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    "verified_text": "ms., such as the length of the work, the date of writing, the name of the scribe, &c., all combined in a final paragraph called the colophon. for distinction, title and colophon might be written in red, as might also the first few lines of the text. this method of rubrication was a very early practice, appearing even in ancient egyptian papyri. such rubrics and titles and colophons were at first written in the same character as the text; afterwards, when the admixture of different kinds of writing was allowed, capitals and uncials were used at discretion. running titles or head-lines are found in some of the earliest latin mss. in the same characters as the text, but of a small size. quotations were usually indicated by ticks or arrow-heads in the margin, serving the purpose of the modern inverted commas. sometimes the quoted words were arranged as a sub-paragraph or indented passage. in commentaries of later date, the quotations from the work commented upon were often written in a different style from the text of the commentary itself. _accentuation, &c._--accentuation was not systematically applied to greek mss. before the 7th century, but even in the literary papyri it appears occasionally. in the latter instances accents were applied specially to assist the reader, and they seem to have been used more frequently in texts which may have presented greater difficulties than usual. for example, they are found fairly plentifully in the papyrus of bacchylides of the 1st century b.c. in the less well-written papyri they are fewer in number; and papyri written in non-literary hands are practically devoid of them. accents have been frequently added to the ancient texts of homer, as in the harris and bankes papyri, but apparently long after the date of the writing. they were not used in the early uncial mss. breathings also appear occasionally in the papyri. the rough and the smooth breathings are found in the form of the two halves of the h (|- -|) in the bacchylides papyrus; in other papyri they are in rectangular form, never rounded like an apostrophe; in fact rounded breathings do not come into general use until the 12th century. other signs resembling accents are used occasionally in greek mss. for example, a short accent or horizontal stroke was employed to indicate a single-letter word, and an apostrophe was sometimes used to separate words in order to prevent ambiguity and was placed after words ending in [kappa], [chi], [xi], [rho], and after proper names not having a greek termination. accents were seldom employed by latin scribes. in early irish and english mss., in particular, an acute accent is occasionally found over a monosyllabic word or one consisting of a single letter. in the 9th and 10th centuries a curious occasional practice obtained among the correctors of the texts of expressing the aspirate by the greek half-eta symbol |-, instead of writing the letter _h_ in the ordinary way--perhaps only an affectation. _corrections._--for obliteration or removing pen strokes from the surface of the material the sponge was used in ancient times. while the writing was still fresh, the scribe could easily wash off the ink by this means; and for a fragile material, such as papyrus, he could well use no other. on vellum he might use sponge or knife. but after a ms. had left his hands it would undergo revision at the hands of a corrector, who had to deal with the text in a different manner. he could no longer conveniently apply the sponge. on hard material he might still use the knife to erase letters or words or sentences. but he could also use his pen for such purposes. thus we find that a very early system of indicating erasure was the placing of dots or minute strokes above the letters to be thus \"expunged.\" the same marks were also (and generally at later periods) placed under the letters; in rare instances they stood inside them. it need scarcely be said that letters were also struck out with strokes of the pen or altered into others, and that letters and words were interlined. a long sentence, however, which could not be admitted between the lines, was entered in the margin, and its place in the text indicated by corresponding reference marks, such as _hd._, _hs._ = _hic deest_, _hoc supra_ or _hic scribas_, &c. _abbreviations and contractions._--the practice of shortening words in writing has played an important part in the history of the ancient and the medieval manuscript. two reasons have disposed men to follow this practice: firstly, the desire to avoid the labour of writing over and over again words or portions of words of common occurrence which can be readily understood in a shortened form as when written in full; and, secondly, the necessity of saving space at a time when it was an object to make the most of the writing material to hand. to meet the former requirement, a simple and limited method alone was needed; to satisfy the second, a more elaborate system was necessary. the most natural method of reducing the length of a word is to suppress as much as possible of its termination, consistently