ABBREVIATIONS, ETC.
In most books treating of ancient handwriting, the abbreviations and
contractions are put forward as the most important part; certainly it
is necessary to study them carefully, but it was never intended by the
old scribes that they should be regarded as a language in themselves.
At first they were used to save time and space, then, by degrees,
they increased in multiplicity as well as complexity, till banished
altogether by the invention of printing, upon the advance of which the
professional scribe disappeared.
The contracted words most frequently used are not always necessary to
the sense of the sentence, which may be arrived at without them. It
is a waste of time to puzzle over a word after its meaning has been
arrived at. Many persons who require MS. extracts from public offices
take rough notes with the letters of the contracted word; these can be
extended afterwards at home, when there is time to seek in dictionaries
for the abbreviation or its meaning; with practice the opening words
of a sentence will very often supply the context. The oldest forms of
contraction are a straight line over a word or a curve; these indicate
that a portion of the word only is present, but no clue is given as to
the letters left out, or else the straight line may mean _m_ or
_n_.
Later on the straight line above a word came to represent the letters
_m_ and _n_. In words where these letters were duplicated
the second one was omitted and the line placed above to indicate its
absence. This continued in use until late in the eighteenth century.
Com̄on meant ‘common,’ and com̄endation ‘commendation.’ If a curved
line was over the end syllable of a word, it meant one or more letters
omitted at the end of a word.
Verbs are the most troublesome class of contracted words, for a
contraction over a verb may mean any syllable, according to the proper
grammatical conjugation. Here it is that knowledge of the Latin grammar
is a necessity. The meaning of the sentences may often be deciphered
without extending the words, and the correct conjugation of the verbs
can be added afterwards by another person, if the student’s knowledge
of Latin is too limited to accomplish this with accuracy. Certain signs
or contractions are fairly constant in their meanings, always taking
the place of special syllables. Thus a bold apostrophe above the line
will be found to indicate ‘er,’ ‘ir,’ ‘or,’ ‘re.’
[Symbol] = ur.
ʒ = et, us. In Domesday ‘et’ is written ⁊.
[Symbol] = ram, ras, ris.
[Symbol] = is.
ꝰ = us, ous, os.
A small letter over a word shows that a syllable is left out of which
this letter formed part.
The letter ‘p’ had a system of its own, frequently used in old deeds
and also in old letters:
ꝑ = per, par, por.
[Symbol] = pre.
ꝓ = pro.
In old court rolls ‘and’ is written ‘[Symbol]t,’ and ‘est’ appears
as ‘÷,’ especially in courthand law deeds.
A line drawn through the head of the letter ‘[Symbol]’ means also the
addition of other letters, as _is_, _e_, etc. This contraction in names
is apt to be confused with double ‘tt.’
It is said that our alphabet did not formerly contain as many letters
as at present. The letters ‘i’ and ‘j’ were identical until a recent
period. ‘W’ is said to have been derived from two ‘u’s,’ and is always
so written in old deeds, joined together, while ‘u’ and ‘v’ were used
indiscriminately. In old manuscripts the shortstroke letters were
formed alike; thus ‘n,’ ‘u,’ ‘w,’ ‘i,’ are merely strokes or minims,
difficult to distinguish, more particularly where any of these letters
occur side by side in the formation of words; to count the strokes is
the only guide. Practice and a knowledge of likely words to be employed
solve the knotty point.
The chief difficulty of all lies in the correct rendering of names,
for these have perpetually changed in their spelling. In a single
deed several different forms may be observed, the result of clerical
copying. Even with names the system of abbreviation was carried on,
especially among court rolls; this will be noticed in such surnames as
‘Couper’ written ‘Coup,’ ‘Shepherd’ as ‘Shep.’
In certain styles of mediæval writing the terminals of words are
carried upwards with a long sweep, and are confusing in their
resemblance to abbreviation marks. Here, again, practice alone
accustoms the eye to decide whether a word is complete or not.
Dots and other kinds of stops in writing have only come gradually into
use in their present significance, and the use of these is now less
observed than early in the last century.
