Palaeography

Palaeography (British) or paleography (American) (from the Greek palaios, "old" and graphein, "to write") is the study of ancient and medieval manuscripts, independent of the language (Koine Greek, Classical Latin, Medieval Latin, Old English, etc.)

Related Topics:
British - American - Greek - Ancient - Medieval - Manuscript - Koine Greek - Classical Latin - Medieval Latin - Old English

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Palaeography is in many ways a prerequisite for philology, and it encounters two main difficulties: firstly, since the style of a single alphabet has changed constantly (Carolingian minuscule, Gothic, etc.), it is necessary to know how to decipher the characters that constitute a manuscript. Secondly, these manuscripts carry by necessity many abbreviations for the purpose of saving space—since each page was made from the skin of one sheep, one had to have a sizable flock just to produce a Bible, even an abridged one. The palaeographer must thus know the relevant abbreviations. The & sign, for example, originated from one of these abbreviations, as did the tilde.

Related Topics:
Philology - Carolingian minuscule - Gothic - Bible - Abbreviation - & - Tilde

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This information, about the characters and the abbreviations, permits the palaegrapher to transcribe the document, that is, to produce a modern edition, reestablishing the abbreviations. This task is particularly important for transcribing texts in Latin, because the abbreviations frequently occur at the ends of words, and the declension of the Latin noun requires the usage of different endings.

Related Topics:
Latin - Declension

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