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Home , Jean Mabillon, Kalamos, Palaeography, Shorthand, Skin pen

Lesson 3.

Palaeography

Learning tasks: by completing this unit of study, the student will be able to: ¾ Define and to highlight the key moments in its evolution as science. ¾ Present a brief of writing and some types of writing. ¾ Reveal some general paleographic particularities. ¾ Identify writing materials, writing instruments and writing .

I. Definition; The evolution of Palaeography as science

Palaeography is one of the oldest Auxiliary Science of History. The term comes from Greek (παλαιός palaiós, "old" and γράφειν graphein, "to write") and means, in translation, the old writing. Palaeografia is the Auxiliary Science of History that deals with the of the old writing or, more precisely, with the deciphering of different forms and writing that were used in the past. Basics of Palaeography was set out by (1632‐1707) in his famous book entitled De re diplomatica libri VI (, 1681). Jean Mabillon wrote about the correct reading of the documents, he demanded to be know the evolution of the writing, the date of writing of the act, to specify the age of the act, the place of writing and the falsity or the truth of the document. The fundamental laws of Palaeography have been established, however, by Bernard de Montfaucon (1655‐1741) in his book entitled Paleografia graeca sive de ortu et progressu litterarum (Paris, 1708), which remained a standard work in the specific field of Greek Palaeography for more than a century. With the guidelines given by Jean Mabillon and with the examples brought by Bernard de Montfaucon was all that was necessary for the science of Paleography to be completely constituted. Palaeography is characterized by the of the written texts and the material on which are written. This explains why there are many paleographies, some illustrated with special manuals which have become classics. Of these, we mention: Maurice Prou, Manuel de paléographie latine et française (Paris, 1924); . Steffens, Lateinische Paläographie (, 1929); . Gardthausen, Griechische Palaeographie (Leipzig, 1911‐1913), etc. Palaeography also includes: the old Tachygraphy, Musical notation (any system that represents aurally perceived music, through the use of written symbols) and Stenography (from the Greek stenos ‐narrow and graphē or graphie –writing, the process of writing in ). From Palaeography were separated Papyrology and .

Daniel Flaut, Introduction to the Auxiliary Sciences of History

II. Brief ; types of writing The writing was one of the great achievements of humankind. The writing is a visual representation and lasting of the language that allows its preservation and transmission. The invention was realized independently, in several places, when was felt the need to communicate. In old times, communities have communicated between them remotely via some signs and signals: objects with a specific meaning, talking knots (Khipu), beads (strings of beads of amber), knots at handkerchief. Notched sticks were used for counting. In the Ancient East was realized the transition from signaling to the writing itself. The pictographic writing is the writing in which the presentation of the idea or the concept is made by drawing. The cave drawings in Jämtland ‐ Haiden (Sweden) and Pasiega () have been considered such writings. This form of writing is very widespread in North America and Africa. The ideographic writing is the writing which represent directly, through stylized signs, the ideas contained by the object. It was widespread in the Ancient East. The Chinese have used the ideographic writing until today. The transition from the ideographic writing to the phonetic writing was done by the acrophonic method, according to which the phonetic value of the writing sign is given by the first letter of the object (word) depicted by the sign writing. In the phonetic writing, to each phoneme (mainly speech sound) corresponds a (distinctive graphic sign). The phonetic writings formed alphabets, which representing all graphic signs in which are played main sounds of the spoken language (phonemes). The decisive invention was carried out at Byblos, in the thirteenth century BC, where is attested on the inscription of the sarcophagus of Ahiram. An inscription of 38 words is found on parts of the rim and the lid of the sarcophagus. It is written in the Old Phoenician dialect of Byblos and is the oldest witness to the Phoenician of considerable length discovered to date. It is writing from the left to the right and has spread very fast. The order, the name and the form of the underlie all others alphabets. The Greek writing appears, for the first time, in the Mycenaean era, the so‐ called Linear , deciphered in 1952 by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick. The archaic Greek writing changes the direction from one line to another, the so‐ called boustrophedon. Its etymology is from βούς, bous, "ox" + στρέφειν, strephein, "to turn" (cf. strophe), because the hand of the writer goes back and forth like an ox drawing a plough across a field and turning at the end of each row to return in the opposite direction. The adaptation of the Phoenician writing is made in 1000 BC. The reached its classical form around 400 BC. The alphabet in its classical and modern form consists of 24 letters ordered in sequence from alpha to omega. The history of the writing and its derivatives is divided into five periods: Antiquity; Barbarian Period (fifth to eighth century); Carlovingian Reform; Gothic Period (twelfth to sixteenth century); Sixteenth‐Century Reform and Modern Writing. On two occasions there has been a systematic reform in the Latin writing intended to restore it to its primitive purity: under , and in the sixteenth century. The is derived from the Greek alphabets of Southern . Its letters are composed of the following elements: of

