An introduction to Greek and Latin palaeography / by Sir Edward Maunde Thompson.

  • Edward Maunde Thompson
Date:
1912
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: An introduction to Greek and Latin palaeography / by Sir Edward Maunde Thompson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    108/624 page 88
    becoming the favourite form, grew, Ijy rapid writing, into a 3-shaped sign, whicli appears from the eleventh century onwards, as h^ = hus, (^'^ = que. From its frecpient recurrence in the latter common word it even came to repi’esent the q as well as ue, in composition, as at3 = atque, \\Qi = neque. But it was not confined to the representation of terminal U8 and ue; it also appears for termination et, as in deb3 = (Ze/^ei, \Al=qylacet, S3 = se^ (i.e. aed): a survival of which is seen in the z in our common abbreviation, \iz. = videlicet. At a later period it also repre- .sented final m, as in na5= Hom, ite'} = item, ide’i—idem. The same 5-shaped sign likewise is found sometimes as the sign for cd in composition, as in inter^= intered. But here it has a different deriva- tion, being a cursive rendering of the symbol = ed. The horizontal stroke (virgida, apex, titidas, titula, titellus, titella) is the most general mark both of suspension and contraction, and in both uses it may indicate the omission of many letters. We have seen it employed in the ‘ Notae luris ’. It is usually either a straight or a waved line. In early carefully-written MSS. it is ornamentally formed with hooks at the ends In its simplest use as a mark of abbreviation it- is found in majuscule MSS. at the end (rarely in the body) of a line to indicate omission of final M or N. It was placed high in the line, at first, to the right, as AUTE =autem: and in some instances a point was added to distinguish omission of M from omission of N, as ENI“=:eui7n, NO =noii. Afterwards the simple stroke was placed above the last letter, as ENI, NO. Analogous to the horizontal stroke is the oblique stroke, which in minuscule texts takes the jolace of the horizontal chiefly in words in which the tall letters b and 1 occur, as ei])\i = apostoli, mlto = midto, ]ihe = libere, prod=p7'ocul. Of the same class is the waved vertical stroke (sometimes in the form of a curve rising from the preceding letter), often used to signify the omission of e?’ or re; as h^niter = bTeviier, cTus = oertus. Less frequent, because it dropped out of general use, is the final oblique stroke, also found in the earlier minuscule MSS., usually for terminations ws, ur, tcin (after r), as arLf = aniis, amany. = amamus a.mat/'= amatur, rel/=7’mtm. Of these, the last termination rmn con- tinued to be represented in this way, especially in words in the genitive plural.^ Another general sign of early use was the round curve or comma above the line, which, as late as the ninth century, continued to repre- sent the terminations icr, os, us. In later MSS. the curve alone was * A curious result of the use of tliis sign is seen in the second name for Salisbuiy, ‘Sarum.’ The Latin Sarisburia in abbreviated form was written Sag, and came to be read Sarum.
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