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THE "INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC " SEKIES
HANDBOOK OF
GREEK AND LATIN
PALAEOGRAPHY
BY
EDWARD MATJNDE THOMPSON
D.C.L., LL.D., F. S.A.
HONORARY FELLOW OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, OXFORD
CORRESPONDENT OF THE INSTITUTE OF FEAHCE
AND PBIJSTCIPAL LIBRAEIAJf OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM
NEW YOEK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1893
Authorized Edition.
TO MY FRIEND
LEOPOLD DELISLE
MEMBER OP THE INSTITUTE
AND ADMINISTRATOR-GENERAL OF THE
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FRANCE
PREFACE.
THIS Hand-book does not pretend to give more than an
outline of the very large subject of Greek and Latin
Palaeography. It must be regarded as an introduction
to tlie study of the subject, indicating tlie different
branches into which it is divided and suggesting the
lines to be followed, rather than attempting full in-
struction. It in.no way supersedes the use of such
works as the collections of facsimiles issued by the
Palasographical Society and by other societies and
scholars at home and abroad; but it is hoped that it
will serve as an aid to the more intelligent and profitable
study of them.
Our conclusions as to the course of development of
the handwritings of former ages are based on our know-
ledge and experience of the development of modern
forms of writing. Children at school learn to write by
copying formal text-hands in their copy-books, and the
handwriting of each child will bear the impress of the
models. But as he grows up the child developes a
handwriting of his own, diverging more and more from
the models, but never altogether divesting itself of their
first influence. Thus, at all times, we have numerous
individual handwritings, but each bearing the stamp of
its school and of its period ; and they, in their turn, re-
act upon and modify the writing of the next generation.
In this way have arisen the handwritings of nations
viii Preface.
and districts, of centuries and periods, all distinguish-
able from eacli other "by the trained eye. And tlie
i acuity o distinction is not entirely, but to a very great
degree, dependent on familiarity. Anyone will readily
distinguish the handwritings of individuals of his own
time, and will recognise his friend's writing at a glance
as easily as he recognizes his face ; he has more difficulty
in discriminating between the individual handwritings
of a foreign country. Set before him specimens of the
writing of the last century, and he will confuse the hands
of different persons. Take him still farther back, and
he will pronounce the writing of a whole school to be
the writing of one man ; and he will see no difference
between the hands, for example, of an Englishman, a
Frenchman, and a Fleming. Still farther back, the
writing of one century is to him the same as the writing
of another, and he may fail to name the locality where a
MS. was written by the breadth of a whole continent.
Palaeographical knowledge was formerly confined to a
few, chiefly to the custodians or owners of collections of
manuscripts ; works of reference on the subject were
scarce and expensive; and facsimiles, with certain excep-
tions, were of no critical value. In these days, when
photography has made accurate reproduction so simple a
matter, the knowledge is within the reach of all who
care to acquire it. The collections of facsimiles which
have been issued during the last twenty years have
brought into the private study materials which the
student could formerly have gathered only by travel
and personal research. And more than this : these
facsimiles enable us to compare, side by side, specimens
from manuscripts which lie scattered in the different
libraries of Europe and which could never have been
brought together. There is no longer any lack of
Preface, ix
material for tlie ready attainment} of palceographical
knowledge.
Abroad, this attainment is encoaraged In various
countries by endowments and schools. In our own
country, where the development of such studies is
usually left to private exertion and enterprise, Palaeo-
graphy has received but little notice in the past. In the
future, however,, it will receive better recognition. In the
Universities its value has at length been acknowledged
as a factor in education. The mere faculty of reading an
ancient MS. may not count for much, but it is worth,
something. The faculty of assigning a date and locality
to an undated codex ; of deciding between the true and
the false ; in a word, of applying accurate knowledge to
minute points a faculty which is only to be acquired by
long and careful training is worth much, and will give
a distinct advantage to the scholar who possesses it.
I have to thank my colleague, Mr. G. F. Warner, the
Assistant-Keeper of the Department of MSS., for kind
help in passing this work through the press,
E. M. T.
BRITISH MTTSEUM,
IMh December, 1892.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. History of the Greek and Latin Alphabets , 1
CHAPTER II. Materials used to receive writing : Leaves
Bark Linen Clay and Pottery Wall-spaces Metals
Lead Bronze Wood Waxea and other Tablets
Greek Waxen Tablets Latin Waxen Tablets . 12
CHAPTER III. Materials used to receive writing (continued):
Papyrus Skins Parchment and Vellum Paper . 27
CHAPTER IY. Writing implements : Stilus, pen, etc. Inks
Various implements . . ( , , . 48
CHAPTER V. Forms of Books : The Roll The Codex The
Text Punctuation Accents, etc. Palimpsests . 54
CHAPTER VI.- Stichometry Tacnygraphy Cryptography 78
CHAPTER VIL Abbreviations and Contractions "Numerals $6
CHAPTER VIII. Greek Palaeography : Papyri Antiquity
of Greek writing Divisions of Greek Palaeography . 107
CHAPTER IX. Greek Palaeography (continued) : The Literary
or Book-Hand in Papyri . . * 118
CHAPTER X. Greek Paleography (continued) ; Cursive writ-
ing in Papyri, etc. Forms of cursive letters . * 130
CHAPTER XI. Greek Palaeography (continued) : Uncial
writing in vellum MSB. .*..,. 149
CHAPTER XII. Gre f ek Palseography (continued) : -Minuscule
writing in the Middle Ages Greek writing in Western
Europe 159
CHAPTER XIII. Latin Palaeography : Majuscule writing
Square Capitals Eristic Capitals Uncials . . * 183
CHAPTER XIV. Latin Palaeography (continued) ; Mixed
Uncials and Minuscules Half- uncials * * 196
xil Contents.
CHAPTER XV. Latin Palaeography (continued) : Eoman
Cursive writing ...... 203
CHAPTEB XVI. Latin Palaeography (continued) : Minuscule
writing Lombardic writing Visigothic writing
Merovingian writing The Caroline reform . * 217
CHAPTSB XVII. Latin Paleeography (continued) : Irisli
writing English writing before the ISTorman Conquest 236
CHAPTER XVIII. Latin Palaeography (continued) : The
Literary or Book-Hand in the Middle Ages The English
Bock-Hand in the Middle Ages . 257
CHAPTER XIX. Latin Palaeography (continued) : Cnrsive
writing The Papal Chancery The Imperial Cbancery
English Charfcer-hand English Chancery -hand
English Conrt-hand 293
ADDENDA. * 321
LIST OS 1 P ALLOGRAPH I AL WORKS ...... 327
I3DEX .335
TABLES OF ALPHABETS.
Derivation of Greek and Latin Alphabets . To face page 10
Greek Cursive Alphabets . . . >, > 148
Latin Cursive Alphabets . . . & 216
PAL-aaOGEAPHY.
CHAPTER I.
THE GEEEK AOT LATIN ALPHABETS.
ALTHOUGH the task which lies "before ns of investigating
the growth and changes of Greek and Latin palaeography
does not require ns to deal with any form of writing till
long after the alphabets of Greece and Rome had as-
sumed their final shapes, yet a brief sketch of the origin.
and formation of those alphabets is the natural introduc-
tion to such a work as this.
The alphabet which we use at the present day has
been traced back, in all its essential forms, to the ancient
hieratic writing of Egypt of about the twenty-fifth century
before Christ. It is directly derived from the Roman
alphabet; the Roman, from a local form of the Greek;
the Greek, from the Phoenician; the Phoenician, from
the Egyptian hieratic.
The hieroglyphic records of Egypt extend tlirouali a
period of from lour to five thousand years, from the age
of the second dynasty to the period of the Roman
Empire. Knowing the course through which other
primitive forms of writing have passed, we must allow
a considerable period of time to have elapsed before the
hieroglyphs had assumed the phonetic values which they
already possess in the earliest existing monuments.
Originally these signs were ideograms or pictures, either
actual or symbolical, of tangible objects or abstract
2
2 Paleography.
ideas which they expressed. Prom the ideograms iu
course of time developed the phonograms, or written
symbols of sounds, first as verbal signs representing
entire words, then as syllabic signs of the articulations
of which words are composed. The last stage of
development, whereby the syllabic signs are at length
taken as the alphabetical signs representing the ele-
mentary sounds "into which a syllable can be resolved,
has always proved the most difficult. Some forms of
writing, such, as the ancient cuneiform and the modern
Chinese, have scarcely passed beyond the syllabic stage.
