CHANGES INTRODUCED IN THE COURSE OF TIME IN THE FORMS OF LETTERS, AND
IN THE GENERAL CHARACTER OF WRITING.
An exact uniformity in the shapes of letters, and in the general
appearance of writing, is hardly maintained for so long a period as
fifty years in any language, especially if it be widely diffused.
Within that space of time, the fashion of our own typography has
undergone several changes, so perceptible as to afford a tolerably
certain criterion of the date of books. No person, for example, who is
familiar with books, would find it difficult, merely from the character
of the type, to discriminate the age of works published at the several
periods of 1775, 1800, 1825, and 1855. On similar grounds a knowledge
of the successive changes introduced by caprice, accident, or a regard
to convenience, in the ancient modes of writing, affords an almost
certain means of determining the age of manuscripts.
The knowledge requisite for the exercise of this discrimination is
derived, in part, from incidental allusions to modes of writing which
occur in some ancient authors; but principally from an extensive
comparison of manuscripts themselves, and from a comparison of
manuscripts with inscriptions upon marbles, brazen tablets, or coins.
From these sources may be collected a sufficiently precise idea of the
character or fashion of writing prevailing in each century, from the
second, to the fifteenth, of the Christian era.
The oldest Greek manuscripts that are extant differ little in the
form of the letters, or the general appearance of the writing, from
inscriptions belonging to the corresponding periods. They are written
in capitals, called uncials, without division of words, and without
marks of accentuation or punctuation. About the seventh century, the
custom of affixing the accents and aspirates appears to have been
introduced; at the same time a greater degree of precision was observed
in the formation of the letters, and also in the directness and the
parallelism of the lines. To these improvements was added a change in
the form of those letters which most impeded the rapid movement of the
pen.
In the eighth and ninth centuries a mode of writing, which had been
long before practised by notaries and by the secretaries of public
persons, was adopted by the transcribers of books. This was a kind of
running-hand, those who invented, or who most used it, being called
tachygraphoi--swift writers. To adapt the Greek letters to the purpose
of public business and common life, the square forms had been changed
for curves, and uprights for slopes: and while a radical resemblance
to the primitive character was preserved, facility and freedom were
obtained.
The uncial character was not, however, altogether abandoned by the
copyists; but modifications of it were introduced with a view to obtain
greater facility: for the unconnected and upright squares formerly
used, seemed still more operose in execution after the running-hand
had been adopted. The copyists of the eighth century introduced the
practice of commencing books or chapters with a letter of large size,
which they usually distinguished by grotesque decorations, somewhat in
the manner seen in the printed books of the sixteenth century.
Those who gained their living by copying books found so great an
advantage in the adoption of the swift, or tachygraphic character,
that they presently sought to improve it by every device that might
favour the uninterrupted movement of the pen; not content with joining
the letters of each word, they combined them in forms that often bore
little or no resemblance to the component characters. The books of
the tenth and following centuries abound with these contractions,
abbreviations, and symbols. Many entire words of common occurrence
were indicated by single turns of the pen. A great part of these
contractions were adopted by the first printers, and many of them
continued in use until a very recent date.
The manuscripts of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries are
distinguished by a degeneracy in the mode of writing, and by a growing
abuse of the principle of celerity and facility. To these symptoms
of the influence of a mercantile motive, put into activity by an
increasing demand for books, may be added the practice of discharging
the writing of old parchments, which prevailed at the same period more
extensively than heretofore. A vast number of books of this sort,
written upon erased parchments, are to be met with, executed in the
twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries. In most instances, the
first writing is utterly obliterated; yet the marks of the erasure
are still evident. Thus in a MS. above described, not a letter, not a
point, of the ancient writing remains; but on many of the leaves may be
discerned ruled lines, either transverse or perpendicular, which having
been deeply impressed upon the parchment could not be effaced; so that
those old lines often crossed the new writing. Other pages of the same
MS. present no such indications; the leaves having probably been taken
from different books. In another MS., executed in the year 1186, though
the ancient writing is generally obliterated, yet in a few places,
if closely inspected, the ends of the letters may be perceived. In a
word, if all the books of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries are
examined, there will appear to be almost as many written upon erased,
as upon new parchments.[1] I am of opinion, that many authors extant in
the time of Photius, and even in that of Porphyrogenitus, were utterly
destroyed by the prevalence of this pernicious practice. This plague,
as it may be termed, spread its devastation among ancient books first
in the twelfth century, and continued its ravages during the thirteenth
and fourteenth. The same thing is rarely to be observed in bombycine
manuscripts: I have met with one book only of this material in which
the first writing had been erased, and a second induced. The Greek
writers of these times ordinarily erased a better work for the sake
of substituting a worse; either one of their own inane productions,
or those works of which there is no scarcity among MSS. The extremest
ignorance must certainly have pervaded Greece in those times, when
what related to ancient history, or to polite learning, was not valued
a straw by the writers, who rather than purchase new parchment,
destroyed, without scruple, ancient books.
