Volume 2

Universal palaeography, or, Fac-similes of writings of all nations and periods, copied from the most celebrated and authentic manuscripts in the libraries and archives of France, Italy, Germany, and England / by M.J.B. Silvestre ; accompanied by an historical and descriptive text and introduction by Champollion-Figeac and Aimé Champollion, fils ; translated from the French and edited, with corrections and notes, by Sir Frederic Maddan ... in two volumes.

Joseph-Balthazar Silvestre

Date:: 1849-1850

Credit: Universal palaeography, or, Fac-similes of writings of all nations and periods, copied from the most celebrated and authentic manuscripts in the libraries and archives of France, Italy, Germany, and England / by M.J.B. Silvestre ; accompanied by an historical and descriptive text and introduction by Champollion-Figeac and Aimé Champollion, fils ; translated from the French and edited, with corrections and notes, by Sir Frederic Maddan ... in two volumes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

218/458 page 576

$remarked, that the Aquitaine scribe has written suabitatem, probitatem, vervi, b for v, and v for b; a practice still in use in the writer’s native province. PLATE CCVII. DIPLOMATIC WRITING OF SPAIN. XI™ AND XII™ CENTURIES. ROYAL CHARTERS OP KING ALFONSO YI. AND QUEEN URRAKA. The observations which have been made upon the capital and minuscule Visigothic writings of Spain, are equally appli¬ cable to the minuscule and cursive writing of the charters. The Visigothic is only the Roman writing, modified slightly in some of the letters according to the national taste, and sanctioned by general use. The writing thus constituted is that to which the title of Toledan, or letters of Toledo, is applied, of which the accompanying Plate contains various specimens as used in diplomas. This kind of writing has had three states or epochs. At first, and from the earliest times, the Visigothic minuscule and cursive letters were used in it; from the twelfth century the French minuscule was employed; and from the fourteenth century the Gothic minuscule and cursive letters. Some fine specimens are here given of the first two states ; but as to the third, the deformed Gothic, since it is found at the same period triumphant throughout Europe, it has not been thought necessary to present its Spanish type, which resembles the rest in ugliness. The specimen No. 1 is a charter of Alfonso VI., whose name occurs in the fifth line* —Ay<9 A \l]defonsus, gra [gratia\$

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