The Egyptians curiously went more than half-way in the
last perfecting stage j they developed alphabetical signs,
bnt failed to make independent use of them. A phono-
gram was added to explain, the alphabetically-written
word, and an ideogram was added to explain the phono-
gram. It has been truly said that this cumbrous system
seems almost inconceivable to us, who can express our
thoughts so easily and so surely by six-and-twenty
simple signs. The fact, however, remains that the
Egyptians had unconsciously invented an alphabet ; and
they had been in possession of these letters for more than
four thousand years before the Christian era. Tho
oldest extant hieroglyphic insciiption is engraved on a
tablet, now in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, which
was erected to the memory of a priest? who lived in the
reign of Sent, a monarch o the second dynasty, whose
?eriod has been variously given as 4000 or 4700 B.C.
a the cartouche of the king's name three of the alpha-
betical signs are found, one of which, %, has descended
and finds a place in our own. alphabet. The age of our
first letters may thus be said to number some six thousand
years. In addition, it is a moderate computation to
allow a thousand years to have elapsed between the first
origin of the primaeval picture-writing of Egypt and the
matured form of development seen in the hieroglyphic
characters of the earliest monuments. We may without
exaggeration allow a still longer period and be within
hounds, if we carry back the invention of Egyptian
Wilting to six: or seven thousand years before Christ,
The Greek and Latin Alphabets. 3
To trace tie connection of the Greek alphabet with
the Semitic is not difficult. A comparison of the early
forms of tie letters sufficiently demonstrates their com-
mon origin ; and, still further, the names of the letters
and their order in the two alphabets are the same. But
to prove the descent of the Semitic alphabet from the
Egyptian has been a long and difficult task. Firstly, in
outward shape the Egyptian hieroglyphs of the monu-
ments appear to be totally different from the Semitic
letters and to have nothing in common with them.
Next, ^ their names are different The names of the
Semitic letters are Semitic words, each describing the
letter from its resemblance to some particular object., as
aleph an ox, leth a house, and so on. When the Greeks
took over the Semitic letters, they also took over their
Semitic names j by analogy, therefore, it might be
assumed that in adopting the Egyptian letters the
Semites would also have adopted the Egyptian names.
Thirdly, the order of the letters is different. All these
difficulties combined to induce scholars to reject the
ancient, though vague, tradition handed down by Greek
and Roman writers, that the Phoenicians had originally
obtained their letters from Egypt. By recent investiga-
tion, however, the riddle has been solved, and the chain
of connection between our alphabet and the ancient
Egyptian hieroglyphic writing has, beyond reasonable
doubt, been completed.
The number of alphabetical signs found among the
inscriptions on Egyptian monnments has been reckoned
at forty-five. Some of these, however, are used only
in special cases; others are only alternative forms for
signs more commonly employed. The total number
of signs ordinarily in use may thus be reduced to
twenty-five a number which agrees with the tradition
franded down by Plutarch, thab the Egyptians possessed
an alphabet of five-and-twenty letters. Until lately,
however, these hieroglyphs had been known only in the
set and rigid forms as sculptured on the monuments.
In 1859 the French Egyptologist de Rouge made known
the results of his study of an ancient cursive form of
4 Paleography.
hieratic writing in which he Lad discovered the link
connecting the Semitic with the Egyptian alphabet.
The document which yielded the most important results
was the Papyrus Prisse, which was obtained at Thebes
by Mons. Prisse d'Avennes, and was given by him to the
Bibliotheque Rationale. The greater part of this papyrus
is occupied by a moral treatise composed by Pfcah-Hotep,
a prince who lived in the reign of a king of the fifth,
dynasty not, however, the original, but a copy, which,
having been found in a tomb of the eleventh dynasty, is
anterior to the period of the Hyksos invasion, and may
be assigned to the period about 2500 B.C. The old
hieratic cursive character which is employed in this most
ancient document is the style of writing which was no
doubt made use of in Egypt for ordinary purposes at the
time of the Semitic conquest, and, as de Rouge has
shown, was taken by the new lords of the country as
material wherewith to form an alphabet of their own.
But, as has already been remarked, while adopting the
Egyptian forms of letters, the Semites did not also adopt
their Egyptian names, nor did they keep to their order.
This latter divergence may be due to the fact that it was
a selection that was made from a large number of ideo-
gi^anis and phonograms, and not a complete and established
alphabet that was taken over. In the table which accom-
panies this chapter the ancient hieratic character of the
Prisse papyrus may be compared with the early Semitic
alphabet of some sixteen hundred years later, and, in
spite of the interval of time, their resemblance in very
many instances is still wonderfully close.
Ihis Semitic alphabet appears to have been employed
in the cities and colonies of the P." oenicians and among
the Jews and Moabites and other neighbouring tribes at
a period not far removed from the time when the children
of Israel sojourned in the land of Egypt. Bible history
proves that in patriarchal times the art of writing* was
unknown to the Jews, but that, when they entered the
promised land, they were in possession of it. All evidence
goes to prove its acquisition during the Semitic occu-
pation of the Delta ; and the diffusion of the newly-.
The Greek and Latin Alphabets. 5
Formed alphabet may have been due to the recreating
Hyksos when driven out of Egypt, or to Phoenician
traders, or to both. 1
The most ancient form of the Phoenician alphabet
known to us is preserved in a series of inscriptions
which date back to the tenth century B.C. The most
important of them is that engraved upon the slab known
as the Moabite stone, which records the wars of Mesha,
king of Moab, about 890 B.C., against Israel and Edom,
and which was discovered in 18G8 near the site of
Dibon, the ancient capital of Moab. Of rather earlier
date are some fragments of a votive inscription engraved
on bronze plates found in Cyprus in 1876 and dedi-
cating a vessel to the god Baal of; Lebanon. From these
and other inscriptions of the oldest type we can con-
struct the primitive Phoenician alphabet of twenty-two
letters, as represented in the third column of the table,
in a form, however, which must; have passed through
many stages of modification since it was evolved from
the ancient cursive hieratic writing of Egypt.
The Greek Alphabet.
The Greeks learned the art of writing from the
Phoenicians at least as early as the ninth century B.C. ;
and it is not improbable that they had acquired it even
one or two centuries earlier. Trading stations and
colonies of the Phoenicians, pressed at home by the
advancing conquests of the Hebrews, were established
in remote times in the islands and mainlands of Greece
and Asia Minor ; and their alphabet of two-and-twenty
letters was adopted by the Greeks among whom they
settled or with whom they had commercial dealings. It
is not, however, to be supposed that the Greeks received
the alphabet from the Phoenicians at one single place
from whence it was passed on throughout Hellas ; but
rather at several points of contact from whence it was
locally diffused among neighbouring cities and their
colonies. Hence we are prepared to lind that, while the
* See Isaac Taylor, The Alphabet, chap. ii. 8.
6 Pals&ography.
Greek alphabet is essentially one and tlie same in all
parts of Hellas, as springing fiom one stock, it exhibits
certain local peculiarities, partly no doubt inherent from
its very first adoption at different centres, partly derived
from local influences or from linguistic or other causes.
We cannot, then, accept the idea of a Cadmean alphabet,
in the sense of an alphabet of one uniform pattern for all
Greece*
Among the two-and-twenty signs adopted from the
Phoenician, four, viz. dleph, "he, yod, and ayin, were
made to represent the vowel-sounds a, e, i, o, both long
and short, the signs for e and o being also employed for
the diphthongs ei and oi. The last sound continued to
be expressed by the omiJcron alone to a comparatively
lato period in the history of the alphabet. The fifth
vowel-sound u was provided for by a new letter, the
upsilon, which may have been either a modification or
" differentiation" of the Phoenician ivaw, or derived from
a letter of similar form in the Cypriote alphabet. This
new letter must have been added almost immediately
after the introduction of the Semitic signs, for there is no
local Greek alphabet which is without it. Next was felt
the necessity for distinguishing long and short e, and in
Ionia, the aspirate gradually falling into disuse, the sign.
H, eia> 3 was adopted to represent long e, probably before
the end of the seventh century B.C. About the same
time the long o began to be distinguished by various
signs, that used by the lonians, the omega, 1, being
apparently either a differentiation of fhe omilcron, or, as
has been suggested, taken from the Cypriote alphabet.
The age of the doable letter and of X and ^, as they
appear in the Ionian alphabet, must, as is evident from
their position, be older than or at least coeval with
omega,.
With regard to the sibilants, their history is involved
in great obscurity. The original Semitic names appear
to have become confused in the course of transmission
to the Greeks and to have been applied by them to
the wrong signs. The name zeta appears to corre-
spond to the name tsade, but the letter appears to be
The Greek and Latin Alphabets. 7
taken from the letter zcn/n. 3Li 3 which seems to be the
same word as shin, represents the letter sameJch. San,
which is probably derived from zayn, represents tsade.