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vertical lines called ascenders; horizontal lines, called bars or crosses; convex lines, designated under the name of paunches or curls. Today, the Latin alphabet spread is very large, being adapted to the different spoken in all five continents.

III. General paleographic particularities General paleographic particularities, found in the alphabetic writing, are: ¾ . One of the chief difficulties in reading documents is the frequency of abbreviations. The working conditions and the need to save the underlying material forced the to use different methods of accomplishment.

Greek Palaeography. In the Greek writing two sorts of abbreviations are to be distinguished: 1. Those of religious are the most ancient, being found in uncial Manuscripts and transmitted by tradition to the minuscule. The is effected by the suppression of and indicated by a . 2. In minuscule Manuscripts abbreviations are made by interrupting the word and cutting off the last letter with a transverse line. For the reader' assistance the retained the characteristic consonance of the last syllable. Latin Palaeography 1. Abbreviation by a sigla (or single letter), represents the whole word of which it is the initial (for example, A. for Annus). The sigla is doubled to indicate the plural (for example, . . for Dominus Noster; DD. NN. for Domini Nostri). 2. Abbreviation by suspension consists in leaving the word unfinished (for example, Cap = Caput or Capitulum). 3. Abbreviation by contraction consists in deleting some parts of the word (for example, ). 4. A small letter placed above a word indicates the suppression of one or several letters. A written over another vowel indicates the initial letter and the termination. 5. Letters enclosed in larger letters found chiefly in inscriptions on titles of Manuscripts. 6. Monograms ‐ the letters of a single word combined in a single figure. This custom must have been borrowed from the Greek chanceries in the Carlovingian period. 7. A is made by joining two or more characters in a way they wouldn' usually be, either by merging their parts, writing one above another or one inside another. 8. Nomina sacra (sacred names). It refers to traditions of abbreviated writing of divine names or titles in early Holy Scripture (for example, = Deus, S = Sanctus, SPS = Spiritus). 9. Tetragrammaton. It refers to the Hebrew written form of YHWH, one of the names of the God of Israel.

¾ Numerals Greek Palaeography. In the Greek Manuscripts, numerals are expressed by letters of the alphabet followed by an accent. Three archaic letters are made use of.

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From 1000 the same letters are used with accents written beneath. numerals reached the Greeks through the West. These not appear in Manuscripts before the fifteenth century. Latin Palaeography. never ceased to be used, and with two exceptions they were placed between two points. ; ; Numbers were indicated by the multipliers‐ IIIIxx = 80, Vxx = 100. Roman numerals were nearly always written in minuscules.

IV. Writing materials, writing instruments and writing inks

Papyrus is the which facilitated the birth of the or the and eased the writing circulation. This material of writing is produced from the pith of the plant, Cyperus papyrus, which grows in the Nile Delta, in Egypt. Pliny the Elder, in his Naturalis Historia, describes the methods of preparing papyrus. The best papyrus was produced in Alexandria, Egypt. Arabs have taken over the production of papyrus after they conquered Egypt. Papyrus was used in Italy and Sicily. This material of writing was used by the until the tenth century and in Italy until the eighth century. After that, papyrus was used only in solemn occasions. The disappearance of papyrus was caused by the decay of trade in the due of wars with the Arabs, by its high cost and by the difficulty of preserving this material of writing in regions with humid weather. With the study of this writing material, deals Papyrology a science detached from Paleography. Paleography remained, finally, to study the writing on and on paper. Because papyrus was very hard to be find and to be preserved, was felt the need to find a new material of writing. It was developed in Pergamon, from which name it is believed the word parchment evolved, under the patronage of either Eumenes I (263–241 BC) or Eumenes II (197–158), as a substitute for papyrus, which was temporarily not being exported from Egypt. Parchment is a thin material made from prepared animal skins. It is distinct from leather in that parchment is limed but not tanned. Pergamon used sheepskin, goatskin and calfskin as writing material. Because the raw material (skin) is easy to be found, parchment was used everywhere. In the eighth century, parchment was used in and . The papacy has used parchment from eleventh century. Scraping and reuse of old for writing of new texts gave rise to a separate category, palimpsests. These were due to very high price of parchment. Paper and the pulp papermaking process was developed in during the early 2nd century AD. The word "paper" is etymologically derived from Latin papyrus, which comes from the Greek πάπυρος (papuros). Paper went through several stages in its evolution: Bombycine paper is the oldest paper, Arabic paper. The name comes from ‐pambuk, in Latin bambax‐cotton. Bombycine paper was used not only in the Orient and Byzantium but also in Europe. The oldest written document on paper preserved in the European comes from Sicily, dating

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from 1109. In Italy, bombycine paper circulated until the end of the thirteenth century. Paper with watermark is made from flax, hemp or wool and was first used by the end of thirteenth century. There were about 40,000 watermarks. Paper without watermark is made from flax or hemp. Arabs took the paper from Samarkand in the eighth century. Paper is met from eleventh century in Spain and Italy and from the thirteenth century is used in southern . The writing was done with different writing instruments: The reed (in Greek , κάλαμος) was made by cutting and shaping a single reed straw or length of bamboo. The brush was invented in China, believed to be around 300BC, and are used in Chinese . The pen was made from the primary flight feather of a large bird. Quill was used for writing with ink. Quill were standard in Europe and the up through the 18th and 19h centuries. The is a small jar or container, often made from glass, used for holding ink in a place convenient for the person who is writing. In China, the history of writing inks started in 18th century BC, with the utilization of natural plant, animal and mineral inks based on such materials as graphite that were ground with water. In ancient , since at least the 4th century BC, was used the . It was made from burnt bones, tar, pitch and other substances. In ancient was used atramentum, which signified any black colouring substance used for any purpose. The Romans utilized three principal kinds of atramentum: librarium (or ), sutorium and tectorium. Only atramentum librarium was the writing ink in . In Europe, in the twelfth century, was created a writing ink composed from ferrous sulfate, gall, gum and water. In the fifteenth century, in Europe had to be developed a new type of ink for the printing press, which could adhere to printing surfaces.

Homework Elaborate an essay with the title: The Nature and Making of Parchment

References: ¾ Haines, Betty ., The Physical and Chemical Characteristics of Parchment and the Materials Used in Its Conservation, Leather Conservation Centre, 1999. ¾ Reed, Ronald, Ancient Skins Parchments & Leathers. Leeds, Seminar Press, 1972. ¾ Reed, Ronald. The Nature and Making of Parchment, Elmete Press, Leeds, 1975. ¾ Thompson, Daniel Varney, The Materials and Techniques of Medieval Painting, New York, 1956. ¾ Woods, Chris, Conservation Treatments for Parchment Documents, in “Journal of the Society of Archivists”, 16 (2), 1995, p. 221‐238.

Dear students, please send me your essay at ‐mail address: [email protected]

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Bibliography

¾ Bischoff, Bernhard, Latin Palaeography: Antiquity and the , Cambridge University Press, 1990. ¾ Cappelli, Adriano, Heimann, David, Kay, Richard The elements of abbreviation in medieval Latin paleography, University of Kansas , 1982. ¾ Fisher, Rod, 'Keeffe, Mamie, Paleography: The Study and Decipherment of Old , Queensland Family History Society, 1983. ¾ Smith, Adele Millicent, Printing and writing materials: their evolution, Nabu Press, 2012. ¾ Gaur, Albertine, Writing Materials, British Library, 1984. ¾ Geoff, Roe, Writing Instruments: A Technical History & how They Work, G.E. Roe, 1996. ¾ Thompson, Edward Maunde, Handbook of Greek and Latin Palaeography, Lightning Source Incorporated, 2008. ¾ Thompson, Edward Maunde, An Introduction to Greek and Latin Palaeography, General Books LLC, 2010.

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