PALEOGRAPHY

also spelled palaeography, study of ancient and medieval handwriting. The term is derived from the Greek palaios (old) and graphein (to write). Precise boundaries for paleography are hard to define. For example, epigraphy, the study of inscriptions cut on immovable objects for permanent public inspection, is related to paleography. Casual graffiti, sale or election notices as found on the walls of Pompeii, and Christian inscriptions in the Roman catacombs are likewise part of paleographical knowledge. In general, however, paleography embraces writing found principally on papyrus, parchment (vellum), and paper. Today, paleography is regarded as relating to Greek and Latin scripts with their derivatives, thus, as a rule, excluding Egyptian, Hebrew, and Middle and Far Eastern scripts. It is closely linked with diplomatic, the study of forms in which official and private documents are drawn up. The scientific study of Latin paleography (and of diplomatics) dates from 1681, when the French monk Jean Mabillon published De Re Diplomatica, the first textbook on the subject, while his compatriot Bernard de Montfaucon performed a parallel service for Greek paleography in his Palaeographia Graeca in 1708. The primary task of the paleographer is to read the writings of the past correctly and to assign a date and place of origin. Close acquaintance with the language of the text is a prerequisite. Help in dating is offered by changes in styles of handwriting and variations from area to area. Abbreviations in texts likewise help in dating and localization. also spelled Palaeography, study of ancient and medieval handwriting. The primary tasks of the paleographer are to read the writings of the past and to assign them a date and a place of origin. As a rule, paleography deals with Greek and Latin scripts and their derivatives, excluding Egyptian, Hebrew, and Middle and Far Eastern scripts. Paleography is the study of handwriting found on ancient and medieval documents of papyrus, parchment, and paper. From its beginnings as a science in 1681, paleography has been concerned with correctly reading such writings and assigning to them a date and a place of origin. The paleographer must know the language of the texts, the abbreviations used, and the various styles of handwriting. A knowledge of writing materials is essential to the study of ancient handwriting. The oldest material, papyrus, used as early as 3500 BC, was made by pasting together a crosshatch of papyrus reeds and treating the surface until it was smooth. Climate was instrumental in its preservation. The dry climate of Egypt kept documents intact, but the dampness of Europe destroyed them. Parchment (sheepskin or goatskin) and vellum (calfskin) were used in ancient times and are still used today. Because writing material made from animal skins was expensive, it was often scraped clean and used again. Inexpensive writing material was provided by wax tablets: wooden frames filled with melted black wax. Although wax tablets were primarily used as notebooks are used today, many permanent documents were written on wax. Paper, first used in China, became readily available in the Arab world in the 9th century and in Europe in the 14th. The properties of the writing material used determined the form of the book. In Greece, papyrus sheets were pasted together, slightly overlapping, and made into a roll. The codex, the book form known today, was made of parchment because papyrus was too brittle to be folded. First used for account books, the codex became popular when Christians used it for the Gospels. Implements for writing on these surfaces were of great variety. A reed pen, and later a metal pen, was used in Greek and Roman times; a stylus of a hard substance like bone or metal was used to inscribe the wax tablets. Where reeds did not grow, the quill of a feather became the writing instrument. Ink either came from the cuttlefish's black secretion or was a concoction made from soot and gum or from oak apples soaked in a ferrous sulfate solution. In order to analyze a text, the paleographer must know the different handwriting styles and the times and places of their use. The Greek capital (majuscule) letters that were used for inscribing stone and for writing on papyrus gradually became more rounded and elegant in the hands of the literary circles of Alexandria, Egypt, where many Greeks settled. A cursive script, used for everyday affairs, was widely adopted, and so much of it is preserved that it gives a day-by-day account of the lives of the ancient Greeks. The capital letters of the Latin alphabet were used to write on stone, but rarely on parchment. A more flowing script called rustic, applied with brush or thick pen, was