II
ABBREVIATIONS
LIPPED WORDS are as old as writing. They were stamped on coins and medals and cut in stone or pressed on bricks long before Genesis was written. Medieval books are full of them. The practice began with the copyists who wished to put many words in a small space, as well as to lighten their own labor, but it was carried to such an extent that the books, then made were hard to read,[1] and scholars everywhere complained of their obscurity. Books had to be published to explain their intent.
- ↑ Chevillier (l'Origine de l'imprimerie de Paris, etc., p. 111, 4to, Paris, 1595) specifies an edition of the Logic of Ockham, printed in that city in 1488, in which he found this mysterious statement. He says it was selected at hazard: Sic hix e fal sm qd ad simplr a e pducibile a Deo g a e & silr hic a n e g a n e pducibile a Deo. These are the abbreviations for Sicut hie est fallacia secundum quid ad simpliciter. A est producibile à Deo. Ergo A est. Et similiter hic. A non est. Ergo Anon est producibile à Deo.
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