Sigma) which may be identified with sarnBkh, represents
shin. But; all these sibilants were not used simultane-
ously for any one dialect or locality. In the well-known
passage of Herodotus (i. 139), where he Is speaking of
the terminations of Persian names, we are told that they
" all end in the same letter, which the Dorians call san
and the lonians sigma" There can be little doubt that
the Dorian sail was originally the M-shaped sibilant
which is found in the older Dorian inscriptions, as in
Thera, Melos, Crete, Corinth and Argos. 2 This sibilant)
is now known to have been derived from the Phoenician
letter tsade. In a Greek abecedarians, scratched upon a
small vase discovered at Formello, near Veii, this letter
is seen to occupy the eighteenth place, corresponding
to the position of tsade in the Phoenician alphabet. In
the damaged Greek alphabet similarly scrawled on the
Galassi vase, which was found at Cervetri in 1886, it is
formed more closely on the pattern of the Phoenician letter.
In the primitive Greek alphabet, therefore, san existed
(representing tsade) as well as sigma (representing shin),
but as both appear to have had nearly the same sibilant
sound, the one or the other became superfluous. In the
Ionian alphabet sigma was preferred.
But the disuse of the letter sari must date far back,
for its loss affected the numerical value of the Greek
letters. When this value was being fixed, the exclusion
of san was overlooked, and the numbers were calculated
as though that letter had not existed. The preceding
letter pi stands for 80 ; the hoppa for 90, the numerical
value of the Phoenician feadeand properly also that of san.
At a later period the obsolete letter was re-adopted as
the numerical sign for 900, and became the modern
sampi (i.e. san + pi), so called from its partial resemblance,
in its late form, to the letter pi.
" It has also been identified with a T-shaped sign which ^
used for a special sound on coins of Mesembria, and at JELalicar
nassns in the fifth century B.C.
8 Palaeography*
With, regard to the local alphabets of Greece, different
states and different islands either adopted or developed
distinctive signs. Certain letters underwent gradual
changes, as eta from closed H to open H, and theta from
crossed to the dotted circle 0, which forms were com-
mon to all the varieties of the alphabet. The most
ancient forms of the alphabet are found in Melos, Thera,
and Crete, which, moreover did not admit the double
letters. While some states retained the digamma or the
koppa, others lost them; while some developed par-
ticular differentiations to express certain sounds, others
were content to express two sounds by one letter. The
forms J 1 for beta and fc for epsiloib&re peculiar to Corinth
and her colonies; the Argive alphabet is distinguished
by its rectangular lamlda ^ ; and the same letter
appears in the Boeotian, Chalcidian, and Athenian alpha-
bets in the inverted form I'.
But while there are these local differences among the
various alphabets of ancient Greece,, a broad division has
been laid down by KirchhofF, who arranges them in two
groups, the eastern and the western. The eastern
group embraces the alphabet which has already been
referred to as the Ionian, common to the cities on the
western coast of Asia Minor and the neighbouring islands,
and the alphabets of Megara, Argos, and Corinth and
her colonies ; and, in a modified degree, those of Attica,
Naxos, Thasos, and some other islands. The western
group includes the alphabets of Thessaly, Euboea, Phocis,
Locris, and Bceotia, and of all the Peloponnese (except-
ing the states specified under the other group), and also
those of the Achaean and Chalcidian colonies of Italy
and Sicily.
In the eastern group the letter H has the sound of a?;
and the letters X, f , the sounds of Jch and ps. (In Attica,
Naxos, etc., the letters E and 4* were wanting, and the
sounds a? and ps were expressed by X], Z, or rarely by a special sign $. In a word,
the special test- letters are :
The Greek and Latin Alphabets.
Eastern: X=&&. *P=p*.
Western: X=a?. ^ = M,
How this distinction came about Is not known,
several explanations have been Hazarded. It Is unneces-
sary In this place to do more tlian state the fact.
As the Semitic languages were written from right to
left, so in the earliest Greek inscriptions we find the same
order followed. Next came the method of writing
called l)oustrop}tedon s in which the written lines ran
alternately from right to left and from left to right, or
vice versa, as the plough forms the farrows. Lastly, writ-
ing from left to right became universal. In die most
ancient tomb-inscriptions of Melos and Thera we have
the earliest form, of writing. Soustropliedon was com-
monly used in the sixth century B.C. A notable excep-
tion, however, is found in the famous Greek inscription
at Abu Sim b el the earliest to which a date can be
given. It is cut on one of the legs of the colossal statues
which guard the entrance of the great temple, and
records the exploration of the Nile up to the second
cataract by certain Greek, Ionian, and Cariaa mercenaries
in the service of Psammetichus. The king here men-
tioned may be the first (B.C. 654 617) or the second
(B.C. 594589) of the name. The date of the writing
may therefore be roughly placed about 600 B.C. The
fact that, besides this inscription, the work of two of
the soldiers, the names of several of their comrades are
also cut on the rock, proves how well established was
the art of writing even at this early period.
'lie Latin Alphabet,
Like the local alphabets of Greece, the Italic alphabets
varied from one another by the adoption or rejection of
different signs, according to the requirements of language.
Thus the Latin and Faliscan, the Etruscan, the Umbrian,
and the Oscan alphabets are sufficiently distinguished in
this way ; but at the same time the common origin of all
can be traced to a primitive or so-called Pelasgian alphabet
of the Chalcidian type. The period of the introduction of
io Palaeography.
writing into Italy from the great trading and colonizing
city of Chalcis must be carried back to the time when
the Greeks wrote from right to left, A single Latin
inscription 3 has been found which is thus written j and
in the other Italic scripts this ancient system was
also followed. We may assume, then, that the Greek
alphabet was made known to the native tribes of Italy
as early as the eighth or ninth century B.C., and not
improbably through the ancient Chalcidian colony of
Cumae, which tradition named as the earliest Greek
settlement in the land. The eventual prevalence of the
Latin alphabet naturally followed the political supremacy
of Rome.
The Latin alphabet possesses twenty of the letters of
the Greek western alphabet, and, in addition, three
adopted signs. Taking the Pormello and Galassi abece-
dana as representing the primitive alphabet of Italy,
it will be seen that the Latins rejected the letter san
and the double letters theta, phi, and chi (H'), and dis-
regarded the earlier sign for %i. 4 In Quintilian's time
letter X was the " ultima nostrarum " and closed the
alphabet. The sound z in Latin being coincident with
the sound s, the letter zeta dropped out. But at a later
period it was restored to the alphabet, as Z, for the
purpose of transliteration, of Greek words. As, however,
its original place had been meanwhile filled by the new
letter G, it was sent down to the end of the alphabet.
With regard to the creation of G, till the middle of the
third century B.C. its want was not felt, as C was em-
ployed to represent both the hard c and g sounds, 5 a,
3 On a small vase found in Rome in 1880. See U Inscription de
Duenos in the Melanges d'Archeologie et d'&istoire of the iScole
Francaise de Bonne, 1882, p. 147.
4 Some of these letters are generally accepted as the origin, of
certain of the symbols used for the Latin numerals. Bat a dif-
ferent origin has been lately proposed by Professor Zangemeister :
JSntstehung der romischen Zahlzeichen (Sitzber. d. k. Preuss. Alsad.,
1887).
5 The sound represented by C in Latin no doubt also gradually,
but at a very early period, became indistinguishable from that
represented by K. Hence the letter K fell into general disuse in
The Greek and Latin Alphabets. 1 1
survival of this use being seen in tbe abbreviations 0.
and On. for Gaius and Gratis; but gradually the new
letter was developed from C and was placed in the
alphabet in the position vacated by zeta. The digamma
had become the Latin F, and the itpsilon had been
transliterated as the Latin V j but in the time of Cicero
upsilon } as a foreign letter, was required for literary
purposes, aud thus became again incorporated in the
Latin alphabet this time without change of form, Y*
Its position shows that it was admitted before Z.
writing, and only survived as an archaic form in certain words,
such as &alend&.
CHAPTER II,
MATERIALS USED TO EECEIVE WETTING,
OF tlie various materials wliicli have "been used within
the memoiy of man to receive writing, there are three,
viz. papyrus, vellum, and paper, which, from their
greater abundance and convenience, have, each one in
its turn, displaced all others. But of the other materials
several, including some which at first} sight seem of a
most "unpromising character, have been largely used.
For such a purpose as writing, men naturally make use
of the material which can be mosb readily procured, and
is, at the same time, the most suitable. It the ordinary
material fail, they must extemporize a substitute. If
something more durable is wanted, metal or stone
may take the place of vellum or paper. But with in-
scriptions on these harder materials we have, in the
present work, bufc little to do. Such inscriptions gene-
rally fall under the head of epigraphy. Here we have
chiefly to consider the softer materials on which hand-
writing, as distinguished from monumental engraving,
has been wont to be inscribed. Still, as will be seen in
what follows, there are certain exceptions ; and to some
extent we shall have to inquire into the employment of
metals, clay, potsherds, and wood, as well as of leaves,
bark, linen, wax, papyrus, vellum, and paper, as materials
for writing. We will first dispose of those substances
which were of more limited use.
Leaves.