with intelligibility, that is, by simple _abbreviation_. but if space of any appreciable value is to be saved in a page of writing, a system is necessary for eliminating letters from the body of the word as well as curtailing the termination, that is, a system of _contraction_ as well as abbreviation; and, in addition, the employment of arbitrary signs, analogous to shorthand, will serve still further to condense the text. an elaborate system of contraction of this nature was naturally only fully developed after very long practice. both in greek and in latin mss. from the 9th to the 15th century such a system was in full force. different kinds of literature were, according to their nature, more or less abbreviated and contracted. from early times such curtailment was more freely employed in works written in technical language, such as works on law or grammar or mathematics, wherein particular words are more liable to repetition, than in mss. of general literature. the oldest system of abbreviation is that in which a single letter (nearly always the initial letter) or at most two or three letters represent the whole word. this system we know was in common use among both greek and latin writers, and ancient inscriptions afford plentiful examples. it is well adapted for the brief expression of the common words and phrases in works of a technical nature (as for example such a phrase as c d e r n e = _cujus de ea re notio est_); but for general literature it is of little use, and practically has been restricted to express proper names and numerals. abbreviation in greek mss. when abbreviations were employed only with the view of speed in writing, it is obvious that they would occur more frequently in the ephemeral documents of daily life than in carefully written literary works intended for the book-market. hence they are not to be found in greek papyri of the latter class. on the other hand in literary papyri written in non-literary script they naturally occur just as they would in contemporary common documents. as early as the 3rd and 2nd centuries b.c. the ordinary method of abbreviation was to omit the termination or latter portion of the word and to mark the omission by a short horizontal stroke or dash; or the letter which immediately preceded the omission was written above the line as a key to the reading, as [greek: te^l] for [greek: telos]. such a system obviously might be extended indefinitely at the discretion of the writer. but in addition, at quite an early period, symbols and monogrammatic forms for particular words must have been developed, for they are found in common use in cursive papyri. a notable instance of their employment in a full degree occurs in the papyrus of aristotle's _constitution of athens_, of the 1st century. like the well-written literary papyri, the early vellum uncial codices of the bible, being inscribed with calligraphic formality, avoided in principle the use of abbreviations. but by the 4th to the 6th century, the period when they were chiefly produced, the contraction or abbreviation of certain words and terminations had, it seems, become so fixed by usage that the contracted forms were adopted in the texts. they are [greek: ths] = [greek: theos], [greek: is] = [greek: iesous], [greek: chs] = [greek: christos], [greek: pna] = [greek: pneuma], [greek: ser] = [greek: soter], [greek: ks] = [greek: kurios], [greek: stros] = [greek: stauros], [greek: per] = [greek: pater], [greek: mer] = [greek: meter], [greek: us] = [greek: huios], [greek: anos] = [greek: anthropos], [greek: ounos] = [greek: ouranos], [greek: k] = [greek: kai], [greek: t] = [greek: tai], [greek: m] = [greek: mou], [greek: moi], &c. final n, especially at the end of a line, was dropped, and its place occupied by the horizontal stroke, as [greek: to ]. but while this limited system was used in biblical, and also in liturgical mss., in profane literature a greater licence was recognized. for example, in a fragment of a mathematical work at milan, of the 7th century, we find instances of abbreviation by dropping terminations, just as in the earlier papyri, and, in addition, contracted particles and prepositions are numerous. technical works, in fact, inherited the system instituted in the early papyri written in non-literary or cursive hands; and this system, undergoing continual development, had a larger scope when the cursive writing was cast into a literary form and became the literary minuscule script of the middle ages. from the 9th century onwards a fully developed system of abbreviation and contraction was practised in greek mss., comprising the early system of the papyri, the special contractions of the early biblical mss., and also a large number of special symbols, derived in great measure from tachygraphical signs. in the early greek minuscule mss. contractions are not very frequent in the texts; but in the marginal glosses, where it was an object to save space, they are found in great numbers as early as the 10th century. the ms. of nonnus, of a.d. 972, in the british museum (wattenb. and von vels., _exempla_, 7) is an instance of a text contracted to a degree that almost amounts