A progression similar to that which took place in Greek writing,
distinguishes manuscripts in the Latin language, and affords a like
criterion of antiquity. Several manuscripts believed, on good evidence,
to belong to the third and fourth centuries, are extant, which
present a style of writing nearly allied to that which appears in the
inscriptions of the same period. But the uncial character gave place
to the small letter at an earlier date among the Roman, than among the
Greek copyists; yet they seem to have availed themselves of the change
in a much less degree for the purposes of celerity. Indeed, there is
little more of continuity, or of abbreviation in the small, than in the
large character. Towards the tenth century the Latin scribes adopted
a square and heavy character, similar to that which is seen in legal
documents. This wide and full-faced letter was so much exaggerated by
the writers of the fourteenth century, as almost to blacken the page
with its massiveness. Still, a handsome regularity and a fair degree
of legibility were maintained. There are, indeed, some manuscripts of
this period extant which, for mathematical exactness and beauty, might
almost challenge comparison with printed books.
Nothing less, it is obvious, than a long-continued and extensive
examination of ancient manuscripts, can confer upon any one such a
degree of skill in discriminations of this kind, as might warrant his
giving an opinion in a case of difficulty. Yet the mere inspection of a
small number of these relics of antiquity may convince any one of the
reality and distinctness of those progressive changes in the modes of
writing upon which such discriminations are founded. The architecture
of different periods is not more characteristic of the age to which
it belongs, than is the style of writing in manuscripts; nor is there
less certainty in determining questions of antiquity in the one case,
than in the other. Particular instances may perplex or deceive the
best-informed and the most acute observers; but the greater number of
cases admit of no question.
FORM OF ANCIENT BOOKS, AND THEIR ILLUMINATIONS.
The mode of compacting the sheets of their books remained the same
among the Greeks during a long course of time: little, therefore,
pertinent to our argument, is to be gathered on this head. The sheets
were folded three or four together, and separately stitched: these
parcels were then connected nearly in the same mode as is at present
practised. Books were covered with linen, silk, or leather.
Sometimes the page was undivided; sometimes it contained two, and in a
few instances of very ancient manuscripts, three columns. A peculiarity
which attracts the eye in many Greek manuscripts, consists in the
occurrence of capitals on the margin, some way in advance of the line
to which they belong; and this capital sometimes happens to be the
middle letter of a word. For when a sentence finishes in the middle of
a line, the initial of the next is not distinguished, that honour being
conferred upon the incipient letter of the next line; as thus--
THEGREEKSENTERING
THEREGIONOFTHEMA
CRONESFORMEDANAL
T LIANCEWITHTHEM.AS
HEPLEDGEOFTHEIR
FAITHTHEBARBARIANS
GAVEASPEAR.
The Greeks, especially in the earliest times, divided their
compositions into verses; or into such short portions of sentences as
we mark by a comma, each verse occupying a line; and the number of
these verses is often set down at the beginning or end of a book. The
numbers of the verses were sometimes placed in the margin.
Much intricacy and difficulty attends the subject of ancient
punctuation; nor could any satisfactory account of the rules and
exceptions that have been gathered from existing manuscripts be
given, which should subserve the intention of this work. Generally
speaking, and yet with frequent exceptions, the most ancient books
have no separation of words, or punctuation, of any kind; others have
a separation of words, but no punctuation; in some, every word is
separated from the following one by a point. In manuscripts of later
date a regular punctuation is found, as well as accentuation. These
circumstances enter into the estimate when the antiquity of a book is
under inquiry; but the rules to be observed in considering them cannot
be otherwise than recondite and intricate.
Few ancient books are altogether destitute of decorations; and many
are splendidly adorned with pictorial ornaments. These consist either
of flowery initials, grotesque cyphers, portraits, or even historical
compositions. Sometimes diagrams, explanatory of the subjects mentioned
by the author, are placed on the margin. Books written for the use
of royal persons, or of dignified ecclesiastics, usually contain the
effigies of the proprietor, often attended by his family, and by some
allegorical or celestial minister; while the humble scribe, in monkish
attire, kneels and presents the book to his patron.
These illuminations, as they are called, almost always exhibit some
costume of the times, or some peculiarity which serves to mark the age
of the manuscript. Indeed a fund of antiquarian information, relative
to the middle ages, has been collected from this source. Many of these
pictured books exhibit a high degree of executive talent in the artist,
although labouring under the restraints of a barbarous taste.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Montfaucon.