It is natural to suppose that, in a primitive state of
society, leaves of plants and trees, strong enough for
Materials used to receive Writing. i 3
O v>
the purpose, would be adopted as a ready-made material
provided by nature for such an operation as writing.
In various parts of India and the East the leaves of
palm-trees have been in use for centuries, and continue
to be employed for this purpose, and form an excellent and
enduring substance. Manuscripts written oil palm-leaves
have been of late years found in Nepaul, which date back
many hundreds of years. In Europe leaves of plants
ara not generally of the tonga character of those which
grow in the tropics ; but there can be no doubt that they
were used In ancient Greece and Italy, and that the
references by classical writers to their employment are
not merely fanciful. There is evidence of the custom
of TrfiTaXtoyio?, or voting for ostracism with olive-leaves,
at Syracuse, and of the similar practice at Athens
under the name of e/c^uXXoc^opta. 1 Pliny^ $at. Hist.
xiii. 11, writes: " Antea non fuisse chartarum usum: In
palmarum foliis primo scrip titatum, deinde quarundam
arborum libris."
Barfe.
Better adapted for writing purposes than loaves was
the bark of trees, liber y which we have just seen named
by Pliny, and the general use of which caused its name
to be attached to the book (i.e. the roll) which was made
from it. The inner bark of the lime-tree, i\vpa, HUa 3
was chosen as most suitable. Pliny, ffnt. Hist. xvi. 14,
describing this tree, says : u Inter corticem et lignum
tenues tunicge sunt multiplici membrana, e qulbus vincula
tilise vocantur tenuissimas earum philyrse." It was
these delicate shreds, pJiilyrse, of this inner skin or bark
which formed the writing material. In the enumeration
of different kinds of books by Martian us Capella, ii, 136,
those consisting of lime-bark are quoted, though as
rare ; " Kari vero in philyrse cortice subnotati/* Ulpian
1 The olive-leaf, used in this ceremony, is also mentioned, (
atasy as the material on which lo inscribe a charm. Oat. Gk.
Pa/pyri in Brit. M"us. pap. cxxi. 213 ; and a bay-leaf Is enjoined
for the same purpose in Papyrus 2207 in. the Bibliothecnie
Rationale.
1 4 Paleography.
also, Digest, xxxii. 52, mentions c *volumma . in
philyra aut in tilia." Bat not only was the bark of the
lime-tree used, but tablets also appear to have been made
from its wood the "tilias pugillares" of Symrnachus,
IT. 34 ; also referred to by Dio Cassius, Ixxii. 8, in the
passage: "SaBe/co, rypajJLfJLarela, old ye IK i,\vpa$ irotei-
rat,. 33 It seems that rolls made from lime-bark were co-
existent at Rome with those made from papyrus, after
the introduction of the latter material ; but the home-
made bark must soon have disappeared before the
imported Egyptian, papyrus, which had so many advan-
tages both in quantity and quality to recommend it.
Linen.
Linen cloth, which is found in use among the ancient
Egyptians to receive writing, appears also as the material
for certain rituals in Roman history, Livy, x. 88, refers
to a book of this character, " liber vetus linteus," among
the Samnites; and again, iv. 7, he mentions the "lintei
libri " in the temple of Moneta at Rome. Pliny, Nat. Hist.
xiii. 11, names " volumina lintea " as in use at an early
period for private documents, public acts being recorded
on lead. Marfcianus Capella, iii. 136, also refers to
ee carbasina volumina" 5 '; and in the Code& Theodos.
xL 27, 1, " mappse linteas " occur.
Clay and Pottery.
Clay was a most common writing material among the
Babylonians and Assyrians. The excavations made of late
years on the ancient sites o their great cities have brought
to light a whole literature impressed on sun-dried or fire-
burnt bricks. Potsherds came ready to the hand in
Egypt, where earthenware vessels were the most common
land of household utensils. They have been found in
large numbers, many inscribed in Greek with such
ephemeral documents as tax and pay receipts, generally
of the period of the Roman occupation. 2 To such
inscribed potsherds has been given the title of ostraka,
a term which will recall the practice of Athenian ostracism
3 See autotypes of some specimens in Pal. 800. ii. pL 1, 2.
Materials used to receive Writing. 15
in-which the votes were recorded on sneh fragments/
Thafc such material was used in Greece only on. such
passing occasions or from necessity is illustrated by the
passage in Diogenes Laertius, vii. 174, which narrates
that the Stoic Clean thes was forced by poverty to write
on potsherds and the shoulder-blades of oxen* Tiles
also., upon which alphabets or verses were scratched with
ths stilus before baking, were used by both Greeks and
Romans for educational purposes. 4
Wall-spaces.
It is perhaps straining- a term to include the walls of
buildings under the head of writing materials; but the
graffiti or wall-scribblings, discovered in such large
numbers at Pompeii/ hold such an important place in
the history of early Latin palaeography, that it must not
be forgotten that in ancient times, as now^ a vacant wall
was held to be a very convenient place to present appeals
to the public, or to scribble idle words.
Metals.
The precious metals were naturally but seldom used
as writing materials. For such a purpose, however, as
working a charm, an occasion when the person specially
interested might be supposed not to be too niggard in his
outlay in order to attain his ends, we find thin plates or
leaves of gold or silver recommended, 6 a practice which is
paralleled by the crossing of the palm of the hand with
3 Yotes for ostracism at Athens were probably recorded on
fragments of "broken vases which liad been used in religious
services, and which were given out specially for the occasion.
Only two such voting ostraka appear to be known: the one is
described by Benndorf, G-nech. und sicilisclie VasenMlder, tab.
xxix. 10; the other, for the ostracism of Xanthippos, the father
of Pericles (see Aristotle, Const. Athens, p. 61), is noticed by
Studniczka, Antenor un& archaische Muterei in Jahrbuch des Jcaia.
Deutscken Arch. Instituts, bd. ii. (1887), 161
4 Facsimiles in Corp. Inscr. Lat. iii. 962.
s Ibid. iv.
6 Cat. GJc. Papyri in Brit. Mus., pap. cxxi. 580 j also papyri
in the BibL Nationale, 258, 2705, 2228.
1 5 Pal&og raphy*
a gold or silver coin as enjoined by the gipsy fortune-
teller.
LeacL
Lead was used at an ancient data Pliny, Nat. Hist. xiii.
11, refers to "plmnbea volumina^ as early writing mate-
rial Pausanias, ix. 31, 4, states that at Helicon he saw
a leaden plate (jj,d\ij3So$) on which the "Epy Mus, pp. 64 sqc[.
Materials used to receive Writing. 1 7
Montfaucon, Palseoyr. GTBQCCL, 16, 181, mentions and
gives an engraving of a leaden book, apparently con-
nected with magic. In 1880 an imprecatory leaden
tablet was dug up at Bath, the inscription being in
Latin : a relic of the Roman occupation. 3 Of later date
is a tablet found in a grave in Dalmatia, containing a
charm against evil spirits, in Latin, inscribed in cursive
letters of the sixth century. 4 Several specimens which
have been recovered from mediaeval graves prove that
the custom of burying leaden inscribed plates with, the
dead was not uncommon in the middle ages. 5 The
employment of this metal for such purposes may have
been recommended by its supposed durability. But
lead is in fact highly sensitive to chemical action, and is
liable to rapid disintegration under certain circum-
stances. For the ancient dirse it was probably used
because it was common and cheap. For literary purposes
it appears to have been to some extent employed in the
middle ages in Northern Italy, leaden plates inscribed
with historical and diplomatic records connected with
Venice and Bologna being still in existence, apparently
of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. 8
Bronze.
Bronze was nsod both by Greets and Bomans as
a material on which to engrave votive inscriptions,
laws, treaties, and other solemn documents. These,
however, do not come under present consideration,
being strictly epigraphical monuments. The only class
which we need notice is that of the Eoman military
diplomas, those portable tabulse lionestse missionis, as they
have been called, which were given to veteran soldiers
and conferred upon them rights of citizenship and
marriage. Fifty-eight such documents, or portions of
them, issued under the emperors*, from Claudius to
Diocletian, have been recovered. 7 They are interesting
JFermes xv. ; Jburn. Brit. Arch. Assoo. xlii. 410,
Corp. Inscr. Lai. iii. 961.
Wattenbach, Scliriftw. 42-44.
ArcJiseologia, xliv. 123.
Corp. Inxcr. I/at. iii. 843 g^q.
8
J 3 Paleography*
"both palsBographically, as giving a series of specimens
of the Roman rustic capital letters, and also for the form
which they took, exactly following that observed in the
legal documents preserved in waxen tablets (see below).