used to paint notices on walls in the 1st century AD. By the 4th century another script, called uncial, existed. In Latin writing, as in Greek, a cursive script developed for everyday use. Other Latin alphabet scripts were devised in other parts of the West, most notably in Ireland, where the lovely insular script was used in monasteries. In England insular script and uncial script came together with the arrival of missionaries from Rome after 597. The emperor Charlemagne was instrumental in the development of Carolingian minuscule (small) script, which is similar to modern typefaces. Its rounded style was made more angular by 12th-century Gothic scribes; but by the 15th century the style had returned to the original form and was adopted by Italian printers. Ancient abbreviation plagues paleographers. Ends of words were omitted (suspension) or letters in the middle of the word were deleted (contraction), and the change was marked by a symbol (similar to our modern apostrophe). More than 13,000 signs and devices that mark such changes were in use in the European Middle Ages. Knowledge of these abbreviations does help date documents, however. The style of handwriting and the content of the document (when a historical event is relayed) are also used to ascertain date of composition. Paleographers learn to identify different scribes by their characteristic handwriting and, from this, identify the periods in which they wrote. Not all scribes, however, are reliable. Some were illiterate, employed to copy documents because they could writenot reada fine hand. An error made by one copyist was reproduced and added to by others who used his text as a model. Gothic scripts with many vertical strokes might be rendered gibberish by a scribe who had no knowledge of the language. This minimum corruption of vertical strokes is a problem common in paleography. One aspect of this science needs no expertise to be enjoyed: that of book decoration. Painstaking artistic practice coupled with a highly individual artistic freedom produced books with elaborately adorned capital letters and delicate scripts complemented by finely executed miniature paintings that served as illustrations of the text. These illuminated manuscripts, most notably those from 7th-century Irish monasteries, are among the great art treasures of the world. As in all art, the possibility of forgery exists and, in the Middle Ages, was proved in cases in which monasteries forged deeds to lands that were threatened by an unsympathetic monarchy. Today, forgeries are attempted because of the high prices paid for ancient documents, but modern detection devices like ultraviolet light quickly reveal the counterfeit. Additional reading The most comprehensive work, certainly in English, is still E. Maunde Thompson, An Introduction to Greek and Latin Palaeography (1912). Also valuable, and in print, is his shorter version, Handbook of Greek and Latin Palaeography (1893, reprinted 1966). For Greek paleography, see B.A. van Groningen, Short Manual of Greek Palaeography, 3rd rev. ed. (1963); and C.H. Roberts, Greek Literary Hands, 350 B.C.A.D. 400 (1956). The article Handwriting in C.G. Crump and E.F. Jacob (eds.), The Legacy of the Middle Ages (1926), is an important account of Latin book hands. Essential for the study of abbreviations in medieval Europe is Adriano Cappelli, Lexicon abbreviaturarum: dizionario di abbreviature latine ed italiane, 6th ed. (1961). A standard textbook for medieval English cursive hands is Charles Johnson and Hilary Jenkinson, English Court Hand A.D.1066 to 1500 (1915), continued in Jenkinson's Later Court Hands in England from the Fifteenth to the Seventeenth Century (1927). L.C. Hector, The Handwriting of English Documents, 2nd ed. (1966), contains a valuable introduction to the paleography of English administrative manuscripts. Very many classical, biblical, and liturgical texts have now been published in facsimile, often with colour plates. Large collections in facsimile comprise E.A. Lowe, Codices latini antiquiores, 12 vol. (193471); Charles Samaran and Robert Marichal, Catalogue des manuscrits en criture latine, portant des indications de date (1959 ); Bertram Colgrave (ed.), Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile (1951 ); and the Oxford Palaeographical Handbooks, a series designed to deal with various aspects of the subject, such as C.H. Roberts (see above); C.E. Wright, English Vernacular Hands from the Twelfth to the Fifteenth Centuries (1960); M.B. Parkes, English Cursive Book Hands, 12501500 (1969); and T.A.M. Bishop, English Caroline Minuscule (1971). See also Marc Drogin, Medieval Calligraphy, Its History and Technique (1980); and Donald Jackson, The Story of Writing (1981).