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GREEK WRITING
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See also:GREEK See also:WRITING . IL —TUE VELLUM CODICES Uncial Writing.—It has been shown above how a See also:round uncial See also:hand had been developing in Greek writing on See also:papyrus during the See also:early centuries of the See also:Christian era, and how even as early as the and See also:century a well-formed uncial script was in use, at least for sumptuous copies of so See also:great and popular an author as See also:Homer. We have now to describe the uncial hand as it appears in Greek See also:MSS. written on vellum. This harder and firmer and smoother material afforded to the See also:scribes better See also:scope for a calligraphic See also:style hardly possible on papyrus. With the ascendancy of the vellum codex as the vehicle for literature, the characters received the fixed and settled forms to which the name of uncial is more exactly attached than to the fluctuating letters of the early papyri. The See also:term uncial has been borrowed from the nomenclature of Latin See also:palaeography' and applied to Greek writing of the larger type, to distinguish it from the minuscule or smaller 'See also:character which succeeded it in vellum MSS. of the 9th century. In Latin majuscule writing there exist both capitals and See also:uncials, each class distinct. In Greek MSS. pure See also:capital-See also:letter writing was never employed (except occasionally for ornamental titles at a See also:late See also:time). As distinguished from the square capitals of See also:inscriptions, Greek uncial writing has certain rounded letters, as a, e, c, co, modifications in others, and some letters extending above or below the See also:line. It is not probable that vellum codices were in See also:ordinary use earlier than the 4th century; and it is in codices of that See also:age that the handsome calligraphic uncial above referred to was See also:developed. A few years ago the 4th century was the earliest limit to which palaeographers had dared to carry back any See also:ancient vellum codex inscribed in uncials. But the recovery of the Homeric papyri written in the large uncials of the and century has led to a revision of former views on the date of one early vellum MS. in particular. This MS. is the fragmentary Homer of the Ambrosian Library at See also:Milan, consisting of some fifty pieces of vellum cut out of the See also:original codex for the See also:sake of the pictures which they contain; and all of the See also:text that has survived is that which happened to be on the back of the pictures. The Ambrosian Homer has hitherto been generally placed in the 5th century, and the difference of the style of the writing from that of the usual calligraphic type of uncial MSS. of that time, which had been remarked, was thought rather to indicate inferiority in age. But the similarity of the character of the writing (taller and more slender than is usual in vellum codices) to that of the large uncials of the papyrus Homers of the and century from Hawara and Oxyrhynchus and Tebtunis is so striking that the ' St See also:Jerome's often quoted words, " uncialibus, ut vulgo aiunt, litteris " in his See also:preface to the See also:book of See also:Job, have never been explained satisfactorily. Of the character referred to as " uncial " there is no question; but the derivation of the term is not settled. 564 Ambrosian Homer must be classed with them. Hence it is now held that that MS. may certainly be as early as the 3rd century. But, as that century was still within the See also:period when papyrus was the See also:general vehicle for Greek literature, it may be asked why that material should not in this instance also have been used. The See also:answer may fairly be ventured that vellum was certainly a better material to receive the illustrative paintings, and on that See also:account was employed. The Ambrosian Homer may therefore be regarded as a most interesting See also:link between the papyrus uncial of the 2nd century and the vellum uncial of the 4th and 5th centuries. With the introduction, then, of vellum as the general writing material, the uncial characters entered on a new phase. The See also:light See also:touch and delicate forms so characteristic of calligraphy on papyrus gave See also:place to a rounder and stronger hand, in which the contrast of See also:fine See also:hair-lines and thickened down-strokes adds so conspicuously to the beauty of the