Paleography Assignment Three: Communication and Texts

Nicole Texeira

INFO 284-11

Introduction: Communication and Texts of Middle

Ages

We will be covering the following terms that apply

to communication and texts for the Middle Ages.

Glossing

Scriptura continua

Punctus

Word-spacing

Ligatures

Abbreviations

Nomina Sacra

Punctuation

Glossing

Glossing is the commentary, the interpretation, or

quotation from a manuscript within the written lines or

sometimes around the margins of the main text

(Tillotson, 2014).

Marginal interpretations are often incorporated into

the glosses either accidentally or in some case

intentionally (Ductus,2015).

Glossing and marginalia are popular forms of scribes’

and readers’ interpretation of the topics within

manuscripts.

Examples of Glossing

Images sources: Kwakkel (2014) and Tillotson (2014)

Berkeley, Bancroft Library, MS 85 (14th

century)

Octopus!

B.5.4 - Prima Pars Psalterii Glostali Sec. Herebutum de Bosham:

Augustinus disagrees with what has been written in manuscript.

• These examples of glossing also features

marginalia, or drawings that scribes and

readers incorporated into the manuscript.

• Also, the use of manicula or denote

important points within the text. The

example on the right is an octopus

manicula.

Manuscript from Ductus, (2015) that

contains information on movement of

planets and a gloss of the original text.

Scriptura Continua

Scriptura Continua refers to a script that has text that

runs together in a continuous line of writing without any

punctuation marks.

Many ancient texts and inscriptions contained scriptura

continua.

Full stops and raised points were used to signify new

words within the continuous line of words.

Texts and inscriptions written in scriptura continua were

meant to be read aloud so that the phrases from the

text could be understood due to their phonetic and

rhythmic sounds.

Example of Scriptura Continua

• This monumental inscription taken from the Trajan

Column in Rome represents scriptura continua.

• Note the lack of punctuation and the use of capital

letters known as Square Capitals.

PunctusPunctus is Latin for “point” and refers to the use of points, and other

punctuation within a manuscript.

Punctus or points are above the base line within the text.

There are several forms of punctus, such as:

Punctus flexus

Punctus elevatus

Punctus interrogativus

Punctus exclamtivus

Punctus versus

Each form represents a type of punctuation within the text.

Forms of PunctusPunctus flexus is a small “u” shape placed over the period within

manuscripts. This form of punctus was used in the 10th century

(Reimer, 2015).

Punctus elevatus is a version of a small semi colon that had a tail

that pointed up to the left. This form was used between the 12th to 15th

centuries (Reimer, 2015).

Punctus interrogativus is a small squiggle shape often seen above

the period at the end of the sentence. A modern interpretation of this

punctus form is a equivalent to question mark! This interesting form

of punctuation was used in the 17th century (Reimer, 2015).

Punctus exclamtivus also known as punctus admirativus is a

medieval form of the exclamation mark. This type of punctuation

appeared in “the second half of the fourteenth century” (Parkes, 1992).

Punctus versus is a small form of the number 7 over the period. In

medieval manuscripts is represents the final pause or the mark of end

of the sentence (Reimer, 2015).

Examples of Punctus

Forms

• Example # 1 represents a punctus interrogativus because it is

squiggle shape over a period.

• Example # 2 is punctus versus because it is a semi colon which

means to end the sentence.

• Example # 3 is punctus elevatus because it is a medieval colon

form.

• Example # 4 looks like punctus exclamtivus due to the period

point with a dash above it.

• Example #5 is minor u shape over a period, which is punctus

flexus.

• All images are from Ductus (2015).

#1#2 #3

#4 #5

Word-Spacing

Medieval manuscripts were written with different

characteristics for word-spacing.

In ancient Latin texts, scribes incorporated

scriptura continua into manuscripts and

inscriptions so that readers knew that there were

breaks in between words and phrases.

By the development of the Gothic manuscripts, in

the Middle Ages scribes used punctus as a form

of punctuation and separation of texts (Saenger,

2000).

Examples of Word-Spacing

Opera [the 'Codex Palatinus'): Aeneid,

IV.509-532 • The manuscript above is from Virgil’s Aeneid it characterizes

scriptura continua and the text is written in Roman Rustic Capitals.

Note the lack of word-spacing, but use of points within the text.

• Manuscripts written in the Middle Ages in the Gothic hand had more

space, like this text from Ripon Psalter (1418 A.D.

Ligatures

Tillotson(2014) defines the term ligature as a

method of writing when a combination of two

distinct letters are merged to form a new type of

shape.

