 munication. Hence has arisen our Co. for Company/. No. for number, 

 is the French numero. Do. ditto, is Italian for dictum "aforesaid." 

 Titular initials are sometimes wrongly written and pointed. The LL. 

 for the plural Legum will be thus seen divided by a period. In 

 Macmillan's Magazine, not long since, L. L. O. O. P. for Literarum 



Orientalium Professor v/as given without comment, the error being 



. _ — . . — .„ 



* Vide Justinian. Codex. Lib. I. Tit. xv. Hi. 22. Eandem autem pceaam falsitatis consti- 

 tuimus et adversus eos qui in posterum leges nostras per siglorum obscuritates ansi fuerint 

 conscribere. Omnia enim, id est, et nomina prudentium, et titulos et librorum numeros, per 

 consequentias literarum volumus, non per sigla manifestari : ita ut qui talem librum sibi 

 paraverit, in quo sigla posita sunt, in qualemcunque locum libri vel voluminis, seiat inutilis 

 se esse codicis dominum : neque enim licentiam aperimus ex tali codice in judicium aliquid 

 recitare, qui in quacunque sua parte siglorum habet ir.alitias. Ipse autem librarius, qui eas 

 inscribere ansus fuerit, non solum criminali poena, secundum quod dictum est, plectetur ; 

 sed etiam libri sestimationem in duplum domiuus reddat, si et ipse dominus ignorans talem 

 librum vel comparaverit, vel confici curaverit, quod et antea ^ nobis dispositum est, et in 

 Latina constitutione et in Grsec^ quam ad legum professores dimisimus. 



