WRITING
Its different styles--Origin of Western alphabets--Various forms of
letters--Capitals, uncials, etc.--Texts used in Western Europe--Forms of
ancient writings--The roll, or volume--The codex--Tablets--Diptychs,
etc.--The square book--How different sizes of books were produced.
Seeing that illumination grew originally out of the decoration of the
initial letters, our next point to notice is the penmanship. The
alphabet which we now use is that formerly used by the Romans, who
borrowed it from the Greeks, who in turn obtained it (or their
modification of it) from the Phoenicians, who, lastly it is said,
constructed it from that of the Egyptians. Of course, in these repeated
transfers the letters themselves, as well as the order of them,
underwent considerable alterations. With these we have here no concern.
Our alphabet, _i.e._ the Roman and its variations, is quite sufficient
for our story. In order to show as clearly as may be the varieties of
lettering and the progress of penmanship from classical times to the
revival of the old Roman, letters in the fifteenth century, we offer the
following synopsis, which classifies and indicates the development of
the different hands used by writers and illuminators of MSS. It is
constructed on the information given in Wailly's large work on
Palæography, and in Dr. de Grey Birch's book on the Utrecht Psalter. The
former work affords excellent facsimiles, which, together with those
given in the plates published by the Palæographical Society, will give
the student the clearest possible ideas respecting these ancient
handwritings.
Omitting the cursive or correspondence hand, the letters used by the
Romans were of four kinds--capitals (usually made angular to be cut in
stone), rustic, uncials, and minuscules.
The rounded capitals were intended to be used in penwork. Uncials differ
from capitals only in the letters A, D, E, G, M, Q, T, V, for the sake
of ease in writing. It is said that this class of letters was first
called uncials from being made an inch (_uncia_) high, but this is mere
tradition; the word is first used on Jerome's preface to the Book of
Job. No uncials have ever been found measuring more than five-eighths of
an inch in height.
For the assistance of such students as may wish for examples we must
refer to certain MSS. and reproductions in which the foregoing hands are
exemplified.
_CIRCA_ FOURTH CENTURY.
_Capitals_, yet not pure.
The Vatican Vergil, No. 3225, throughout (Birch, p. 14; Silvestre's
_Paléographie universelle_, pl. 74).
With regard to the relative antiquity of capitals and uncials, M. de
Wailly observes: "The titles in pure uncials, but less than the text
itself, give an excellent index to the highest antiquity. This is
verified in MSS. 152, 2630, 107 of the Bibl. du Roi, etc. MSS. of the
seventh or eighth century, whether on uncial or demi-uncial, or any
other letter, are never constant in noting the title at the top of the
page, or the kind of writing will vary, or if uncials be constantly
used, the titles will not be smaller than the text. These variations
become still greater in the following centuries. The ornaments which
relieve the titles of each page commence about the eighth century" (i.
p. 49 C).
_Capitals_ and _Uncials_.
The Homilies of St. Augustine (Silvestre, pl. 74).
Augustine Opera, Paris Lib., 11641 (Palæograph. Soc., pl. 42, 43).
_Rustic_.
The Second Vatican Vergil, No. 3867 (Wailly, pl. 2), called the
"Codex Romanus."
SIXTH CENTURY.
_Rustic_ and _Uncial_.
The Montamiata Bible (Birch, 35; Wailly, pl. 2, 4).
_Rustic_ and _Minuscule_.
The Cambridge Gospels (Westwood, _Palæograph. Sacra Pictoria_, pl. 45).
_Uncials_.
Gospels in Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 5463.
Paris Lib., Gregory of Tours (Silvestre, pl. 86).
Vienna Imp. Lib., Livy (Silvestre, pl. 75).
Brit. Mus., Harl. 1775 (Palæograph. Soc., pl. 16).
SEVENTH CENTURY.
_Uncials_ and _Minuscule_.
The St. Chad's Gospels in library of Lichfield Cathedral (Palæograph.
Soc., pl. 20, 21, 35).
NINTH CENTURY.
_Capitals_ and _Minuscules_.
Paris Lib., Bible of Charles the Bald.
There is scarcely anything more difficult to judge than the true age of
square capital MSS. or of pure uncials. Even the rustic capitals, like
the first Vatican Vergil, No. 3225, are extremely rare. The letters in
this MS. are about three-sixteenths of an inch high.
TEXTS IN USE IN WESTERN EUROPE BEFORE THE AGE OF CHARLEMAGNE.
_Lombardic._ The national hand of Italy. Founded on the old Roman
cursive, it does not attain to any great beauty until the tenth or
eleventh century. Examples may be seen in Palæographical Society, pl.
95, and in the excellent lithographs published by the monks of Monte
Cassino (_Paleografia artistica di Monte Cassino_, Longobardo-Cassinese,
tav. xxxiv., etc.). A very fine example occurs in pl. xv., dated
1087-88. Its characteristic letters are _a_, _e_, _g_, _t_.
_Visigothic._ The national hand of Spain. Also founded on the old Roman
cursive. It becomes an established hand in the eighth century, and lasts
until the twelfth. Examples occur in Ewald and Loewe, _Exempla Scripturæ
Visigoticæ_, Heidelberg, 1883. It was at first very rude and illegible,
but afterwards became even handsome. A fine example exists in the
British Museum (Palæograph. Soc., pl. 48). Its characteristic letters
are _g_, _s_, _t_.
