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OVTOS 7LVWO'KEOE KQL OTL USWp EKQ.UTOS TWV OpWV T77V ag7r€Xov 4 vmuop. i' v 7rpOTEpOV) Here there is none of the linking of the letters which is seen in the other example: every See also:letter stands distinct. But while the individual letters are clumsily written, the same See also:laws govern their formation as in the other document. The shallow, wide-spread mu, the cursive nu, the small theta, omikron, and rho, are repeated. Here also is seen the tau, with its See also:horizontal stroke confined to the See also:left of the See also:vertical instead of See also:crossing it, and the undeveloped omega, which has the See also:appearance of being clipped—both forms being characteristic of the 3rd, See also:century B.C. The trained clerical hands of the 2nd century B.C. (fig. 3) differ generally from those of the earlier century in a more perfect and less cursive formation, the older shallow type gradually disappearing, and the linking of letters by horizontal strokes being less continuous. But the Ptolemaic See also:character marks the See also:handwriting well through the century; and it is only towards the See also:close of that See also:period and as the next century is entered, that the See also:hand begins to give way and to lose altogether its linked See also:style and the See also:peculiar crispness of the strokes which give it its distinctive appearance. The cursive hand in its best style (e.g. N. et Extr. pls. See also:xxviii., See also:xxix.) is very graceful and exact: ?e-Irsr.t.)v 7-r-ru^rr? x•N.f-N-vs. r (vct. alwmv n uv Xpr)µarq'o'ova EuXa(3ecav 7poopwµevwv rlµWV Se) Towards the end of the Ptolemaic period material greatly fails. There are very few extant cursive documents between the years 8o and 20 B.C. But marks of decadence already appear in the examples of the beginning of the 1st century B.C. The See also:general character of the See also:writing becomes' slacker, and the forms of individual letters are less exact. 'These imperfections prepare us for the See also:great See also:change which was to follow. With the See also:Roman period comes roundness of style, in strong contrast to the stiffness and rigid linking of the' Ptolemaic hand. Curves take the See also:place of straight strokes in the individual letters, and even ligatures are formed in pliant sweeps of the See also:pen. This transition from the stiff to the flexible finds some-thing of a parallel in the development of the curving and flexible See also:English` charterhand of the 14th century from the rigid hand of the 13th century; following, it would seem, the natural See also:law of relaxation. Roundness of style, then, is characteristic of See also:Greek cursive writing in the papyri of the first three centuries of the See also:Christian era, however much individual hands, or See also:groups of hands, might vary among themselves. A specimen (fig. 4) of cursive writing of the general Roman type is selected from a See also:papyrus (Brit. See also:Mus. No. cxxxi.) which is of more than usual See also:interest, as it is on the verso See also:side of the rolls of which it is composed that the See also:text of See also:Aristotle's Constitution of See also:Athens has been transcribed. It contains the farming accounts of the See also:bailiff of Epimachus, son of Polydeuces, the owner of an See also:estate in the See also:nome of Hermopolis in the 9th and See also:roth years of the reign of See also:Vespasian, that is A.U. 78–79: C.--71.- 6-N ~' Ya•n J'7a`e,>.)^.RN ba 2Co 70 aIxrrck (r )Jw(olt. Cdr Fig. 4.-See also:Farm Accounts, A. n. 78-79. (ETOUS EVSEKaTOU a- ovecr raolavov o 8avrovba7rava l rov /.MWOS X—ro & avrou E7rl uaxov e—) In the second See also:half of the 1st century two styles of handwriting predominate in the cursive papyri. There is the clear and flowing hand, which may be termed the See also:ordinary working hand; and there is also a small and very cursive style which appears in private See also:correspondence and in legal contracts. The and century See also:fellows on the same lines as the 1st century; but with the 3rd century decadence sets in; the writing begins to slope, and grows larger and rougher and tends to exaggeration. This exaggeration of the writing of the later Roman period leads the way to the pedantic exaggeration and formalism characteristic of the See also:Byzantine period. In this period the general style of writing is on a larger See also:scale than in the Roman; exaggeration in the See also:size of certain letters marks the progress of the 4th century. Material is wanting for full See also:illustration of the changes effected in the 5th century; but the papyri of the 6th century show a further advance in formalism, the See also:common style being upright and compressed and full of flourishes. In the 7th century the hand assumes a sloping style, which always seems to accompany decadence, and grows very irregular and straggling. A specimen of the fully See also:developed Byzantine hand of a legal type is here shown in a few lines from a See also:lease of a farm (fig. 5) in the 6th century (Brit. Mus. pap. cxiii-3) : Fig. 5.-Lease of a Farm, 6th century. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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