Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/159

 143 PALJEOGKAPHY PALAEOGRAPHY is the study of ancient handwriting from surviving examples. While epigraphy (see INSCRIPTIONS) is the science which deals with inscriptions engraved on stone or metal or other enduring material as memorials for future ages, palaeography takes cognizance of writings of a literary, economical, or legal nature, written generally with stile, reed, or pen, on tablets, rolls, or books. The boundary, however, between the two sciences is not always to be exactly defined. The fact that an inscription occurs upon a hard material in a fixed position does not necessarily bring it under the head of epigraphy. Such specimens of writing as the graffiti or wall-scribblings of Pompeii and ancient Rome belong as much to the one science as to the other ; for they neither occupy the position of inscriptions set up with special design as epigraphical monuments, nor are they the movable written documents with which we connect the idea of palaeography. But such exceptions only slightly affect the broad distinction just specified. The scope of this article is to trace the history of Greek and Latin palaeography from the earliest written docu ments in those languages which have survived. In Greek palaeography we have a subject which is self-contained. The Greek character, in its pure form, was used for one language only ; but the universal study of that language throughout Europe, and the wide diffusion of its litera ture, have been the cause of the accumulation of Greek MSS. in every centre of learning. The field of Latin palaeography is much wider, for the Roman alphabet has made its way into every country of western Europe, and the study of its various developments and changes is essential for a proper understanding of the character which we w r rite. Handwriting, like every other art, has its different phases of growth, perfection, and decay. A particular form of writing is gradually developed, then takes a finished or calligraphic style and becomes the hand of its period, then deteriorates, breaks up, and disappears, or only drags on an artificial existence, being meanwhile superseded by another style which, either developed from the older hand or introduced independently, runs the same course, and, in its turn, is displaced by a younger rival. Thus in the history of Greek writing we see the uncial hand passing from early forms into the calligraphic stage, and then driven out by the minuscule, which again goes through a series of important changes. In Latin, the capital and uncial hands give place to the smaller character ; and this, after running its course, deteriorates and is superseded almost universally by the modern Italian hand dating from the Renaissance. Bearing in mind these natural changes, it is evident that a style of writing, once developed, is best at the period when it is in general use, and that the oldest examples of that period are the simplest, in which vigour and naturalness of handwriting are predominant. On the other hand, the fine execution of a MS. after the best period of the style has passed cannot conceal deteriora tion. The imitative nature of the calligraphy is detected both by the general impression on the eye and by uncertainty and inconsistencies in the forms of letters. It is from a failure to keep in mind the natural laws of development and change that early dates, to which they have no title, have been given to imitative MSS. ; and on the other hand, even very ancient examples have been post-dated in an incredible manner. Down to the time of the introduction of printing, writing ran in two lines the set book-hand and the cursive. MSS. written in the set book-hand filled the place now occupied by printed books, the writing being regular, the lines kept even by ruling, and the pages provided with regular margins. Cursive writing, in which the letters employed were fundamentally the same as in the set hand, was necessary for the ordinary business of life. The set book-hand disappeared before the print ing press ; cursive writing necessarily remains. Materials. Before passing to the discussion of Greek and Latin handwriting, the materials employed and the forms which they took may be briefly noticed. The various works on palaeography enumerate the different substances which have been put in requisition to receive writing. Metals, such as gold, bronze, lead, tin, have been used ; leaden plates, for example, in addition to those which have been found buried with the dead and bearing inscriptions of various kinds, were also used in the Venetian states down to the 14th or l?th century as a material on which to inscribe historical and diplo matic records. The ancient Assyrians recorded their hfstory on sun-dried or fire-burnt bricks ; and inscribed potsherds or ostraka have been gathered in hundreds in the sands of Egypt. Such hard materials as these, however, would have no extensive use where more pliant and convenient substances, such as animal skin or vegetable growths, could be had. We have therefore practically to confine our attention to such materials as papyrus, vellum, and paper, the use of which became so universally estab lished. But midway between the hard and soft substances, and partaking of the nature of both, stand the waxen tablets made of wood coated with wax, on which the writing was scratched with the point of the stilus or graphium. These tablets were called by the Greeks Se A/ros, SeArtoj/ or SeATi Stor, TTTVKTIOV or TTVKTIOV, Trt vaf, 7riva/a?, (fee., and in Latin tabulae or tabellse, or cerse ; and two or more, put together and connected with rings or other fastenings which served as hinges, formed a caudex or codex. A codex of two leaves was called SidvpoL or SiVy^a, diptycha ; of three, rpiirrv^a, triptycha ; and so on. From the early specimens which have survived, and which will be examined below, the trijrfycka appear to have been most commonly used. The tablets served for the ordinary affairs of life, for accounts, letters, drafts, school exercises, &c. The various references to them by classical writers need not be here repeated ; but their survival to a late time should be noted. St Augustine refers to his tablets, and St Hilary of Aries also mentions their use for the purpose of correspondence ; and there remains the record of a letter written in tabella as late as 1148 A.D. (Watten- bach, Schriftwesen, 2d ed., p. 46). They were very commonly used through the Middle Ages in all the west of Europe. Specimens inscribed with money accounts of the 13th and 14th centuries have survived in France; and similar documents of the 14th and 15th centuries are to to be found in several of the municipal archives of Germany. Reference to their use in England occurs in literature; and specimens of the 14th or 15th century have been dug up in Ireland. Similarly in Italy their use is both recorded and proved by actual examples of the 13th or 14th century. With the beginning of the 16th century their general employment seems to have come to an end ; but a few survivals of this custom of writing on wax have lingered on to modern times. It is said that sales in the fish-market of Rouen are still noted down on this material.