Paleography: Elements of Writing

Elements of Writing

• Paleography started in the 16th century with humanists studying old documents.
• The term "paleography" came about in the 18th century.
• Paleography comes from the words palaios (ancient), graphé (writing), and ia (science).
• Paleography is defined as the study of ancient writings.
• Paleography aims at understanding the writing of a text and definitions continue to be refined.
• Armando Petrucci defines it as, "Science that studies the history of writing in its different phases, the techniques used to write in different eras, the production process of written testimonies, and the products themselves of such process".
• Factors influencing the graph, such as what and where something is written, are crucial.
• A paleographic method was used by Jean Mallon, a French scholar interested in documents within libraries and archives.

Document Characteristics

• Morphology or Format: Refers to the external appearance of letters, allowing for recognition and while they're mostly invariable, there are exceptions.
• Writing Angle: Indicates the angle at which the writing tool is held, affecting the thinness or thickness of strokes and whether the writing is cursive.
• Ductus and Stroke: From digitus, finger. This relates to the order in which the scribe writes the text.
• Depending on the number of strokes, the script will be heavier or less so.
• Roman era's strict ductus evolved into linked words and modern writing adheres to the original Roman and Latin style.
• Module: Refers to the dimension of letters, they can be either upper or lower case.
• Weight: Indicates if the letter is more or less thick. A thick letter is heavy, a thin one is light, and it varies per medium.
• Style: Refers to the writer's mode of writing.
• Writing Box and Line Box: They depend on the medium.
• The writing box is the space in which content is written, whereas the line box is a space delimited by invisible lines.
• Ascenders and Descenders: Short or longs glyphs, referring to how much the lines either go above or beneath.
• Ligatures: Cursive strokes that join one or two letters, and don't require lifting the writing instrument.
• Nexus: The merging of two letters through superposition, sharing a stroke.
• According to Morphology or Format: there is upper and lower case.
• According to Ductus and Stroke: writing can be still, semi-cursive, cursive, or calligraphic.
• According to Usage: writing can be elemental or usual, administrative, or libraría.

Abbreviation Systems and Transcription Rules

• Initially, scribes were paid hourly rather than per page written, but Latin was reserved for ecclesiastic spheres.
• As writing evolved, scribes needed to write faster, with lighter scripts and, during humanism, they began charging per word/line.
• Abbreviation systems abbreviate for several reasons.
• Words can be abbreviated from the start by using the first and last letters, or some letters in between for identifying them more easily.
• Abbreviations serve to represent a word schematically for daily repetition, time/space/material economy, greater writing speed, and easier reading.
• Brachygraphy: Study of the previous terms.
• Notae iuris appeared in the late empire.
• Abbreviations were prohibited by the Codex Theodosianus, but, were later restored.

Suspension or Apocope System

• These are abbreviations giving the first/last letter of a word or symbols indicating missing letters, using one or two letters.
• Apostrophe: The apostrophe acts as an abbreviation symbol. For example, c' abbreviates "cum".
• Line Superposition: Used in simple and syllabic suspensions. For example, "aut" is abbreviated as "AT".

Contraction or Syncopation System

• Abbreviations use the first and last letters of a word, with some letters in the middle and a symbol to clarify the abbreviation, typically more than two letters.
• Line Superposition: Ex, BFIO = beneficio.
• Final Letter Superscript: Example, q' - qua
• Derived from Tironian Notes: Example, con = 72

Special Abbreviations

• A.V.C. → ab urbe condita
• S.P.Q.R. → santus populusque romanus
• Roman numerals were used up until the 17th century, before Arabic numbers were starting to get used.

Writing Materials and Graphic Instruments

• Archeological excavations shed light on these, since writing materials didn't have a science dedicated to that.
• A writing material encompasses any medium on which we express what we write.
• The support dictates the writing tool such as a reed, punch, or chisel.
• Mabillon questioned how items were archived, so an analysis to know if what, and who wrote them was needed.

Common Materials

Dry or Cooked Clay

• Simple and well known.
• Clay tablets came mostly from Mesopotamia, used with a punch and dried in the sun or oven.
• Weight and fragility were problematic.

Stone and Marble

• Common mediums for inscriptions written with a chisel.
• Sculptors were commissioned to engrave messages, as the customer requested.
• Most Greek documents were originally written in stone and then transcribed to papyrus or parchment.

Metals

• Metals, specifically bronze and lead, emerged to be easier.
• Bronze was scratched with a punch, and during the High Middle Ages sheets of bronze were submerged in either vinegar or lime.
• For example, Liutprando had several book-shaped sheets to dictate his laws.
• Lead was inexpensive but toxic.
• Used in Rome for curses, even on Tombs.

Wood and Ivory

• High Middle Ages as a whim of the emperors, to heat or for furniture.
• Wood had a border and sealed with wax, used as an information board.
• Were either, whitened with white or yellow wax and varnish, or waxed with colors.
• Pugilares, as they were grabbed with the left hand.

Papyrus

• The economic engine in regions where it was produced.
• Egyptians monopolized cyperus papyrus until the 4th century.
• Pliny the Elder notes the many facets of the production with the plant, in his writing titled Historia Natural.
• Medieval papyrus substituted stone in Gaul.

Parchment

• Parchment is cheaper and transportable animal skin.
• Were used to bind and then were used for writing.
• Parchment originated in Italy.
• Papiyrus fell off, and Parchment got used up until the 16th century.
• Vellum: Parchment made of young animal's skin required less work and wrote better on it.
• Palimpsests were recycled parchments, prevalent during economic crises. These fell into disuse when paper started to get used.
• Parchment spurred codices, and the need to foliate pages and talk about volume.

Paper

• Paper endures until now.
• Cai Lun made the paper from fish nets, hemp at China on the 12th century.
• In the 6th century the Arabs extended the use of paper through out the world, and Spain.
• It was used in Silos monastery to copy books on the 18th century (presentation).

General Writing Instruments

Style

• Depending on eras name is different.
• Style's evolved into pencils and pens, writing on tablets or metal.
• Tend to be made by wood but more fancy with silver or ivory.
• Initially had points on both sides, then a pallet to erase the wax by crushing or scraping it.
• A few had a rake shape pallet.

Reed

• Support as new papyrus for creating a new tool.
• So the water did not stain/escurría the papyrus
• They used methods to keep it good, be it sand or water.
• Theca calamaria, a case used in later times.

Feather Pen

• Began to be used in the 13th century.
• The favorite use was the goose.
• Normal inks were dark or brown, the writing was done with the left wing to make it easier.
• If Dry, they put moist for a week but they changed if they had no humidity.
• If the Pen was recently fabricated it'was burned and guard in sand.

Colored Inks and Illustrations

• Came about, from writing on papyrus.
• To give a better color, the used elements as Comino, clavo O Azafran. or antiseptics.
• Illustrations were left to copy past by calling it minimunm or alliminare.
• The different colors used where, red, blue, yellow and green, the white had no recourse.
• For special text, colors as gold, plata (silver).

Transcription Rules

• When Identifying a Document you need to know the signature.

Structure

• Fechas, Location type, Number of the document and the folio
• Ej:
• 1500.01.01, AHMSe, Acta Capitular, C-9, s.f.
• 1492.04.08, AHPJa, P.N., cuad. 14, ff. 8r 8v.