Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/448

 PAUEOGRAPHY

404-

PAL^OGRAPHY

(2) The I'ncial. — Tho loriii is borrowed by analogy from Latin paUcology. A passage from St. Jerome ("In Job",ed. D.Valarsii,ix,lC)0) proves that capital writing was formerly designated uncial. The term is now con- ventionally applied to rounded forms as distinguished from the square forms of the capital. It does not ap- pear to have been definitively formed until the Hellenistic period, and then chiefly at Alcxan- « » dria. The most characteristic uncialletters are: <V ^ ^

The first four of the.se letters have similar forms in the Latin alphabet. On the papyri thus composed (Papy- rus of Chrysippus in the Louvre, end of third century B. c; fragment of Euripides on parchment at Berlin, 100 u. c; papyrus of the Constitution of Athens in British Museum, first century after Christ), the abbre- viations are few, the words are not separated, and punctuation is rare. The accents and breathings per- fected by the grammarians of Alexandria appear by degrees. (3) The Cursive, directly derived from the capital, the forms of which it retained for a long time. The letters are joined by ligatures which allowed the writer to write fiowingly without raising his calamus after each letter. This writing is chiefly used on ad- ministrative papyri for accounts, census, contracts, letters, reports, etc.; it is found, however, in copies of literary works and a part of the Constitution of Athens, cited above, is written in cursive writing. In this writing the a takes the minuscule form, the B re- tains its capital form or takes the simpli- » fied ap- pearance of u ; the H has the form of P ; from the Roman period only dates •/ •/ the prolongation of the first stroke of the -^ »\ ' y^. The majuscule cursive, which is that of the ancient papyri, is dis- tinguished from the minuscule cursive, used on the papyri of the sixth and seventh centuries.

B. Byzantine Period. — The history of Greek writing in the Middle Ages is more or less parallel with that of Latin. Until the ninth century uncials predominated. (Manuscripts in epigraphical capitals were not found in the East as in the West.) In the ninth century there arose in the Eastern, as in the Carlovingian, Em- pire a minuscule which became the customary script of manuscripts, but which always retained its traditional forms more faithfully than did the Latin character. The uncial is the chief script of parchment MSS. from the fourth to the ninth centurj'. Dated MSS. written at this period are rare, and no more than its beginning and ending can be determined. According to the rules laid down by Montfaucon and Gardthausen, a manuscript is ancient in proportion as its characters resemble those of inscriptions. The most ancient MSS. have disconnected letters and abbreviations; they incline to rounded or almost square forms; the letters are nearly always of an equal height; the strokes are slightly marked; as a general thing, the simijlest forms are the most ancient. The position of the initials is also an indication: not much larger than other letters on the papyri, they begin to spread over th(margin in the fourth century, and soon acquire great importance; they are at first black, but are later embellished with colours. Such is the character of the ancient uncial, one of the most important specimens of which is furnished by the fourth-century "Codex Sinaiticus" (q. v.). The same is true of the "Dios- corides" of V'ienna, written^about A. D. 506, in which is found the abbreviation for o6.

The new uncial, on the other hand, appeared only at the end of the seventh and during the eighth century. To the square and round Ci li V letters succeeded elongated characters '

terminating in a point; right angles a. U. T ^ were replaced by sharp corners; circles n l\

became pointed and tapering ovals. CL P Y ' The origins of this style have been

mistakenly sought in the ancient papyri (see Gard- thausen, "Byz. Zeit.", XI, 112): examples of it may, indeed, be found in marginal glosses of the sixth- and seventh-century Syriac MSS. preserved in London, but this is all. The style appears fully formed chiefly in the MSS. of the ninth and tenth conturies. Tlu-ough all these MSS. is traced the growing use of breathings and accents. Ligatures and abbreviations l)eciiiiie more frequent. Beginning with the tenth century, dated uncial MSS. multiply. Script, hitherto slo|)iiig, becomes almost perjjendicular. In Cod. Vat. ;i.')4 (dated 919) reappear the round, full forms, which in- creased in number in the eleventh and twelfth cen- turies. In the Evangelary of Harlei 5589 (dated 995) the B as- in nsumes i the ap- /> pearance of a Slavic letter i? oJ, the A and the ' W 'are orna- mented with little points, ^ ~r we meet with liga- tures and abbreviations, 5 ^ for toS and rd etc. Soon, especially in religious books, rountl letters re- turned to favour. There then arose a liturgical uncial with ornamented letters (eleventh and twelfth cent ). The papyri of the Byzantine period (sixth and seventh centuries) show the minuscule cursive, tlistinguished from the majuscule cursive by the greater ease with which the letters are joined by means of ligatures, and b}' more frequent abbreviations. This script, which is characteristic of papyri, is found only exceptionally in parchment MSS. : traces of it are found in the ninth- century Codex Bezffi in the possession of the Univer- sity of Cambridge (see Codex Bez.«).

Minuscule character appears suddenly in Greek MSS. of the ninth century, at the very time when it was taking root in the West as a consequence of the Carlovingian reform. As in the West, it was destined to supplant all others. It has been thought, not with- out probability, that St. Theodore the Studite (759- 826), who attached such importance to the copying of MSS., was instrumental in this reform. The cur- sive minuscule may have furnished the elements for this character; it appears, however, chiefly as the con- tinuation of the small uncial, which increases in re- finement in the MSS. of the eighth century. Thence arose the idea of combining the advantages of the uncial with that of the cursive, and the new writing quickly spread through all the monastic studios of the Greek world. Definitively adopted for the copying of MSS. and engrossing of diplomas, it never underwent such radical changes as did the Carlovingian. Its development may, however, be divided into three stages: (1) Ancient Minuscule (ninth to end of tenth century), connected with the cursive of the pajiyri, but with the letters mure carefully separated, in spite of the ligatures. (2) Middle Minuscule (from middle of tenth to end of eleventh century) shows a revival of the uncial and the cursive. The MSS. of this )5eriod evidence particular care; except for the ascenders, or uprights, which go beyond the line, the letters are of an almost equal height ; the words are generally sep- arated and the abbreviations, still limited, follow precise rules. (3) The New Minuscule (twelfth century to modern times) acquires an increasingly obscure ap- pearance because of the growth of abbreviations and ligatures. Besides, the employment of paper, which was partly substituted for parchment, contributed to make it assume a more cursive character. One of the most characteristic let- ters is the B, which is found under the cursive form iL until the twelfth cen- tury and then resumes its normal shape.

The three alphabets (Gardthausen, op. cit. infra in bibliography, tables 5, 6, 9) are: