Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/161

PALAEOGRAPHY 145 with a liard point, almost invariably on the hair (or outer) side of the skin, and strongly enough to be in relief on the flesh (or inner) side. Marginal lines were drawn to bound the text laterally ; but the ruled lines which guided the writing were not infrequently drawn right across the sheet. Each sheet should be ruled separately ; but two or more sheets were often laid and ruled together, the lines being drawn with so much force that the lower sheets also received the impressions. In rare instances lines are found ruled on both sides of the leaf, as in some parts of the Codex Alexandrinus. In this same MS. and in other early codices the ruling was not always drawn for every line of writing, but was occasionally spaced so that the writing ran between the ruled lines as well as on them. In making up the quires, care was generally taken to lay the sheets in such a way that hair-side faced hair-side, and flesh-side faced flesh-side ; so that, when the book was opened, the two pages before the reader had the same appearance, either the yellow tinge of the hair-side, or the fresh whiteness of the flesh-side. In Greek MSS. the arrangement of the sheets was afterwards reduced to a system : the first sheet was laid with the flesh-side down wards, so that that side began the quire ; yet in so early an example as the Codex Alexandrinus the first page of a quire is the hair-side. In Latin MSS. also the hair-side appears generally to have formed the first page. Ruling with the plummet or lead-point came into ordinary use in the 12th century; red and violet inks were used for orna mental ruling in the 15th century. The lines were evenly spaced by means of prickings in the margins ; in some early MSS. these prickings run down the middle of the page. Inks of various colours were employed from, early times. Red is found in initial lines, titles, and colophons in the earliest vellum MSS. For purposes of contrast it was also used in glosses, as in the Lindisfarne Gospels and in the Durham Ritual. In the Carlovingian period entire volumes were occasionally written with this ink. Other coloured inks green, violet, and yellow are also found at an early date. Writing in gold and silver was inscribed on purple vellum in ancient MSS., as has been noted above; under Charlemagne it again came into fashion. Gold was then applied to the writing of ordinary vellum MSS. It was also introduced into English MSS. in the 10th century. With regard to writing implements, it will be here enough to note that for writing on waxen tablets the pointed stilus or grapkium was used ; that the reed (/caA.a//o?, calamus or canna) was adapted for both papyrus and vellum, and that in Italy at least it appears to have been used as late as the 15th century; and that the quill pen can be traced back to the 6th century of our era. GREEK WRITING. The period which has to be traversed in following the history of Greek palaeography begins with the 2d century B.C. and ends at the close of the 15th century. For all this long period the subject is illustrated by a fair amount of material, more or less connected in chronological sequence. Greek writing in MSS., as far as we know it from extant remains, passed through two courses, that of the uncial or large letter, and that of the minuscule or small letter. The period of the uncial runs from the date of the earliest specimens on papyrus to the 9th century, that of the minuscule from the 9th century to the inven tion of printing. An established form of writing, however, cannot, any more than any other human habit, be suddenly abandoned for a new one ; and we are therefore prepared to find the uncial character continue to be used after the first introduction of the smaller hand. It did in fact sur vive for special purposes for some three centuries after it had ceased to be the common form of book- writing. Inversely, no fully developed handwriting suddenly springs into existence ; and we therefore look for the first beginnings of the minuscule hand in documents of far higher antiquity than those of the 9th century. Uncial. The term uncial has been borrowed from the nomenclature of Latin palaeography 1 and applied to Greek writing of the larger type to distinguish it from the minus cule or smaller character. In Latin majuscule writing there exist both capitals and uncials, each class distinct. In Greek MSS. pure capital letter-writing was never employed (except occasionally for ornamental titles at a late time). As distinguished from the square capitals of inscriptions, the uncial writing has certain rounded letters, as 6, C, (x), modifications in others, and some extending above or below the line. Uncial Greek writing in early times is found in two forms, the set and the cursive. En examining the set or, as it may be termed, the literary hand, we find that regard must be had to the material on which it was written. For the material has always had more or less influence on the character of the writing. To the substitution of a soft surface for a hard one, of the pen for the graving tool, we undoubtedly owe the rounded forms of the uncial letters. The square-formed capitals were more easily cut on stone or metal ; the round letters more readily traced on skin or wax or papyrus with stile, reed, or pen. Again, the earliest specimens of Greek uncials are found on papyrus ; and this delicate and brittle material naturally required a light style of penmanship. When the firmer material of vellum came into use, there followed a change in the style of writing, which assumed the calligraphic form, which will be considered in its place. The earliest examples of Greek uncial writing are on papyrus, and have been discovered in Egypt and in the ruins of Herculaneum. When we turn to the literary remains with the view of following the course of the set hand, a difficulty arises at the outset ; for in some of the most ancient specimens (and notably the EiSogov Texvrj referred to below) there is a fluctuation between set and cursive writing which makes it no easy matter to decide how they should be classed. In the same way, when we come to consider the first examples of cursive hand, we shall find much in them which might be termed a set cast of writing. In fact, in the period when these ancient examples were produced, the formal and cursive styles were not so distinctive as they afterwards became. For our present purpose we may class the literary works in this doubtful style of writing under the book-hand, and place the documents among the specimens of cursive. With regard to the different dates to be assigned to these early relics, those which have been recovered from Herculaneum have a limit, after which they cannot have been written, in the year of the destruction of the city, 79 A.D. But how far before that date they may be set it is hazardous to conjecture, although the greater number probably fall within the 1st century of our era. In the case of most of the Egyptian papyri there is no such limit either way. In some instances, however, literary remains have been found in company with deeds bearing an actual date, and in two of them the documents are written on the backs of the literary papyri. The work on astronomy entitled E^Sofou rexy^, among the papyri of the Louvre (N. et Extr., pis. i.-x.), 2 is endorsed with deeds of 165 and 1 St Jerome s often-quoted words, " uncialibus, ut vulgo aiunt, litteris," in his preface to the book of Job, have never been explained. Of the character referred to as " uncial " there is no doubt, but the derivation of the term is unknown. 2 Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits, vol. xviii., Paris, 1865. XVIII. 19