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AUTOGRAPHS

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 47 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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AUTOGRAPHS . Autograph (Gr. abaOs, self, ypacAeuv, to write) is a See also:

term applied by See also:common usage either to a document signed by the See also:person from whom it emanates, or to one written entirely by the See also:hand of such person (which, however, is also more technically described as holograph, from oAos, entire, ypadieiv, to write), or simply to an See also:independent See also:signature. The existence of autographs must necessarily have been coeval with the invention of letters. Documents in the hand-See also:writing of their composers may possibly exist among the See also:early papyri of See also:Egypt and the See also:clay tablets of Babylonia and See also:Assyria, and among the early examples of writing in the See also:East. But the See also:oriental practice of employing professional' See also:scribes in writing the See also:body of documents and of using See also:seals for the purpose of " See also:signing " (the " signum " originally meaning the impression of the See also:seal) almost precludes the See also:idea. When we are told (1 See also:Kings xxi. 8) that See also:Jezebel wrote letters in See also:Ahab's name and sealed them with his seal, we are, of course,.to understand that the letters were written by the professional scribes and that the impression of the See also:king's seal was the authentication, See also:equivalent to the signature of western nations; and again, when King See also:Darius " signed " the writing and the See also:decree (See also:Dan. vi. 9), he did so with his seal. To find documents which we can recognize with certainty to be autographs, we must descend to the Ptolemaic and See also:Roman periods of See also:Egyptian See also:history, which are represented by an abundance of See also:papyrus documents of all kinds, chiefly in See also:Greek. Among them are not a few See also:original letters and See also:personal documents, in which we may see the hand-writing of many lettered and unlettered individuals who lived during the 3rd See also:century B.C. and in succeeding times, and which prove how very widespread was the practice of writing in those days. We owe it to the dry and even See also:atmosphere of Egypt that these written documents have been preserved in such See also:numbers. On the other hand, in See also:Italy and See also:Greece See also:ancient writings have perished, See also:save the few charred papyrus rolls and waxen tablets which have been recovered from the ruins of See also:Herculaneum and See also:Pompeii.

These tablets, however, have a See also:

special value, for many of them contain autograph signatures of principals and witnesses to legal deeds to which they were attached, together with impressions of seals, in compliance with the Roman See also:law which required the actual subscriptions, or attested marks, of the persons concerned. But, when we now speak of autographs and autograph collections, we use such terms in a restricted sense and imply documents or signatures written by persons of some degree of See also:eminence or notoriety in the various ranks and professions of See also:life; and naturally the only early autographs in this sense which could be expected to survive are the subscriptions and signatures of royal personages and See also:great officials attached to important public deeds, which from their nature have been more jealously cared for than See also:mere private documents. Following the Roman practice, subscriptions and signatures were required in legal documents in the early centuries of our era. Hence we find them in the few Latin deeds on papyrus which have come to See also:light in Egypt; we find them on the well-known Dacian waxen tablets of the 2nd century; and weofind them in the See also:series of papyrus deeds from See also:Ravenna and dither places in Italy between the 5th and loth centuries. The same practice obtained in the Frankish See also:empire. The Merovingian kings, or at least those of them who knew how to write, sub-scribed their diplomas and great charters with their own hands; and their great See also:officers of See also:state, chancellors and others, See also:counter-signed in autograph. The unlettered Merovingian kings made use of monograms composed of the letters of their names; and, curiously, the illiterate See also:monogram was destined to supersede the literate subscriptions. For the monogram was adopted by See also:Charlemagne and his successors as a recognized See also:symbol of their subscription. It was their signum manuale, their sign See also:manual. In courtly See also:imitation of the royal practice, monograms and other marks were adopted by See also:official personages, even though they could write. The notarial marks of See also:modern times are a survival of the practice. By the illiterate other signs, besides the mono-See also:gram, came to be employed, such as the See also:cross, &c., as signs manual.

The monogram was used by See also:

French monarchs from the reign of Charlemagne to that of See also:Philip the See also:Fair, who died in 1314. It is very doubtful, however, whether in any instance this sign manual was actually traced by the monarch's own hand. At the most, the earlier sovereigns appear to have See also:drawn one or two strokes in their monograms, which, so far, may be called their autographs. But in the later See also:period not even this was done; the monogram was entirely the See also:work of the See also:scribe. (See See also:DIPLOMATIC.) The employment of marks or signs manual went out of See also:general use after the 12th century, in the course of which the affixing or appending of seals became the common method of executing deeds. But, as See also:education became more general and the practice of writing more widely diffused, the usage See also:grew up in the course of the 14th century of signing the name-signature as well as of affixing the seal; and by the 15th century it had become established, and it remains to the See also:present See also:time. Thus the signum manuale had disappeared, except among notaries; but the term survived, and by a natural See also:process it was transferred to the signature. In the present See also:day it is used to designate the " sign manual " or autograph signature of the See also:sovereign. The Anglo-Saxon kings of See also:England did not sign their charters,their names being invariably written by the official scribes. After the See also:Norman See also:conquest, the sign manual, usually a cross, which sometimes accompanied the name of the sovereign, may in some instances be autograph; but no royal signature is to be found earlier than the reign of See also:Richard II. Of the signatures of this king there are two examples, of the years 1386 and 1389, in the Public See also:Record See also:Office; and there is one, of 1397, in the See also:British Museum. Of his See also:father, the See also:Black See also:Prince, there is in the Record Office a See also:motto-signature, De See also:par Homoni (high courage), Ich dene, subscribed to a See also:writ of privy seal of 1370.