They were, in fact, codices in metal. The diploma con-
sisted o f ' two square plates of the'tnelal, lunged with
rings. The authentic deed was engraved on the inner
side of the two plates, and was repeated on the outside of
the first plate. Through two holes a threefold wire was
passed and bound round the plates, being sealed on the
outside of the second plate with the seals of the wit-
nesses, whose names were also engraved thereon. The
seals were protected by a strip of metal, attached, which
was sometimes convex to afford better cover. In case
of the outer copy being called in question, reference was
made to the deed inside by breaking the seals, without
the necessity of going to the official copy kept in the
temple of Augustus at Rome.
The repetition of the deed in one and the same
diploma is paralleled in some of the Assyrian tablets,
which, after being inscribed, received an outer casing of
clay on which the covered writing was repeated.
Wood.
Wooden tablets were used in very remote times. In
many cases they were probably coated, if not with wax,
with some kind of composition, the writing being
scratched upon them with a dry point ; in some in-
stances we know that ink was inscribed upon the bare
wood.^ The ancient Egyptians also used tablets covered
with a glazed composition capable of receiving ink. 8
Wooden tablets inscribed with the names of the dead
are found with mummies. They wore also used for
memoranda and accounts, and in the Egyptian schools;
specimens of tablets inscribed with receipts, alphabets, and
verses having survived to the present day. 9 One of the
8 Wilkinson, Anc. JSyyp. ii. 183,
9 Beuyens, Lettres, m. Ill ; Transao, Roy. Soc, Lit., 2nd scries,
x. pt. 1 ; Leemans, Mon, JSgypt. ii. tab. 236. Several specimeus
of Egyptian inscribed tablets are in the British Museum.
Materials used to receive Writing* 19
earliest specimens of Greek writing is a document in-
scribed m ink on a small wooden tablet now in the
British Museum (5849, 0.) ,* it refers to a money trans-
action o she thirty-first year of Ptolemy Pliiladelphus
(B.C. 254 or 253) . l In the British Museum there is also
a small wooden board (Add. MS. 33,293), painted white
and incribed in ink with thirteen lines from the Iliad (in.
273 285), the words being marked off and the syllables
indicated by accents,, no doubb for teaching young
Greek scholars It was found in Egypt, and is probably
of the third century. There is also a miscellaneous set
of broken tablets (A.dd. MS. 33,369) inscribed in ink
on a ground of drab paint, with records relating- to the
recovery of debts, etc., at Panopolis, the modern Bkhmim,
in the Thebaid ; probably of the seventh century. In
the records of ancient Greece we have an instance of
the employment of wooden boards or tablets. In
the inventory of the expenses of rebuilding the
Brechtheam at Athens, BC. 407, the price of two
boards, on which the rough accounts were first entered,
is set down at two drachmas, or 9|rf. each : " craviSes ovo
9 0.9 TOP Xo7oz' dva t ypd names the composition : *' 6 fie eVwy rf)
20 Palaeography.
Greece and Rome. Sucli waxen tablets were
double, triple, or of several pieces or leaves. In Greek
they were called TriVaf, 7rtj>a/a? ? SeA/ro?, SeA/nW, $\rl$i,ov,
TTVKTLOV, 7ruf/oz>, fypafjLfJiarelov ; 6 in Latin, ceite, tabnlsB,
talellse. The wooden surface was sunk to a slight
depth, leaving. a raised frame at the edges, after the
fashion of a child's school-slate of the present day, and
a thin coating of wax, usually black, was laid over it.
Tablets were used for literary composition/ school exer-
cises, 8 accounts, or rough memoranda. They were some-
times fitted with slings for suspension. Two or more put
together, and held together by rings acting as hinges,
formed a caudex or codex. Thus Seneca, De brev. vit. 13 :
" Plurium tabularum contextus caudex apud antiques
vocabatur ; unde publics tabulae codices dicuntur/"*
When the codex consisted of two leaves it was called
Sldvpoi, S/TTTt/^a, diptycha, duplices ; of three, rpi7rrv^a t
iripf,ycha, triplices ; and of more, TrezmiTrru^a, penta-
ptycha, quintuplices, TroXv-Trrv^a, polyptycha, mnUiplices*
In Homer we have an instance of the use of a tablet in
the death-message of King Proetus, " graving in a folded
tablet many deadly things/" * And Herodotus tells us
(vii. 239) how Demaratus conveyed to the Lacedaemon-
ians secret intelligence of Xerxes' intended invasion of
Greece, by means of a message written on the wooden
surface of a tablet (Se\Tiov SLTTTVXOV) from which the wax
had been previously scraped but was afterwards renewed
to cover the writing. On Greek vases of the fifth and
fourth centuries B.C., tablets, generally triptychs, are
represented, both open in the hands of the goddess
jJ-d\drf, 77 fjid\0a. 'Hpo'ftoros /jtez/ yap Krjfj&vc'lprjKG, Kparivos 8 ev
rrj Hvrivfl pdkOrjv ec/>^." Ma\6a appears to have been wax mixed
with tai'. Of. Arwtoph. Jfragm. 206 : ** TTJV pdt^dav e r&v y/ja/x/xa-
reiov fja-Qiav."
fr See Pollux, Qnomastioon, x. 57.
T Quintilian, Instit. orator, x. 3, 31, recom-mencls the use of
waxen tablets : " Soribi optima ceris, in quibua facillima eat ratio."
H Horace, Sat, I, vi. 74, " Loevo suspensi loculos tabula in fi. |f
Materials used to receive Writing. 21
.Athena or other persons, and closed and bound round
with strings, hanging from the wall by slings or handles. 3
Tablets in the codex form would be used not only as
mere note-books, but especially in all cases where the
writing was to be protected from Injury either for the
moment or for a long period. Hence -they were used
for legal documents, conveyances and wills, and for
correspondence. When used for wills, each page was
technically called cera, as in Gaius, ii. 10i: "flaec, ita
ut in his tabulis cerisque scrip ta sunt, ita do lego." 3
They were closed against inspection by passing a triple
thread, \ivov, linum, through holes in the boards, and seal-
ing it with the seals of the witnesses, as will presently be
more fully explained. As to correspondence, small tablets,
codicilli or pugillares, were employed for short letters ;
longer letters, epistolsB, were written on papyrus. Thus
Seneca, Ep. 55, 11, makes the distinction : " Adeo tecum
sum, ut dubitem an incipiam non epistulas sed codicillos
tibi scribere." The tablets were sent by messengers,
tcLbellarii, as explained by Festus : 4 " Tabellis pro chartis
utebantur antiqui, quibus ultro cifcro, sive privatim sive
publice opus erat, certiores absentes facie bant. Unde
adhuc tabellarii dicuntur, efc tabellae missse ab impera-
toribus." 5 The answer to the letter was inscribed on the
same set of tablets and returned. Love-lettei*s appear to
have been sometimes written on very small tablets ; 6 Mar-
tial, xiv. 8, 9, calls them Vitdliani. Tablets containing
- See Gerhard, Auserlesene Vasenlilder, iii. 239, iv, 244, 287,
288, 2S9, 296 ; Lnynes, Vases, 35.
3 Of. Horace, Sat. IL v. 51 :
" Qni testamentum tradet tibi cnnqne legendum
Abmiere, et tabnlas a be removere memento ;
Sic tamen, ut lirnis rapias quid prima secnixdo
Cera velit versn."
4 De Verboruwi Signif., ed Miiller, p. 359.
5 Compare St. Jerome, J7p. viii. : 4 Eam et rudes illt Itnlia
homines, ante chartae et mombranarum naum., aut in dedolatis e
Lgno codicillis aut in corticibus ai'borum mntno e])istolarum
alloquia missitabant. U^de et portifcores eornm tabellarios et
bcriptores a libris arbornra librarios vooavere. 1 *
* See the drawing in Museo Borboniro, i. 2,
22 Paleography.
letters were fastened with a thread^ which was sealed. 7
Tlie materials for letter- writing are enumerated in the
passage of Plautus, B etc chides, iv. 714 : " Ecfer cito . . -
stilum, ceram et tabellas, linum " ; and the process of
sealing in line 748 : " cedo tu ceram ac linum actututn
age obliga, opsigna cito." In Cicero, CatiL iii. 5, we have
the opening oi a letter: " Tabellas profcrri jussimus.
