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.

250/458 page 608

$SamuhelIn this subscription the form of the letter Q is remarkable, being square, with a cedilla arising in the interior of the letter; a form not inappropriate, since the 0 is also represented square, and the Q is only 0 with a tail. The square 0 is also to be observed in the first word of the text of the fac-simile, preceded by this rubric,—Quod ds [Deus] incommutabilis, summus et cetern\u\s* existed. The initial letter of the word Solus is a beautiful example of the Anglo- Saxon zoomorphic letters, the ends terminating in dragons' heads, whence spring two arabesques, ornamented with similar heads, mingled with leaves and flowers, and colored. The other letters of this first word are also colored green and yellow, the S being remarkable in its form, like a reversed Z, which is not, however, unusual in Anglo-Saxon majuscule writing. This manuscript consists of 360 pages of strong vellum, the columns and lines of which are ruled with a hard point, and the leaves distributed in quaternions, which do not all appear to have been written by one hand. A number of majuscule letters occur in it, very varied and original in design; the peculiar character, indeed, of manuscripts of the same origin as the one before us, which may be attributed to the ninth century. * The word ut is colored red by mistake, after ceternus.$

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