Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/166

 ir&amp;gt;o PALAEOGRAPHY mcntary papyrus at Vienna, originally brought from Ravenna, which contains the subscriptions of bishops and others to the acts of the synod of Constantinople of 680 A.D. A facsimile was first printed by Lambecius (Comm. d Bibl. Cxsar., ed. Kollar, lib. viii. p. 863), and is repro duced by Wattenbach (Script. Gr. Specim., tabb. 12, 13), whose latest opinion, however, with regard to the document is, that the writing is too uniform to be the actual subscrip tions, but that it is the work of a scribe imitating to some extent (and certainly so far that he has repeated the uncials and minuscules as he found them) the peculiarities of the original. This appears to be really the case, but the document being a nearly contemporary copy continues to have considerable paloeographical value. An analysis ol the alphabets of this papyrus and of the one of 600 A.D. cited above is given by Gardthau&en (Gr. Pal, taf. 4). The facsimile of the will of Abram, bishop of Harmonthis (Pal. Soc., pi. 107), may also be referred to as showing the mixture of large and small letters in the 8th century ; and in the single surviving specimen of Greek writing of the Imperial Chancery, containing portions of a letter addressed apparently to Pepin le Bref on the occasion of one of his wars against the Lombards in 753 or 756, appears a hand which approaches nearest to the set minuscule book-hand of the next century (Wattenb., Script. Gr. Specim., tabb. 14, 15). Arrived at this matured stage of development, the minuscule character was in a condition to pass into the regular calligraphic form of writing. In the documents quoted above, it appears generally in a cursive form, and in this form it was undoubtedly also used for literary works. An example of such book- writing in the 8th century has been given in facsimile by Gardthausen (Beitr. zur griech. Pal., 1877, taf. 1). But in the 9th century the minuscule hand assumed a set form from which the writing of the succeeding centuries developed as from a new basis. The establishment of this set hand is to be ascribed to the fact of the minuscule being now generally adopted as the recognized literary hand, in place of the larger and more inconvenient uncial, and its consequent introduction into vellum books. As we have already seen, uncial writing was influenced in the same way when applied to vellum. The firmer surface of the skin offered to the calligrapher a better working ground for the execution of his handiwork ; and thus may be explained the almost sudden appearance of the beautiful and regular writing which presents itself in the minuscule MSS. of the 9th century. Greek MSS. written in minuscules have been classed as follows: (1) codices vetmtissimi, of the 9th century and to the middle of the 10th century; (2) vetusti, from the middle of the 10th to the middle of the 13th century ; (3) recentiorea, from the middle of the 13th century to the fall of Constantinople, 1453 ; (4) novelli, all after that date. Of dated minuscule MSS. there is a not inconsiderable number scattered among the different libraries of Europe. Gardthausen (Gr. Pal., 344 sq.) gives a list of some thousand, ending at 1500 A.D. But, as might be expected, the majority belong to the later classes. Of the 9th century there are not ten which actually bear dates, and of these all but one belong to the latter half of the century. In the 10th century, however, the number rises to nearly fifty, in the llth to more than a hundred. In the period of codices vetustissimi the minuscule hand is distinguished by its simplicity and purity. The period has been well described as the classic age of minuscules. The letters are symmetrically formed ; the writing is com pact and upright, or has even a slight tendency to slope to the left. In a word, the beauty of this class of minuscule j writing is unsurpassed. But in addition to these general characteristics there are special distinctions which belong to it. The minuscule character is maintained intact, with out intrusion of larger or uncial-formed letters. With its cessation as the ordinary literary hand the uncial character had not died out. We have seen that it was still used for liturgical books. It likewise continued to survive in a modified or half-uncial form for scholia, rubrics, titles, and special purposes as, for example, in the Bodleian Euclid (Pal. Soc., pi. 66) in minuscule written MSS. of the 9th and 10th centuries. These uses of the older character sufficed to keep it in remembrance, and it is therefore not a matter for surprise that some of its forms should reappear and commingle with the simple minuscule. This afterwards actually took place. But in the period now under consideration, when the minuscule had been cast into a new mould, and was, so to say, in the full vigour of youth, extraneous forms were rigorously excluded. VV K 4ar Greek Minuscule (Euclid), 888 A.D. (firi ro ABF (iriirtSov Six a r/j.riOri(TfTat OMN fTwrfdov $10. TO. O.VTOL 8r] K[CU] T] airo) The breathings also of this class are rectangular, in unison with the careful and deliberate character of the writing ; and there is but slight, if any, separation of the words. In addition, as far as has hitherto been observed, the letters run above, or stand upon, the ruled lines, and do not depend from them as at a later period. The exact time at which this latter mechanical change took place cannot be named ; like other changes it would naturally establish itself by usage. But at least in the middle of the 10th century it seems to have been in use. In the Bodleian MS. of Basil s homilies of 953 A.D. (Pal. Soc., pi. 82) the new method is followed ; and if we are to accept the date of the 9th century ascribed to a MS. in the Ambrosian Library at Milan (Wattenb., Script. Gr. Specim., tab. 17), in which the ruled lines run above the writing, the practice was yet earlier. Certain scribal peculiarities, however, about the MS. make us hesitate to place it so early. In the Laurentian Herodotus (W. and V., Exempia, 1 tab. 31), which belongs to the 10th century, sometimes the one, sometimes the other system is followed in different parts of the volume ; and the same peculiarity happens in the MS. of Gregory of Nazianzus of 972 A.D. in the British Museum (Pal. Soc., pi. 25 ; Exempia, tab. 7). The second half of the 10th century therefore appears to be a period of transition in this respect. The earliest dated example of codices velustissimi is the opy of the Gospels belonging to Bishop Uspensky, written in the year 835. A facsimile is given by Gardthausen (Beit rage) and repeated in the Exe mpla (tab. 1). Better specimens have been photographed from the Oxford Euclid of 888 A.D. (Pal. Soc., pis. 65, 66 ; Exempia, tab. 2) and from the Oxford Plato of 895 A.D. (Pal. Soc., pi. 81; Exempia, tab. 3). Sabas (Specim. Palxograph.} has also ^iven two facsimiles from MSS. of 880 and 899. To this ist maybe added a facsimile of the Chronicles of Nicephorus n the British Museum, which falls within the 9th century Cat. Anc. MSS., i. pi. 15), and also one of the Aristotle &amp;gt;f Milan, which may be of the 9th or early 10th century (Pal. Voc., pi. 129; Wattenb., Script. Gr. Specim., tab. 16). Of the year 905 is the Catena on Job at Venice (Exempia, tab. 4) ; and other facsimiles of MSS. of this class are taken 1 Wattenbach and Von Velsen, Exempia Codicum Grsecorum, litt. minusc. scriptorum, Heidelberg, 1878.