writing of early MSS. on vellum. And here it may be remarked, with respect to the attribution to particular periods of these early examples, that we are not altogether on See also:firm ground. See also:Internal See also:evidence, such, for example, as the presence of the Eusebian Canons in a MS. of the See also:Gospel, assists us in fixing a limit of age, but when there is no such support the dating of these early MSS. must be more or less conjectural. It is not till the beginning of the 6th century that we meet with an uncial MS. which can be approximately dated; and, taking this as a See also:standard of comparison, we are enabled to distinguish those which undoubtedly have the See also:appearance of greater age and to arrange them in some sort of See also:chronological See also:order. But these codices are too few in number to afford material in sufficient quantity for training the See also:eye by familiarity with a variety of hands of any one period—the only method which can give entirely trustworthy results. Among the earliest examples of vellum uncial MSS. are the three famous codices of the See also:Bible. Of these, the most ancient, the Codex Vaticanus, is probably of the 4th century. The writing must, in its original See also:condition, have been very perfect as a specimen of penmanship; but nearly the whole of the text has been traced over by a later hand, perhaps in the See also:roth or I ith century, and only such words or letters as were rejected as readings have been See also:left untouched. Written in triple columns, in letters of See also:uniform See also:size, without enlarged initial letters to See also:mark even the beginnings of books, the MS. has all the simplicity of extreme antiquity (See also:Pal. See also:Soc. pl. 104). The Codex Sinaiticus (Pal. Soc. pl. Io5) has also the same marks of age, and is judged by its discoverer; See also:Tischendorf, to be even more ancient than the Vatican MS. In this, however, a comparison of the writing of the two MSS. leads to the conclusion that he was mistaken. The writing of the Codex Sinaiticus is not so pure as that of the other MS., and, if that is a criterion of age, the Vatican MS. holds the first place. In one particular the Codex Sinaiticus has been thought to approach in See also:form to its possible archetype on papyrus. It is written with four columns to a See also:page, the open book thus presenting eight columns in sequence, and recalling the See also:long line of columns on an open See also:roll. With regard to such general outward resemblances between the later papyrus See also:literary rolls and the early vellum uncial MSS., we may cite such papyri as the See also:Berlin commentary on the Theaetetus of See also:Plato of the 2nd century and the Oxyrhynchus fragment of See also:Julius See also:Africanus of the 3rd century as forerunners of the style in which the two great codices here mentioned were See also:cast. The Codex Alexandrinus (fig. 12) is placed in the See also:middle of the 5th century. Here we have an advance on the style of the other two codices. The MS. is written in See also:double columns only, and enlarged letters stand at the beginning of paragraphs. But yet the writing is generally more elegant than that of the Codex Sinaiticus. Examining these MSS. with a view to ascertain the rules which guided the scribes in their See also:work, we find simplicity and regularity the leading features; the round letters formed in symmetrical curves; E and C, &c., See also:finishing off in a hair-line sometimes thickened at the end into a dot; See also:horizontal strokes fine, those of E, H, and e being either in the middle or high in the letter; the See also:base of ,(l and the See also:cross-stroke. IVELLUM `GOI ICES of II also fine, and, as a See also:rule, kept within the limits of the letters and not projecting beyond. Here also may be noticed the occurrence in the Codex -Alexandrinus of Coptic forms of letters (e.g. Q,Jj„See also:alpha and mu) in the t ides of books, &c., confirmatory of the tradition of the See also:Egyptian origin of the MS.
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X,7v eXa(3oµEV afro Tot) 7r[aT]p[o]s).-2 See also: And to about the same time belong the Dio See also:Cassius of the Vatican (See also:Silvestre, pl. 6o) and the See also:Pentateuch of the Bibliotheque Nationale (ibid. pl. 61). In the writing of uncial MSS. of the 6th century there is a marked degeneration. The letters; though still round, are generally of a larger character, more heavily formed, and not so compactly written as in the preceding century. Horizontal strokes (e.g. in A, II, T) are lengthened and finished off with heavy points or finials. The earliest example of this period which has to be noticed is the Dioscorides of See also:Vienna _ (fig. 13), which is of particular value for the study of the palaeography of early vellum MSS. It is the first uncial example to which an approximate date can be given. There is See also:good evidence to show that it was written early in the 6th century for Juliana Anicia, daughter of Flavius Anicius See also:Olybrius, See also:emperor of the See also:West in 472. Here we already See also:notice _the characteristics of uncial writings of the 6th century, to which reference has been 1A"Ti" OHice'` iX Ltiw11ATi T NENTeT H' AI 1 rA0O A.! T 1I X GXON Acets" EN Tw'rrepI4 €peI (-ta 7rpoµ1jK71 XPtaµSee also:art —[a]urwv VTET1111Tat —[xa]7raOou &7r7)Kf Kat —exovro. 7rOX as e4 w[v] --el) To) 7reptcliEPEt)
made. To this century also belong the palimpsest Homer under a See also:Syriac text in the See also:British Museum (Cat. Anc. MSS,, i. pl. 9); its See also:companion See also:volume, used by the same Syrian See also:scribe, in which are fragments of St See also:Luke's Gospel (ibid., pl. 1o); the See also:Dublin palimpsest fragments of St See also:Matthew and See also:Isaiah (T. K. See also: Anc. MSS. i. pl. II); the Coislin Octateuch (Silvestre, pl. 65); the Genesis of Vienna, and the Codex Rossanensis, and the recently recovered Codex Sinopensis of the Gospels, instances of the very few early illustrated MSS. which have survived. Of the same period is the Codex Marchalianus of the Prophets, which, written in Egypt, follows in its style the Coptic form of uncial. Reference may here be made to certain early bilingual Graeco-Latin uncial MSS., written in the 6th and 7th centuries, which; however, have rather to be studied apart, or in connexion with Latin palaeography; for the Greek letters of these MSS. run more or less upon the lines of the Latin forms. The best known of these examples are the Codex-Bezae of the New Testament, at See also:Cambridge (Pal. Soc. pls. 14, 15), and the Codex Claromontanus of the Pauline Epistles, at Paris (Pal. Soc. pls. 63, 64), attributed to the 6th or 7th century; and the Laudian MS. of the Acts of the Apostles (Pal. Soc. p1. 8o) of the 7th century. To these may be added the Harleian Glossary (Cat. See also:Ant. MSS. i. pl. '11), also of the 7th century. A later example, of the 8th century, is the Graeco-Latin Psalter, at Paris, MS. Coislin 186 (Omont, Facs. See also:des plus See also:anti ens MSS. grecs, pl. vii.). An offshoot of early Greek uncial writing on vellum is seen in the Moeso-See also:Gothic See also:alphabet which See also:Ulfilas constructed for the use of his countrymen) in the 4th century, mainly from the Greek letters. Of the few extant remains of Gothic MSS. the See also:oldest ind most perfect is the Codex Argenteus of the Gospels, at See also:Upsala, of the 6th century (Pal. Soc. pl. 118), written in characters which compare with purely written Greek MSS. of the same period. Other Gothic fragments appear in the sloping uncial hand seen in Greek MSS. of the 7th and following centuries. About the See also:year 6eo Greek uncial writing passes into a new See also:stage. We leave the period of the round and enter on that of the See also:oval character. The letters E , e, Q, 0, instead of being symmetrically formed on the lines of a circle, are made oval; and other letters are laterally compressed into a narrow shape. In the 7th century also the writing begins to slope to the right, and accents are introduced and afterwards systematically applied. This slanting style of uncials continues in use through the 8th and 9th and into the loth centuries, becoming heavier as time goes on. In this class of writing there is again the same dearth of dated MSS. as in the round uncial, to serve as See also:standards for the See also:assignment of See also:dates. We have to reach the 9th century before finding a single dated MS. in this kind of writing. It is true that sloping Greek uncial writing is found in a few scattered notes and glosses in Syriac MSS. which See also:bear actual dates in the 7th century, and they are so far useful as showing that this hand was firmly established at that time; but they do not afford sufficient material in quantity to be of really See also:practical use for comparison (see the tables of alphabets in Gardthausen's Griech. Palaog.). Of more value are a few palimpsest fragments of the Elements of See also:Euclid and of Gospel Lectionaries which occur also in the Syriac collection in the British Museum, and are written in the 7th and 8th centuries. There is also in the Vatican a MS. (Reg. 886) of the Theodosian See also:code, which can be assigned with See also:fair accuracy to the See also:close of the 7th century (Gardth. Gr. Pal. p. 158), which, however, being calligraphically written, retains some of the earlier rounder forms. This MS. may be taken as an example of transitional style. In the fragment of a mathematical See also:treatise (fig. 14) from Bobio, forming See also:part of a MS. rewritten in the 8th century and assignable to the previous century, the slanting writing is fully developed. The formation of the letters is good, and conveys the impression that the scribe was writing a hand quite natural to him:-
-7/7-A-d f-7 ANTc7-7 l' y , See also: An important document of this time is also the fragment of papyrus in the Imperial Library at Vienna, which bears the signatures of bishops and others to the acts of the See also:Council of See also:Constantinople of 680. Some of the signatures are in slanting uncials (Wattenb., Script. gr. specim., tabb. 12, 13; Gardth., Gr. Pal. tab. 1). Of the 8th century is the collection of See also:hymns (Brit. See also:Mus., Add. MS. 26,113) written without breathings or accents (Cat. Anc. MSS. i. pl. 14). To the same century belongs the Codex See also:Marcianus, the Venetian MS. of the Old Testament, which is marked with breathings and accents. The See also:plate reproduced from this MS. (Wattenb., Script. gr. specim., tab. 9) contains in the second See also:column a few lines written in round uncials, but in such a laboured style that nothing could more clearly prove the discontinuance of that form of writing as an ordinary hand. In the middle of the 9th century at length we find a MS. with a date in the Psalter of See also:Bishop Uspensky of the year 862 (Wattenb. Script. gr. specim., tab. 1o). A little later in date is the MS. of See also:Gregory of Nazianzus, written between 867 and 886 (Silvestre, pl. 71) ; and at the end of the 9th or beginning of the loth century stands a lectionary in the Harleian collection (Cat. Anc. MSS. i. pl. 17). A valuable See also:series of examples is also given by Omont (Facsimiles des plus anc. MSS. grecs. de la Btbl. Nat.). But by this time minuscule writing was well established, and the use of the more inconvenient uncial was henceforth almost entirely confined to See also: 105), the Curzon Lectionary of 98o, and the Harleian Lectionary of 995 (Pal. Soc. pls. 154, 26, 27). The Bodleian commentary on the Psalter (D. 4, ,) is likewise of great palaeographic value, being written partly in uncials and partly in See also:minuscules of the middle of the loth century (Gardth., Gr. Pal. p. 159, tab. 2, See also:col. 4). This late form of uncial writing appears to have lasted to about the middle of the 12th century. (Omont. Facs. pl. xxii.). From it was formed the See also:Slavonic writing in use at the See also:present See also:day: / T' rw-,cF• F AtN.fAnt- 1y 'tj&tAl/UFICA4A P1 C Al+K A! E IcTFIUA t n'-1N EI A-11 Amu X• xyrroVolc~ErwN (aieywv + K[upL]E EAV OkXns' Sbvaval µE KaOa pLoaL + sal 'isreivas TY/V XEIpa' r*See also:Jaro abroi O Ibyrou]s Xiycav) Under the See also:head of late uncial writing must be classed a few bilingual Graeco-Latin MSS. which have survived, written in a 566 See also:bastard kind of uncial in the west of See also:Europe. This writing follows, wherever the shapes of the letters permit, the formation of corresponding Latin characters—the purely Greek forms being imitated in a clumsy See also:fashion. Such MSS. are the Codex Augiensis of Trinity See also:College, Cambridge, of the end of the 9th century (Pal. Soc. pl. 127) and the Psalter of St See also:Nicholas of Cusa (pl. 128) and the Codex.Sangallensis and Boernerianus of the loth century (pl. 179). The same imitative characters are used in quotations of Greek words in Latin MSS. of the same periods. Minuscule Writing.—The beautifully formed minuscule book-hand, which practically superseded the uncial book-hand in the 9th century, did not See also:spring into existence all at once. Its formation had been the work of centuries. It was the See also:direct descendant of the cursive Greek writing of the papyri. It has been shown above, in tracing the progress of the non-literary, cursive writing on papyrus, how the original forms of the letters of the Greek alphabet went through various modifications, always tending towards the creation of the forms which eventually settled down into the recognized minuscules or small letters of the middle ages and See also:modern times. The development of these modifications is apparent from the first; but it was in the See also:Byzantine period especially that the changes became more marked and more rapid. All the minuscule forms, as we know them in See also:medieval literature, had been practically evolved by the end of the 5th century, and in the course of the next two See also:hundred years those forms became more and more confirmed. In the large formal cursive writing of the documents of the 6th and 7th centuries we can pick out the minuscule alphabet in the rough. It only needed to be cast in a calligraphic See also:mould to become the book-hand minuscule, the later development of which we have now to trace. This calligraphic mould seems to have been found in the imperial See also:chancery; from whence issued documents written in a fine round minuscule hand on an ample See also:scale, as appears from one or two rare surviving examples attributed to the 8th and 9t1 centuries (see the facsimile of an imperial letter, dated variously A.D. 756 or 839, in Wattenbach, Script. graec. specim., pls. xiv., xv., and in Omont, Facs. des plus anc. MSS. grecs. pls. See also:xxvi., See also:xxvii.; and Brit. Mus. papyrus xxxii.). The fine hand only needed to be reduced in scale to become the caligraphic minuscule book-hand of the vellum MSS. Thus, then, in the 9th century, the minuscule book-hand came into general use for literature, and, with the finely prepared vellum of the time ready to receive it, it assumed under the pens of See also:expert calligraphers the requisite cast, upright, See also:regular and symmetrical, which renders it in its earliest stages one of the most beautiful forms of writing ever created. Greek MSS. written in minuscules have been classed as follow: (1) codices vetustissimi, of the 9th century and to the middle of the loth century; (2) vetusti, from the middle of. the loth to the middle of the 13th century; (3) recentiores, from the middle of the 13th century to the fall of Constantinople, 1453; (4) See also:novelli, all after that date. Of dated minuscule MSS. there is a not inconsiderable number scattered among the different See also:libraries of Europe. Gardthausen (Gr. Pal. 344 seq.) gives a See also:list of some thouland, ending at A.D. 1500. But, as might be expected, the See also:majority belong to the later classes.' Of the 9th century there are not ten which actually bear dates and of these all but one belong to the latter• See also:half of the century. In the loth century, however, the number rises to nearly fifty, in the Iltb to more than a hundred. In the period of codices vetustissimi the minuscule hand is distinguished by its simplicity and purity. The period has been well described as the classic age of minuscules. The letters are symmetrically formed; the writing is compact and upright, or has even a slight tendency to slope to the left. In a word, the beauty of this class of minuscule writing is unsurpassed. But in addition to these general characteristics there are See also:special 1 In Omont's Facs. des MSS. grecs dates de la Bibl. Nat. will be found a useful list of upwards of 300 facsimiles of dated Greek MSS. ,(including uncials).[VELLUM CODICES distinctions which belong to it. The minuscule character is maintained intact, without intrusion of larger or uncial-formed letters. With its cessation as the ordinary literary hand the uncial character had not died out, We have seen that it was still used for liturgical books. It likewise continued to survive in a modified or half-uncial form for scholia, rubrics, titles, and special purposes—as, for example, in the Bodleian Euclid (fig. 16)—in minuscule written MSS. of the 9th and loth centuries. These uses of the older character sufficed to keep it in remembrance, and it is therefore not a See also:matter for surprise that some of its forms should reappear and commingle with the See also:simple minuscule. This afterwards actually took place. But in the period now under See also:consideration, when the minuscule had been cast into a new mould, and was, so to say, in the full vigour of youth, extraneous forms were rigorously excluded. ar,o-o Tan y c' P C T t Y'm y ' l °-° art Ce:r't rt. p i ~iul..r. µ. r tra4 'TxU r p 4, 2 •Tp t •See also:Yarn au . tt r- -'Tis o Nl N (T v ct-6? 6-e, ter. '"- s~' ° rwJ o -"-m N (p }n {t :b-~r m 1 -as-P I O1LOJ" [` di cro t1-~-~ Tv~ o }rtau 'urF o ef FIG. i6.