. . . Primo ostendimus Cethego sigimm ; cognovit ; nos
linum incidimus ; legimus. . . Introductus es>t Statilius j
cognovit et signum et manum suam/*
The custom of writing letters on. tablets survived for
some centuries after classical times. In the 5th century
St. Augustine in his epistle to Eomanianus (Migne,
Patrolog. Lai. xxxiii. 80) makes reference to his tablets
in these words : " Non haec epistola sic inopiam charts
indicafc, ut membranas saltern abundare testetur. Ta-
bellas eburneas quas habeo avunculo tuo cum litteris
misi Tu enim huic pelliculse facilius ignosces, quia
differri non potuit quod ei scripsi, et tibi non scribe re
etiam ineptissimum existimavi. Sed tabellas, si qiise ibi
nostroB sunt, propter hujusmodi necessitates mittas pefco/*
St. Hilary of Aries likewise has the following passage
in his Life of Honoratus (Migne, Patrol. I/at. 1. 1201) :
" Beatus Bucherius cum ab eremo in tabulis, ut assolet,
cera illitis, in proximaab ipso degens insula, littoi^as ejus
suscepisset : ' Mel/ inquit, * suum ceris reddidisti/ '*
Both these passages prove that the custom was general
at the period. Even as late as the year 1148 a letter
" in tabella" was written by a monk of Pulda. 8
It will be noticed that St. Augustine refers to his tablets
as being of ivory. The ancient tablets were ordinarily
of common wood, such as beech, or fir, or box, the
"vulgaris buxus^ of Propertius (iii. 23) ; but thoy were
also made of more expensive material. Two of Martial's
apophoreta are "pugillares citrei" and " pugillares
eborei/" Propertius (I.e.) refers to golden, fittings :
"Non illas fixurn caras effecerat aurum.** The large
7 Clay, cretula, was originally ti>ed: y^ a-rj^dvrpis, Herod. ii 38 ;
viros, Aristoph. Zmis. liiOO, Pollux, Qnotncwt. x. 68.
8 Watteabaoh, Scki^ftw. 48.
Materials used to receive Writing* 2 3
consular diptychs, as we know from existing special ens,
were of ivory, often most beautifully carved.
The employment of waxen tablets lasted for certain
purposes through the middle ages in countries of Western
Europe. Specimens inscribed with, money accounts of
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries have survived
to the present day in France 9 ; and municipal accounts
on tablets of the fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries are
sf.ill preserved in some of the German towns. They
also exist in Italy, 1 dating from tlie thirteenth or four-
teenth, century ; they were used in England ; and
specimens are reported to have been found iii Ireland.
IL is said that quite recently sales in the fish-market of
Rouen were noted on waxen tablets. 2
Greek Waxen Tablets.
Ancient Greek waxen tablets have survived in not many
instances. In the British Museum are some which have
been found in Egypt. The most perfect is a book (Add.
MS. 38/270), perhaps of the third century, measuring
nearly nine by seven inches, which consists of seven tablets
coated on both sides with black wax and two covers
waxed on the inner side, inscribed with documents in
shorthand, presumably in Greek, and witli shorthand
signs written repeatedly, as if for practice,, and with
notes in Greek $ in one of the covers a groove is hol-
lowed for the reception of the writing implements.
Another smaller book, of about seven by four inches,
formed of six tablets (Add. MS, 83 ; 068) t is inscribed,
probably by some schoolboy of the third century, with
grammatical exercises and other notes in Greek, and
also with a rough drawing, perhaps meant for a carica-
ture of the schoolmaster. There are also two tablets
9 A tablet of accounts, of aboxit the year 1300, from CHeaux
Abbey, is in the British Museum, Add. Mfc>. 33, 215. Four tablets,
of the 14th century, fotiud at Beauvais, are in the Bibliotbfcque
Rationale Aoad. des Inscriptions, Cowptes Ifandus, 1887, p. H-l,
1 See Milaiii, Sei Tavolette cerate, in Pubbl. del R. Ivlituto di
Studi Superiori, 1877.
a Wattenbaeh, 8oMftw. 74
24 Paleography.
inscribed with verses in Greek uncial writing, possibly
some literary sketch or a school exercise. 3 Two others
of a similar nature have been recently acquired, the one
containing a writing exercise, the other a multiplication
table. The Bodleian Library has also lately purchased
a waxen tablet (Gr. Inscr. 4) on which is a writing
exercise. Others are at Paris; some containing scribbled
alphabets and a contractor's accounts, which were found
at Memphis. 4 In New York is a set of five tablets, on
which are verses, in the style of Menander, set as a copy
by a writing-master and copied by a pupil. 5 Other
specimens ot a similar character are at Marseilles, the
date of which can be fixed at the end of the 3rd or
beginning of the 4th century; 6 and the last leaf of a
document found at Verespatak, where so many Intin
tablets have been discovered, is preserved at Karls-
burg. 7
Latin Waxen Tablets.
Extant Latin tablets are more numerous, but have only
been found in comparatively recent years. Twenty- four,
containing deeds ranging in date from A.D. 131 to 167,
were recovered, between the years 1786 and 1855, from
the ancient mining works in the neighbourhood of AAbur-
nus Major, the modern Verespatak, in Dacia. In 1840
Massrnann published the few which had at that time
been discovered, in his Mbellus Auranus ; but the ad-
mission into his book of two undoubtedly spurious docu-
ments cast suspicion on the rest, which were accordingly
denounced until the finding of other tablets proved their
genuineness. The whole collection is given iu the
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum of the Berlin Aca-
demy, vol. iii.
During the excavations at Pompeii in July, 1875, a box
8 See Verhandl. der Philologen-Versamml. &% Wiirzbitrg, 18(59,
p. 239.
4 Revue ArcMol. viii, 461, 470.
5 Proceedings of the American Acad. of Arts and Sricnr.es, iii. 871.
8 Annuaire de la Soc. Fran, de Numiam. et d'ArcMoL iii,
xx i. Ixxvii.
7 Corpus Inscr. Lai. iii. 9C3
Materials ^tsed to receive Writing. 25
containing 127 waxen tablets was discovered in the house
of L. Cascilius Jucundus. They proved to be perscrip-
tiones and other deeds connected with, sales by auction
and receipts for payment of taxes. 8
The recovery of so many specimens of Latin tablets
has afforded ample means of understanding the mechani-
cal arrangement of such documents among the Romans.
Like the military tcibulse Tione^tsa missionis, they con-
tained the deed under seal and the duplicate copy open
to inspection. Bat most of them consist of three leaves:
they are triptychs, the third leaf being of great service
in giving cover to the seals. The Pompeian and Dacian
tablets differ from one another in some particulars ; bufc
the general arrangement was as follows. The tiiptych
was made from one block of wood, cloven into the
three required pieces, or leaves, which were fastened by
strings or wires passing through two holes near the edge
and serving for hinges. In the Pompeian tablets, cue
side of each leaf was sunk within a frame, the hollowed
space being coated with wax in such a way that, of the
six sides or pages, nos. 2, 8, 5 were waxen, while 1, 4, 6
were of plain wood. The first and sixth sides were not
used ; they formed the outside. On the sides 2 and 3
was inscribed the deed, and on 4 the names of the
witnesses were written in ink and their seals sunk into
a groove cut down the centre, the deed being closed
by a string of three twisted threads,, which passed
through, two holes, one at the head and the other at th
foot of the groove, round the two leaves and under the
wax of the seals, which thus secured it. An abstract
or copy of the deed was inscribed on page 5. The
Dacian tablets differed in this respect, that page 4 was
also waxen, aud that the copy of the deed was com-
menced on that page in the space on the left of the
groove, the space on the right being filled with the
8 Atti delta, It. Awademfa del TAncei, sor. ii- vol. iii. pt. 3,
1875-76, pp. 150230; Homes, vol. xii. 1877, pp. 88-141; and
OverbecV, Pompeji, 4th ed. by Man, 1884, pp. 489 sqq. The
whole collection is to be edited by Prof. Zangemeister in the
Corpus Inacr. Lat. gee PaL Soc. i. pi, 159.
26
Paleography*
witnesses* Barnes. The following diagram sliows the
arraBgement of a Dacian triptych :
o
t-
Deed - I/ e fins
O
De&d
ends
Copy of
flc&d
begins
Js
S3
%
Names
tfWtt-
-nesses
Copy of .deed
ends
o
It will "be noticed that, although the string which
closed the deed (as indicated by dotted lines) passed
through the holes of only two of the leaves, yet the
third leaf (pages 5 and 6) is also perforated with
corresponding holes. This proves that the holes were
first pierced in the solid block, before it was cloven,
into three, in order that they might afterwards adjust
themselves accurately. 9 In one instance the fastening
threads and seals still remain. 1
9 See Corp, Inscr. Lat> Hi. 922.
i Hid. 908.
CHAPTER IIL
MATERIALS USED TO BECEIVE WRITING continued.
WE now have to examine the history of the more com-
mon writing-materials of the ancient world and of the
middle ages, viz. papyrus, vellum, and paper.
Papyrus.
The papyrus plant, Cyperus Papyrun, which supplied
the substance for the great writing material of the
ancient world, was widely cultivated in the Delta of
Egypt. From this part of the country it has now
vanished, but it still grows in Nubia and Abyssinia.