In the Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, as in Roman inscriptions, the dot is
freely used to denote contractions as well as to divide the words
from each other. In Domesday this is also noticed; but with later
manuscripts the dot, or point, such as is used in Norman times, fell
into disuse in favour of lines or curves for the abbreviated syllables.
Upon the introduction of printing our various kinds of stops are first
observed. It is said that the Elzevirs invented some of them. The
reversed semicolon is commonly observed in some manuscripts.
Sooner or later, in any antiquarian search, the printed sources of
information will be exhausted, and are not unfrequently found to be
untrustworthy, especially existing county histories, which, being
compiled by men unacquainted with every minor detail of the locality,
are naturally liable to confuse places of similar names. Nor is it
possible in so large a subject as a county history to enter minutely
into the separate parish histories of places and people. Thus after
awhile the untrustworthiness and insufficiency of book-knowledge will
be discovered, and some more original source of information become
desired. Manuscripts exist in plenty, but are of little value unless
studied personally; for professional readers, although able to read
quickly and correctly, only give the information desired; whereas in a
personal search one subject opens out fresh clues to others of equal
importance, and new light is continually being thrown upon hitherto
unnoticed points; moreover, only by a personal investigation can the
antiquary be certain that he has obtained _exactly_ what he
required. There are now plenty of opportunities open to the public of
seeing the old documents pertaining to various offices and societies,
besides private collections, but without some previous knowledge of
the old handwritings, etc., this permission is practically valueless.
Therefore, ‘Persevere and practise’ is the best motto I can give to
those interested in the matter, for proficiency comes quickly to those
who seek it; and, as in all subjects, ‘Nothing succeeds like success.’
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
APPENDIX.
LEGAL MEMORY.
(_See page 42._)
‘WHITCHURCH RECTORY,
‘READING,
‘_October 12, 1892_.
‘DEAR MISS THOYTS,
‘I must even send you an instant reply to your note, in order to
satisfy your perplexity.
‘I was many years searching for the reason why legal memory began with
Richard I. I once asked an eminent Q.C. the question, and though he had
been a Law Lecturer, and was shortly afterwards put upon the Bench, he
could not tell me why--he only knew the fact.
‘It is one of the signs, good or bad, of the present times, that your
sex will not, like their mothers and grandmothers, be satisfied with
being told the fact, but will be told why.
‘Now the “why” of this is just as follows: The Norman Conquest upset a
great many Saxon titles to estates, but not all. And on the voidance
of a Norman who had no title but his own right hand, the Saxon would
try to recover, and, I suppose, not unfrequently succeeded, by reason
of being on the spot and putting on the Norman’s shoes while they were
warm. Hence endless litigations, because the more distant Norman kin
inherited at least this much--contempt for a Saxon.
‘By A.D. 1179 things began to settle down and Norman and
Saxon to be amalgamated, and it was then, or perhaps rather later,
_agreed_, in the High Courts, that in questions of title you
should not go behind the above date.
‘Now this is not inconsistent with what you may have read in Selden,
vol. ii. I have not read it, but I offer this solution--that it
(_i.e._, Selden, vol. ii.) does not mean to speak of manorial
law in respect of the High Court of Justice of the Realm, but of the
intra-manorial regulations of court leets and court barons.
‘Yours sincerely,
‘JOHN SLATER.’
THE END.
_Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row, London._
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] From photos kindly lent by Mr. A. Harrison, of Theale.
[2] See Appendix.
[3] The property of the Earl of Fingall from his ancestors the
Wollascots.
[4] A complete copy of the Chartulary was made by me through the
kindness of the Earl of Fingall.
[5] A list of French Bishops will be found in ‘Gallia Christiana,’ or
in ‘Neustria Pia.’
[6] This also contains a good glossary of Anglo-Saxon words.
[7] Who has kindly revised this little volume.
[8] Only procurable second-hand.
Transcriber’s Notes:
1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been
corrected silently.
2. Italics are shown as _xxx_.
3. Bold print is shown as =xxx=.
4. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have
been retained as in the original.