-Euclid (See also:Oxford), A.D. 888, (iuro rivv OMN E TT Tpeywvwv enrt—BETOL Gcoii~al apa EOTL Ta 7rpiQµa[ra]—jEV eto Ta AZP P. z Tpi7wva. a—Ta OMN ITT' &ere [a6]Ta o'TEpea rr—Ta aim Twv a p7jµEVwv 7rpwwµaT[wv] va ~vov>/ir~ r yxavovra' 7rpos a?A[tlXa]—) The breathings also of this class are rectangular, in unison with the careful and deliberate character of the writing; and there is but slight, if any, separation of the words. In addition, as far as has hitherto been observed, the letters run above, or stand upon, the ruled lines, and do not depend from them as at a later period. The exact time at which this latter See also:mechanical change took place cannot be named; like other changes it would naturally establish itself by usage. But at least in the middle of the loth century it seems to have been in use. In the Bodleian MS. of See also:Basil's homilies of 953 A.D. (Pal. Soc. p1. 82) the new method is followed; and if we are to accept. the date of the 9th century ascribed to a MS. in the Ambrosian Library at Milan (Wattenb., Script. gr. specim., tab. 17), in which the ruled lines run above the writing, the practice was yet earlier. Certain scribal peculiarities, however, about the MS. make us hesitate to place it so early. In the Laurentian See also:Herodotus (W and V., Exempla, tab. 31), which belongs to the loth century, sometimes the one, sometimes the other See also:system is.. followed in different parts of the volume; , and the same peculiarity happens in the MS. of Gregory of Nazianzus of A.D. 972 in the British Museum (Pal. Soc. pl. 25; Exempla, tab. 7). The second half of the loth century therefore appears to be a period of transition in this respect. The earliest dated example of codices vetustissimi is the copy of the Gospels belonging to Bishop Uspensky, written in the year 835. , A facsimile is given by Gardthausen (Beitrage) and repeated in the Exempla (tab. 1). Better specimens have been photographed from the Oxford Euclid of A.D. 888 (Pal. Soc. pls. 65, 66; Exempla, tab. 2) from a MS. of See also:Saints' Lives at Paris of A.D. 890 (Omont, Facs. des MSS. gr. dates, 'pl. I), and from the Oxford Plato (fig. 17) of A.D. 895 (Pal. Soc. p1. 81; Exempla, tab. 3). Sabas (Specim. Palaeograph.), has also given two facsimiles from MSS. of '88o and 899. Of dated examples of the first half of the loth century about a dozen facsimiles are available. After the middle of the loth century we enter on the period of the codices vetusti, in which the writing becomes gradually less compact. The letters, so to say, open their ranks; and, from this circumstance alone, MSS. of the second half of the century may generally be distinguished from those fifty years earlier. But alterations also take place in the shapes of the letters. See also:Side by side with the purely minuscule forms those of the uncial begin to reappear, the cause of which innovation has already been explained. These uncial forms first show ,1cga' paua! IpLi.uuu%:xecreni pUUt suuLc p-46 I15i. O'DI'UMtitpowt%u masm igfrercgs 6pop : 'any ul+~}iout,: 'pac^IL-o-See also:Pro 7cctt pQrnWl3msotd TeAersi.I OUT' Caves uroucrt; ccep j ~1Zt-~tt.Tt~L1. —! ! Q o p A+See also:acro u-rourea p aw kuyyfY ttmoo' c(pT op —[atryKe aXat]o icepeha EKQTEpOv; 9r&Pv µEV aV: [etivac 4 7 ri. rd yatpew new." EWCOLc.' —[O]oa roi yb'our icrrt TOUTOV o'U u/xova• —"ED•TL /11) TQUTa. aXAa Ta 4 pOVE V. Kai TO —[ra] TOUTWv all EtryeviJ• 66Eav re 6p) themselves at the end of the line, the point at which most changes first gained a footing, but by degrees they work back into the text, and at length become recognized members of the minuscule characters. In the 11th and 12th centuries they are well established, and become more and more prominent by the large or See also:stilted forms which they assume. The change, however, in the general character of the writing of this class of codices vetusti is very See also:gradual, uniformity and evenness being well maintained, especially in church books. On the other hand, a lighter and more cursive kind of minuscule is found contemporaneously in MSS. generally of a secular nature. In this hand many of the classical MSS. of the loth or 11th centuries are written, as the MS. of See also:Aeschylus and See also:Sophocles, the Odyssey and the See also:Apollonius Rhodius of the Laurentian Library at See also:Florence, the Anthologia Palatina of See also:Heidelberg and Paris, the See also:Hippocrates of See also:Venice (Exempla, tabb. 32-36, 38, 40), the See also:Aristophanes of See also:Ravenna (Wattenb., Script. gr. specim., tab. 26), the See also:Strabo of Paris (Omont, Facs. des plus anc. MSS. grecs, pl. 40), a See also:Demosthenes (fig. 18) at Florence (Pal. Soc. ii. pl. 88, 89), &c. In a facsimile from a See also:Plutarch at Venice (Exempla, tab. 44), the scribe is seen to change from the formal to the more cursive hand. This style of writing is distinguishable by its light and graceful character from the current writing into which the minuscule degenerated at a later time. . 