Theophrastus, Hist. Plant, iv. 10, states that it also
grew in Syria, and Pliny adds that it was native to the
Niger and Euphrates. Its Greek name Trdirvpos, whence
Latin papyrus, was derived from one of its ancient
Egyptian names, P-apa. Herodotus, our most ancient
authority for any details of the purposes for which the
plant was employed, always calls it #146X09, a word no
doubt also taken from an Egyptian term, Theophrastus
describes the plant as one which grows in the shallows
to the height of six feet, with a triangular and tapering
stem crowned with a tui'ted head ; the root striking out
at right angles to the stem and being of the thickness
of a man's wrist. The tufted heads were used for
garlands in the temples of the gods j of the wood of the
root were made various utensils ; and of the stem, the
pith of which was also used as an article of food, a
variety of articles, including writing material, were
manufactured; caulking yarn, ships 1 rigging, light
skiffs, shoes, etc. The cable with which Ulysses bound
28 Pal&ography*
the doors of the tall when he slew the suitors was
o-irKov ftvj3\ivo (Odyss. xxi 390).
As a -writing material papyrus was employed in Egypt
from the earliest times. Papyrus rolls are represented
on the sculptured walls of Egyptian temples; and rolls
themselves exist of immense antiquity. The most
ancient papyrus roll now extant is the Papyrus Prisse,
at Paris, which contains the copy ot" a work composed in
the reign of a king of the fifth, dynasty and is itself of
about the year 2500 B.C. or earlier. The dry atmosphere
of Egypt has been specially favourable to the preserva-
tion of these fragile documents. Buried with the dead,
they have lain in the tombs or swathed in the folds of
the mummy-cloths for centuries, untouched by decay,
and in many instances remain as fresh a.s on the day
when they were written.
Among the Greeks the papyras material manu-
factured for writing purposes was called ^dprrj^ (Latin
charta) as well as by the names of the plant itself.
Herodotus, v. 58, refers to the early use of papyrus rolls
among the Ionian Greeks, to which they attached the
name of S^depat, " skins," the writing material to which
they had before been accustomed. Their neighbours,
the Assyrians, were also acquainted with it. 1 They
called it " the reed of Egypt/' An inscription relating
to the expenses of the rebuilding of the Erechtheum at
Athens in the year 407 B.C. shows that papyrus was
used for the fair copy of the rough accounts, which
were first inscribed on tablets. Two sheets, ^dpTat, Svo,
cost at the rate of a drachma and two obols each, or a
little over a shilling of our money. 1
The period of its first importation into Italy is not
known. The story of its introduction by Ptolemy, at
1 In the Assyrian wall-sculptures in the British Museum thei*e
are two scenes (Nos. 3 and 84) in which two couples of scribes
are represented taking notes. In each case, one of the scribes
is using a folding tablet (the hinges of one being distinctly
represented), and the other a scroll. The scroll may be either
papyrus or leather
2 See above, p. 19.
Materials used to receive Writing. 29
the suggestion of Aristarclius, is of suspicious authenti-
city. 3 We know, however, that papyrus was plentiful
in Rome under the Empire. In fact, it was the common
writing material among the Romans at that period, and
became so indispensable that,, on a temporary failure of
the supply in the reign of Tiberius, there was danger of
a popular tumult. 4 Pliny also, Nat. Hist. xiii. 11, refers
to its high social value in the words : " papyri natura
dicetur, cum chartse usu maxime humanitas vitee constet,
certe memoria," and again he describes it as a thing
" qua constat immortalitas hominum "
It is probable that papyrus was imported into Italy
already manufactured ; and it is doubtful whether any
native plant grew in that country. Strabo says that it
was found in Lake Trasimene and other lakes of Btruria;
but the^ accuracy of this statement has been disputed.
Still, it is a fact that there was a manufacture of this
writing material carried on in Borne, the charta Fanniana
being an instance; but it has been asserted that this
industry was confined to the re-making of imported
material. The more brittle condition of the Latin papyri,
as compared with the Greek papyri., fouiid at Hercu-
laneuni, has been ascribed to the detrimental effect of this
re-manufacture.
At a later period the Syrian variety of the plant was
grown in Sicily, where it was probably introduced during
the Arab occupation. It was seen there by the Arab
traveller,, Ibn-Haukal, in the tenth century, in the neigh-
bourhood of Palermo, where it throve in great luxuriance
in the shallows of the Papireto, a stream to which it gave
its name. Paper was made from this source for the use o
the Sultan j but in the thirteenth century the plant began to
fail, and it was finally extinguished by the drying up of the
stream in 1591. It is still, however, to be seen growing
in the neighbourhood of Syracuse, bat was probably
transplanted thither at a later time, for no mention of ifc
8 See below, p. 36.
4 Pliny, Nat. Hist. xiii. 13, " Sterilitatem sentit hoc quoqne,
factumque jam Tiberio principe inopia chartse, ut e senaLa
darentur arbitri dispenaandoe ; alias in tmmiltu vita ernt."
30 Pal&ography.
in that place occurs earlier than 1674. Some attempts
have been made in recent years to manufacture a writing
material on the pattern of the ancient chcwta, from this
Sicilian plant.
The manufacture of the writing material, as practised
in Egypt, is described by Pliny, Nat. Hist. xiii. 12, His
description applies specially to the system of his own day ;
but no doubt it was essentially the same that had been
followed for centuries. His text is far from clear, and
there are consequently many divergences of opinion on.
different points. The stem of the plant was cut longitu-
dinally into thin strips (philyrse) 5 with a sharp cutting
instrument described as a needle (acus). The old idea
that the strips were peeled off the inner core of the stem
is now abandoned, as it has been shown that the plant,
like other reeds, contains a cellular pith within the rind,
which was all used in the manufacture. The central strips
were naturally the best, being the widest. The strips
thus cut were laid vertically upon a board, side by side,
to the required width, thus forming a layer, sckeda,
across which another layer of shorter strips was laid at
right angles. Pliny applies to this process the phrase-
ology of net or basket making. The two layers formed a
" uet>, 3} plagula, or 0epai, among the
Ionian Greeks is referred to by Herodotus, v. 58, who
adds that in his day many foreign nations also wrote on
them*
Parchment and Vellum.
Affcor what has been here stated regarding the early
use of skins, the introduction of parchment, or vellum as
it is now more generally teiined, that is to say, skins
prepared in such a way that they could be written upon
011 both sides, cannot properly be called an invention ; it
was rather an extension of, or impr-ovement upon, an old
practice. The common story, as told by Pliny, Nat. Hisf.
xiii. 11, on the authority of Varro, runs that Emnenes II.
of Pergamum (B c. 197 158), wishing to extend the
library in his capital, was opposed by the jealousy of the
Ptolemies, who forbade the export o papyrus, hoping
thus to check tho growth of a rival library. The
Pergameno king, thus thwarted, was forced to fall back
again upon skins; and thus came about the manufacture
of vellum : " Mox asnmlatione circa bibliothecas regum
Ptolemasi et Eumenis, supnrimente chartas Ptolemceo,
idem Varro mem bran as Pergami tradit repertas." 8
Whatever may be tho historical value of this tra-
dition, at least it points to the fact that Pergamutn
was the cliio 1 * centre of the vellum trade. The name
$icj)6epai,, membrane, which had been applied to the
7 Diodorxis, ii. 32 : "CK r&v jBaa-LXiK&v tj>, ev als ot Hfpcrat ras
8 Sb. Jerome, JEp. vii., also refers to the place of its origin :
"Chartam defame noil puto, jEt^ypto mini.stran.te commercia.
Eb si alicubi Ptolernasus maria clausisset, tamen rex Attains
membranas a Pcrgarno tniserat, tit pennria chnrtse pellibus
peusaretur. Undo cfc Pergameriarum nornon ad hunc usque
diem , tradente sibl inviceni posteritate, servatutn eat."
j 6 Paleography*
earlier skins, was extended also to the new manufacture.
The title wcm&nma Percjamena is comparatively late,
first occurring in the edict of Diocletian, A.D. 301, de
pretiis rerum, vii. 88 ; next in the passage in St. Jerome's
epistle, quoted in the footnote. The Latin name was also
Grsecized as ju,efjij3pdvat, 9 being so used in 2 Tim. iv. 18 :
'* fjidXiPTO, ra? jjue^pdva^.^ The word <7<0/wmoi>, which
afterwards designated a vellum MS. as opposed to a
papyrus roll, had reference originally to the contents,
such a MS. being capable of containing an entire work
or corpus*
As to the early nso of vellum amon^ the Greets and
Romans, no evidence is to be obtained from the results of
excavations. No specimens have been recovered at
Herculaneum or Pompeii, and none of sufficiently early
date in Egypt. There can, however, be lit lie doubt that
it was imported into Borne under the Republic. The
general account of its introduction. thither evident!/
suggested by Varro's earlier story of the first use of
it is that Ptolemy, at the suggestion of Aristarclius
the grammarian, having sent papyrus to Borne, Orates
the grammarian, out of rivalry, induced Attains of
Porgamum to send vellum. 1 References to the pages
of certain municipal deeds seem to imply that the latter
were inscribed in books, that is, in vellum M88., not
on papyrus rolls. 2 When Cicero, Epp, ad Attic, xiii. 24,
uses the word SicfrBepat, he also seems to refer to vellum.