Ligatures also join or link two letters together

(Ductus, 2015).

Finally, ligatures were used frequently within

medieval manuscripts due to their ability to link

letters together.

Examples of Ligatures• Using Historia

Scholastica II.25 (1283-1300

A.D.) as an example, we

will closer at the ligatures

present within this Gothic

textualis quadrata written

form.

• This text was selected as

an example because it

contains many ligatures

within its document.

• The pictures on the left

demonstrate the amount

of the ligatures present in

this manuscript.

• Ligatures are highlighted

with an arrow.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations were a popular device used in writing

medieval manuscripts.

Abbreviations were utilized due to the length of time

and effort it took to complete medieval books.

Many standard forms of abbreviations were created

so that scribes could use abbreviations within their

texts.

Also, abbreviations were significant to the

development of sacred names.

Examples of Abbreviations Using this document from The

Benedictional of St Æthelwold (971 and 984

A.D.) we can identify some abbreviations

used within the text.

This image is an

abbreviation for “et” with

an ampersand.

“rci” is an

abbreviati

on for

“sancti”.

What looks

like “rpu”

actually is

an

abbreviatio

n for

“spiritu”.

This another image is an

abbreviation for the word “et”

using an ampersand.

Nomina Sacra

Nomina Sacra or Nomen Sacrum denotes the Christian abbreviation of holy name for God, deities, or sacred concepts (Tillotson, 2014).

The earliest forms of the nomina sacra were found in the words “God”, “Lord”, “Jesus”, and “Christ” (Hurtado, 2010).

Popular nomina sacra abbreviations include: dns= dominus

ds= deus

sps or scs = spiritus sanctus

Examples of Nomina Sacra

Nomina

sacra

“do” for

“Deo”

Nomina

sacra

“ds” for

“deus”

Nomina

sacra

“dnm” for

“dominum”

Nomina

sacra

for

“scæ”

Nomina

sacra

“sps” for

“spiritus”

Punctuation

According to Tillotson (2014) punctuation is a tool that is used to

dictate what will be written within a manuscript.

Punctuation also presents the syntactical structure of the text

along with different punctuation conventions to strengthen the

effect of the text (Ductus, 2015).

Medieval punctuation is important to the development of

modernized punctuation marks such as the comma (,) the

question mark (?) the colon (:) the semi colon (;) and the period

(.)

Also, other punctuation conventions such as the use of capital

letters, word spacing, and page formatting all stem medieval

punctuation.

Examples of Medieval

PunctuationExample taken from: Scriptores Historiae Augustae, 1479

(Ductus, 2015)

• Scriptores Historiae Augustae contains several types

of punctuation. The example above contains three

colons.

• The examples on the bottom also taken from

Scriptores Historiae Augustae feature a parenthesis, a

period, and a capital letter along with a period. Each

example

ReferencesDigitized Medieval Manuscripts. (2015). “Prima Pars Psalterii Glostali Sec. Herebutum de Bosham”. [website}. Retrieved from:

https://digitizedmedievalmanuscripts.org/trinity-college-cambridge/#jp-carousel-604

Ductus. (2015). Sessions 12-15. Retrieved from: http://amazon.sjsu.edu/html-ductus/engine/mother.html

Hurtado, L. (2010). “Nomina sacra: the continuing debate”. [blog post]. Retrieved from:

https://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/2010/09/22/nomina-sacra-the-continuing-debate/

Inscription on Trajan Column. (n.d.) [image source]. Retrieved from:

http://www.codex99.com/typography/images/ancient/trajan_inscr_lg.jpg

Kwakkel, E. (2014). “Getting Personal in the Margin”. [website]. Retrieved from: http://medievalbooks.nl/2014/09/05/getting-

personal-in-the-margin/

Marcos, J. (2014). Latin paleography. [website]. Retrieved from:

http://guindo.pntic.mec.es/jmag0042/LATIN_PALEOGRAPHY.pdf

Parkes, M. B. (1992). Pause and effect: punctuation of the west. Aldershot: Scolar.

Reimer (2015). “Manuscript Studies”. [website]. Retrieved from: http://www.ualberta.ca/~sreimer/ms-course/course/punc.htm

Saenger, P. (2000). Space between words: the origin of silent reading. [e-book]. Stanford University Press: Stanford,

California.

Tillotson, D. (2014). “Medieval Writing”. [website]. Retrieved from: http://medievalwriting.50megs.com/scripts/history2.htm