_Merovingian._ The national hand of France. A hand made up chiefly of
loops and angles in a cramped, irregular way. Its derivation the same as
the preceding. In the seventh century it is all but illegible. In the
eighth it is much better, and almost easy to read.
_Celtic_. The national hand of Ireland. It is founded on the demi-uncial
Roman, borrowed as to type from MSS. taken to Ireland by missionaries.
It is bold, clear, and often beautiful, lending itself to some of the
most astonishing feats of penmanship ever produced.
Such are the chief varieties of writing found in the MSS. produced
before the great revival of the arts and learning which took place
during the reign of Charles the Great (Karl der Grosse), known
familiarly as Charlemagne.
Wattenbach (_Schriftwesen_, _etc._) says that uncials date from the
second century A.D. From examples still extant of the fifth and
following centuries, it seems that while the Roman capitals were not
uncommon, in Celtic MSS. the form generally adopted was the uncial. It
was the form also usually chosen for ornamentation or imitation in those
Visigothic, Merovingian, or Lombardic MSS., which made such remarkable
use of fishes, birds, beasts, and plants for the construction of initial
letters and principal words, of which we see so many examples in the
elaborately illustrated Catalogue of the library at Laon by Ed. Fleury,
and in that of Cambray, by M. Durieux. Most of these pre-Carolingian
designs are barbarous in the extreme, dreadfully clumsy in execution,
but they evince considerable ingenuity and a strong predilection for
symbolism.
Before concluding this chapter perhaps something should be said
concerning the shape of books, though this is a matter somewhat outside
the scope of our proper subject. Yet, as the brief digression will
afford an opportunity for the explanation of certain terms used in MSS.,
we will avail ourselves of it.
The ancient form of writing upon skins and papyrus was that of the roll.
The Hebrew, Arabic, or Greek terms for this do not concern us, but its
Latin name was _volumen_, "something rolled," and from this we obtain
our word volume. Such words as "explicit liber primus" etc., which we
often find in early MSS., refer to this roll-form; _explicare_ in Latin
meaning to unroll; hence, apropos of a chapter or book, to finish. When
transferred to the square form, or codex, it simply means, "here ends
book first," etc.
The modern book shape first came into use with the beginning of the
Christian era under the name of codex. Here it will be necessary to
explain that _caudex_, _codex_, in Latin, meant a block of wood, and had
its humorous by-senses among the Roman dramatists, as the word block has
among ourselves, such as blockhead.[5] So _caudicalis provincia_ was a
jocular expression for the occupation of wood-splitting.
[5] Terence, _Heautont._, 5. 1, 4.
Whether the word had originally any connection with _cauda_, "a tail,"
is not here worth considering, as if so, it had long lost the
connection; and when used to mean a book, had only the sense of a board,
or a number of boards from two upwards, fastened together by means of
rings passed through holes made in their edges.
Probably the first use was as plain smooth boards only; examples of such
are still in existence. Then of boards thinly covered with, usually,
black wax. A pair of such tablets, wax-covered, was a common form of a
Roman pocket-or memorandum-book. It was also used as a means of
conveying messages, the reply being returned on the same tablets. The
method was to write on the wax with a fine-pointed instrument called a
style, the reverse end of which was flattened. When the person to whom
the message was sent had read it, he (or she) simply flattened out the
writing, smoothed it level, and then wrote the reply on the same wax.
School-children did their exercises on these tablets, housewives and
stewards kept their accounts on them, and on them literary people jotted
down their ideas as they do now in their pocket-books. Extant examples
of these early books, or tablets, are fairly numerous, and may be seen
in most public museums. A codex of two leaves was called a diptych; of
three, a triptych, etc. The codex form was used for legal documents,
wills, conveyances, and general correspondence. Hence the Roman postman
was called a _tabellarius_, the tablets containing correspondence being
tied with a thread or ribbon and sealed. This custom of sending letters
on tablets survived for some centuries after Augustan times. Wattenbach
gives several interesting instances of their mediæval use.[6]
[6] _Schriftwesen_, 48.
Of course when the tablet gave place to the codex of skin or paper, the
papyrus was too brittle and fragile for practical utility, and examples,
as we have seen, were very rare; but vellum soon became popular. We may
mention, in passing, that the papyrus roll gave us a word still in use
in diplomatics, the word _protocol_. The first sheet of a papyrus roll
was called the {~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER OMICRON WITH TONOS~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}. It
usually contained the name of place and date of manufacture of the
papyrus, and was stamped or marked with the name of the government
officer who had charge of the department.
In the vellum codex, though each leaf might have only one fold, and thus
technically be considered as a folio, the actual shape of it was nearly
square, hence its name of _codex quadratus_. When other forms of books,
such as octavo, duo-decimo, etc., came into use, it was in consequence
of the increased number of foldings. The gatherings, originally
quaternions or quires, became different, and those who undertake to
examine MSS. with respect to their completeness have to be familiar with
the various methods.[7] This kind of knowledge, however, though useful,
is by no means essential to the story of illumination.
[7] Wattenbach, _Schriftwesen_; Madan, _Books in Manuscript_, _etc_.