The advantages of the vellum boo"k over the papyrus roll
are obvious : it was in the more convenient form of the
eodetv; it could be re-written; and the leaves could
receive writing on both sides. Martial enumerates,
among bisApophoretrt> 9 vQ\]Tim MSS. of Homer (xiv. 184),
Virgil (186), Cicero (183), Livy (190), and Ovid (192). 3
9 Birt, Ant. Euc&w., 41,
1 Boissonade* Anecd. i 420.
2 Mommsen, Inscr. Ncapol. 6823; JnnaU del Injf. (18jG)
xxx. 192 ; Marquardt, Privatlcben der Rawer, 796.
3 Pliny, Nat. JHist. vii. 21, mentions a curiosity: "In
indusa-m Iliadern Homeri carmen in me libra na soriptum
Cicero."
Materials used to receive Writing. 37
Yellum tablets began to take the place of tlie ialulse
cerate, as appears in Martial, xiv. 7 : " Bsse puta ceras^
licet haec membrana vocetur : Delebis, quotiens scripta
novare voles." Quintilian, x. 3, 81, recommends the use
of vellum for drafts of their compositions by persons
of weak sight : the ink on vellum was more easily read
than the scratches of the stilus on was:. 4 Horace refers to
it in Sat. ii. 8 : " Sic raro scribis ut toto non quater anno
Membranam poscas ;; j and in other places,
Prom the dearth of classical specimens and from the
scanty number of early mediaeval MSS. of secular authors
which have come down to us, it seems that vellum was
not a common writing material under the first Roman
emperors. There are no records to show its relative
value in comparison with papyrus. 5 But the latter had
been so long the recognized material for literary use that
the slow progress of vellum as its rival may be partly
ascribed to natural conservatism. It was particularly
the influence of the Christian Church that; eventually
carried vellum into the front rank of writing materials
and in the end displaced papyrus. As papyrus had been
the principal material for receiving the thoughts of the
pagan world, vellum was to be the great medium for
conveying to mankind the literature of the new religion.
The durability of vellum recommended it to an extent
that fragile papyrus could in no way pretend to. When
Constantino required copies of the Scriptures for his new
churches, he ordered fifty MSS. on vellum, " TrevrrfKovra
c-wfjbdrta ev Steepens/' to be prepared. 6 And St. Jerome,
Ep. cxli., refers to the replacement of damaged volumes
in the library of Pamphilus at Caosarea by MSS. on
vellum : " Quam [bibliothecam] ex parte corruptani
4 So also Martial, XIT. 5: "Languid a ne tristes obscurent
lumina certB, Nigia tibi niveum littera pingat ebur."
5 Birt, Ant. JEtucliwesen, has attempted to prove that vellum
was a comparatively worthless commodity, used as a cheap
material for" rough drafts and common work. His conclusions,
however, cannot be accepted, For example, few probably will
agree with him that a copy of Homer's JBttkirncho'ttiyo'niackiQt on
papyrus was a grift of equal value with the Iliad oa vellum.
6 Eusebius, Vit. Constant., iv. 36.
3& Paleography.
Acacias dehinc et Euzoius, ejusdera eccIesijB sacerdotes,
^
in rnembranis instaurare conati
As to the character and appearance of vellum at
different periods., it will be enough to state generally
that in the most ancient MSS. a thin 5 delicate material
may usually be looked for, firm and crisp, with a smooth
and glossy surface. This is generally the character of
vellum of the fifth and sixth centuries. Later than this
period, as a rule^ it does not appear to have been so care-
fully prepared | probably, as the demand increased, a
greater amount of inferior material came into the market, 7
But the manufacture would naturally vary in different
countries. In Ireland and England the early MSS. are
generally on stouter vellum than their contemporaries
abroad. In Italy a highly polished surface seems at
most periods to have been in favour; houce in this coun-
try and neighbouring districts, as the South of France,
and again in Greece, the hard material resisted absorp-
tion, and it is often found that both ink and paint have
flaked off in MSS. of the middle ages. In contrast to
this are the instances of soft vellum, used in England
and France and in northern Europe generally, from
the thirteenth to the fifteenth century, for MSS. of
the better class. In the fifteenth century the Italian
vellum of the Renaissance is often of extreme whiteness
and purity. Uterine vellum, taken from the unborn
young, or the skins of new-born animals wore used for
special purposes. A good example of this very delicate
material is found in Add. MS. 23,935, in the British
Museum, a volume containing in as many as 579 leaves
a corpus of liturgical church service books, written in
France in the 13th and 14th centuries.
Vellum was also of great service in the ornamentation
of books. Its smooth surfaces showed off colours in all
their brilliancy. Martial's vellum MS. of Virgil (xiv. 186)
is adorned with the portrait of the author: "Ipsius
7 Instances, in MSS, of the seventh and tenth centuries, of
vellum whii:h was too thin or badly prepared, and therefore left
blank by the scribes, are noticed in Oat of Anc. MBS. in th-
Brtt. Mweum, Pt. ii. 51 j and in Delisle, Melange*, p. 101.
Materials vised to receive Writing. 39
voltug piima tabella gerit/ 1 Isidore, Orig. vi. 11, 4,
describing this material, uses the words : ^ Membrana
autem aut Candida aut lutea ant purpurea sunt. Can-
dida naturaliter existunt. Lntenm membranum bicolor
est, qnod a confectore nna tingitnr parte, id est, crocatur.
De qno Persius (iii. 10), ' Jam liber et positis bicolor
membrana capillis/ " This quotation from Persius refers
to the vellum wrapper which the Romans were in the
habit of attaching to the papyrus roll : the fyawoX 1 )]?,
psenula, literally a travelling cloak. The vellum was well
suited, from its superior strength, to resist constant
handling. It was coloured of some brilliant hue, generally
scarlet or purple, as in Lucian 8 : " Trop^vpa Si e/croaBev
fj Si<0epa. J> Ovid finds a bright colour unsuited to his
melancholy book, Trist. I. i. 5 : "Nee tepurpureo velent
vaccinia fuco/* Martial's libellus, viii. 72, is (c nondum
murice cult us >} ; and again he has the passages, iii. 2 :
" et te purpura delicata velet " ; and x. 93 : " carmina,
purpurea sed mo do snta toga/" the toga being another
expression for the wrapper. In Tibullus III. i. 9, the
colour is orange: "Lutea sed niveum involvat mem-
brana libellum/' The strip of vellum, <7tXXvj8o9 (or
.
Materials used to receive Writing* 47
marks of different periods Is of great assistance In as-
signing dates to undated paper MSS. In tha fourteenth
century European paper is usually stoufc, and was made
in frames composed of thick wires which have left
strongly defined impressions. In the next century the
texture becomes finer. The earliest known water-mark,
as already stated, is on paper used in the year 1293, At
first the marks are simple, and being impressed from
thick wires are well defined. In process of time they
become liner and more elaborate, and, particularly iu
Italian paper, they are enclosed within circles. Their
variety is almost endless : animals, heads, birds, fishes,
flowers, fruits, domestic and warlike implements, letters,
armorial bearings, and other devices are usedj some
being peculiar to a country or district, others apparently
becoming favourites and lasting for comparatively long
periods, but constantly changing in details. For example,
the glove, a common mark of- the sixteenth century de-
velops a number of small modifications in its progress ;
and of the pot or tankard, which runs through the
latter part of the sixteenth century and the early part
of the seventeenth century, there is an extraordinary
number of different varieties. The names of makers were
inserted as water-marks quite at the beginning of the
fourteenth century; but this practice was very soon
abandoned, and was not revived until after the middle of
the sixteenth century. The insertion of the name of
place of manufacture and of tho date of n.iauufacturo
is a modern usage.
CHAPTER IV.
WRITING- IMPLEMENTS, ETC,
The Stilus, Pen, etc,
Of writing implements the
This riddle on the stilus also occurs :
** De summo plaiius, sed non ego plauns in imo.
Versor ntrimque manu ; diversa et munera fungor :
Altera pars levocat qnidqnid pars altera fecit." 3
The case in which such implements were kept was the
1 Horace, Sat. I. x. 72 : " Saspe stilum verbug/ 1
2 Eiese, Anthol. Lat. I. no. 2^o,
Writing Implements, etc. 49
r}, grapMarium ; as in Martial, xiv. 21, Sf armata
suo graphiaria ferro."
For writing on papyrus tlie reed, Kd\ajj,o<$, $6va%
ev$, a*xoivQ$, calamus, canna, was in use. s Suitable
reeds came cliiefly from Egypt,, as referred to by Martial,
xiv. 38 :