The kings of the Lancastrian See also:

line were apparently ready writers. Of the See also:handwriting of both See also:Henry IV. and Henry V. there are specimens both in the Record Office and in the British Museum. But by their time writing had become an See also:ordinary accomplishment. Apart from the autographs of sovereigns, those of famous men of the early See also:middle ages can hardly be said to exist, or, if they do exist, they are difficult to identify. For example, there is a See also:charter at See also:Canterbury bearing the statement that it was written by See also:Dunstan; but, as there is a duplicate in the British Museum with the same statement, it is probable that both the one and the other are copies. The autograph See also:MSS. of the See also:chronicles of Ordericus Vitalis, of See also:Robert de See also:Monte, and of See also:Sigebert of See also:Gembloux are in existence; and among the Cottonian MSS. there are undoubtedly autograph writings of See also:Matthew of See also:Paris, the See also:English chronicler of Henry III.'s reign. There are certain documents in the British Museum in the hand of See also:William of Wykeham; and among French archives there are autograph writings of the historian See also:Joinville. These are a few instances. When we come to such a collection as the famous Paston Letters, the See also:correspondence of the See also:Norfolk See also:family of Paston of the 15th century, we find therein numerous autographs of See also:historical personages of the time. From the 16th century onward, we enter the period of modern history, and autograph documents of all kinds become plentiful. And yet in the midst of this plenty, by a perverse See also:fate, there is in certain instances a remarkable dearth. The instance of See also:Shakespeare is the most famous.

But for three signatures to the three sheets of his will, and two signatures to the conveyances of See also:

property in Blackfriars, we should be without a vestige of his handwriting. For certain other signatures, professing to be his, inscribed in books, may be dismissed as imitations Such forgeries come up from time to time, as might be expected, and are placed upon the See also:market. The Shakespearean forgeries, however, of W. H. See also:Ireland were perpetrated rather with a See also:literary See also:intent than as an autographic venture. Had autograph See also:collecting been the See also:fashion in Shakespeare's days, we should not have had to deplore the loss of his and of other, great writers' autographs. But the See also:taste had not then come into See also:vogue, at least not in England. The series of auto-graph documents which were gathered in such a library as that of See also:Sir Robert See also:Cotton, now in the British Museum, found their way thither on See also:account of their literary or historic See also:interest, and not merely as specimens of the handwriting of distinguished men. Such a series also as that formed by Philippe de See also:Bethune, See also:Comte de Selles et Charost, and his son, in the reign of See also:Louis XIV., consisting for the most See also:part of original letters and papers, now in the Bibliotheque Nationale, might have been regarded as the result of autograph collecting did we not know that it was brought together for historical purposes. It was in See also:Germany and the See also:Low Countries that the practice appears to have originated, chiefly among students and other members of the See also:universities, of collecting autograph See also:inscriptions and signatures of one's See also:friends in albums, See also:alba amicorum, little oblong See also:pocket volumes of which a considerable number have survived, a very fair collection being in the British Museum. The earliest See also:album in the latter series is the See also:Egerton MS. 1178, beginning with an entry of the See also:year 1554.

Once the taste was established, the collecting of autographs of living persons was naturally extended to those of former times; and many collections, famous in their day, have been formed, but in most instances only to be dispersed again as the owners tired of their See also:

fancy or as their heirs failed to inherit their tastes along with their possessions. The most celebrated collection formed in England in See also:recent years is that of the See also:late Mr See also:Alfred See also:Morrison, which still remains intact, and which is well known by means of the sumptuous See also:catalogue, with its many facsimiles, compiled by the owner. The rivalry of collectors and, the high prices which rare or favourite autographs realize have naturally given encouragement to the forger. False letters of popular heroes and of popular authors, of See also:Nelson, of See also:Burns, of See also:Thackeray, and of others, appear from time to time in the market: in some instances See also:clever imitations, but more generally too palpably See also:spurious to deceive any one with experience. Like the Shakespearean forgeries of Ireland, referred to above, the forgeries of See also:Chatterton were literary inventions; and both were poor performances. One of the cleverest frauds of this nature in modern times was the fabrication, in the middle of the 19th century, of a series of letters of See also:Byron and See also:Shelley, with postmarks and seals See also:complete, which were even published as See also:bona fide documents (Brit. See also:Mus., Add. MS. 19,377). There are many published collections of facsimiles of autographs of different nations. Among those published in England the following may be named :—British Autography, by J. Thane (1788-1793, with supplement by See also:Daniell, 1854) ; Autographs of Royal, See also:Noble, Learned and Remarkable Personages in English History, by J.

G. See also:

Nichols (1829) ; Facsimiles of Original Documents of Eminent Literary Characters, by C. J. See also:Smith (1852) ; Autographs of the Kings and Queens and Eminent Men of Great See also:Britain, by J. Netherclift (1835) ; One See also:Hundred Characteristic Autograph Letters, by J. Netherclift arid Son (1849) ; The Autograph See also:Miscellany, by F. Netherclift (1855); The Autograph Souvenir, by F. G. Netherclift and R. See also:Sims (1$65); The Autographic See also:Mirror (1864-1866); The Handbook of Autographs, by F. G. Netherclift (1862); The Autograph Album, by L.

B. See also:

Phillips (1866) ; Facsimiles of Autographs (British Museum publication), five series (1896-1900). Facsimiles of autographs also appear in the official publications, Facsimiles of See also:National MSS., from William the Conqueror to See also:Queen See also:Anne (See also:Master of the Rolls), 1865-1868; Facsimiles of National MSS. of See also:Scotland (See also:Lord Clerk See also:Register), 1867-1871; and Facsimiles of National MSS. of Ireland (Public Record Office, Ireland), 1874-1884. (E. M.

End of Article: AUTOGRAPHS

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