4 64p See also:ast 4.vrmN ~lw a;X 644 td / 44daid°~ q WLiae /Aojjag. See also:law-144v o Tip C4r! o tJ A ,~C ,avmCa,a~es'2 I a e-auroaJ6i FIG. 18.-Demosthenes (Florence), early ixth century. (&veX€ZY SEC XEy6vTWV T6v&v EB[EXEW]—ap6Xecpos Myos. See also:tin &pa Kai 7rap'—X'aya0a eipyao7EVoL Tcvls. ovS[Eves]-A'ayar r&s brcypaµµaros Ev- roiiB' Uj2IV Ova-VWVEra' TO E7ri[ypaµµa]—rev A6yov it) avapes Oth vaioc) The gradual rounding of the rectangular breathings takes place in this period. In the 11th century the smooth breathing, which would most readily lend itself to this modification, first appears in the new form. In the course of the 12th century both breathings have lost the old square shape; and about the same time contractions become more numerous, having been at first confined to the end of the line. When the period of codices recentiores commences, the Greek ,t jr ar pe ~s a In Q'°~ °t optic .^,bvaspens sa.rw,v eou'CQIOOyOYNOL a t'OhOL See also:MOP ws &pa ¢wvi See also:ras o / Xas gXXaf3ev a rrdp 66uvo-EVs aµOv6µou apos youva KaOEteTo SouXLXollos) minuscule hand undergoes extensive changes. The contrast between MSS. of the 13th century and those of a hundred years earlier is very marked. In the later examples the hand is generally more straggling, there is a greater number of exaggerated forms of letters, and marks of contraction and accents are. dashed on more freely. There is altogether a sense of greater activity and haste. The increasing demand for books created a larger See also:supply. Greater freedom and more variety appear in the examples of this class, together with an increasing use of ligatures and contractions. The general introduction of See also:paper likewise assisted to break up the formal minuscule hand. To this rougher material a rougher style of writing was suited. Through the 14th and 15th centuries the decline of the set minuscule rapidly advances. The writing becomes even more involved and intricate, marks of contraction and accents are combined with the letters in a single See also:action of the See also:pen, and the general result is the See also:production of a thoroughly cursive hand. In some respects, however, the change was not so rapid. Church books were still ordinarily written on vellum, which, as it became scarcer in the See also:market (owing to the injury done to the See also:trade by the competition of paper), was supplied from ancient codices which See also:lay ready to hand on the shelves of libraries; and in these liturgical MSS. the more formal style of the minuscule was still maintained. In the 14th century there even appears a partial See also:renaissance in the writing of Church MSS., modelled to some extent on the lines of the writing of the 12th century. The resemblance, however, is only superficial; for no writer can entirely disguise the character of the writing of his own time. And lastly there was yet another check upon the See also:absolute disintegration of the minuscule book-hand in the 15th century exercised by the professional scribes who worked in See also:Italy, and who in their calligraphical productions reverted again to the older style. The See also:influence of the Renaissance is evident, in many of the MSS. of the See also:Italian Greeks, which served as See also:models for the first Greek See also:printing types. The Greek minuscule book-hand had, then, by the end of the 15th century, become a cursive hand, from which the modern current hand is directly derived. We last saw the ancient cursive in use in the documents See also:prior to the formation of the set minuscule book-hand, and no doubt it continued in use concurrently with the book-hand. But, as the latter passed through the transformations which have been traced, and gradually assumed a more current style, it may not unreasonably be sup-posed that it absorbed the cursive hand of the period, and with it whatever elements may have survived of the old cursive hand. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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