to tachygraphy. in the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries texts were fully contracted; and as the writing became more cursive contraction-marks were more carelessly applied, until, in the 15th century, they degenerated into mere flourishes. abbreviations in latin mss. as far back as material is available for comparison, it appears that abbreviations and contractions in latin mss. followed the same lines as those in greek mss. we have no very early papyri written in latin as we have in greek to show us what the practice of roman writers was in the 3rd and 2nd and early 1st centuries b.c.; but there can be little doubt that in that remote time there was followed in latin writing a system of abbreviation similar to that in greek, that is, by curtailment of terminations, and that in ephemeral documents written in cursive characters such abbreviation was allowed more freely than in carefully written literary works. the early system of representing words by their initial letters has already been referred to. it was in common use, as we know, in the inscriptions on coins and monuments, and to some extent in the texts of roman writers. but the ambiguity which must have always accompanied such a system of single-letter abbreviations, or _sigla_, naturally induced an improvement by expressing a word by two or more of its letters. hence was developed the more regular syllabic system of the romans, by which the leading letters of the several syllables were written, as eg = _ergo_, hr = _heres_, st = _satis_. at a later time christian writers secured greater exactness by expressing the final letter of a contracted word, as _ds_ = _deus_, _do_ = _deo_, _scs_ = _sanctus_. further, certain marks and signs, many derived from shorthand symbols, came into use to indicate inflections and terminations; or the terminating letter or a leading letter to indicate the termination might be written above the line, as q^o = _quo_, v^m = _verum_, n^o = _noster_, s^i = _sint_. this practice became capable of greater development later on. among the special signs are c = _est_, [symbol] = _vel_, _n_ = _non_, p = _pre_, [symbol] = _per_, [symbol] = _pro_, [symbol] = termination _us_. the letter _q_ with distinctive strokes applied in different positions represented the often recurring relative and other short words, as _quod_, _quia_. in latin biblical uncial mss. the same restrictions on abbreviations were exercised as in the greek. the sacred names and titles ds = _deus_, dms, dns = _dominus_, scs = _sanctus_, sps = _spiritus_, and others appear in the oldest codices. the contracted terminations q· = _que_, b· = _bus_, and the omission of final _m_, or (more rarely) final _n_, are common to all latin mss. of the earliest period. there is a peculiarity about the contracted form of our saviour's name that it is always written by the latin scribes in letters imitating the greek ihc, xpc, _ihc_, _xpc_, and _ihs_, _xps_. the full development of the medieval system of abbreviation and contraction was effected at the time when the carolingian schools were compelling the reform of the handwriting of western europe. then came a freer practice of abbreviation by suppression of terminations and the latter portions of words, the omission of which was indicated by the ordinary signs, the horizontal or oblique stroke or the apostrophe; then came also a freer practice of contraction by omitting letters and syllables from the middle as well as the end of words, as oio, _omnino_, prb, _presbyter_; and then from the practice of writing above the line a leading letter of an omitted syllable, as int^a = _intra_, t^r = _tur_, conventional signs, with special significations, were also gradually developed. such growths are well illustrated in the change undergone by the semicolon, which was attached to the end of a word to indicate the omission of the termination, as b; = _bus_, q; = _que_, deb; = _debet_, and which in course of time became converted into a z, a form which survives in our ordinary abbreviation, viz. (i.e. vi; = _videlicet_). the different forms of contraction were common to all the nations of western europe. the spanish scribes, however, attached different values to certain of them. for example, in visigothic mss., _qm_, which elsewhere represented _quoniam_, may be read as _quum_; and [symbol], which elsewhere = _pro_, is here = _per_. nor must the use of arbitrary symbols for special words be forgotten. these are generally adaptations of the shorthand signs known as tironian notes. such are [symbol] = _autem_, [symbol] = _est_, [symbol] = _ejus_, [symbol] = _enim_, [symbol] = _et_, v and u = _ut_, which were employed particularly in early mss. of english and irish origin. by the 11th century the system of latin contractions had been reduced to exact rules; and from this time onwards it was universally practised. it reached its culminating point in the 13th century, the period of increasing demand for mss., when it became more than ever necessary to economize space. after this date the exact formation of the signs of contractions was less strictly observed, and the system deteriorated together with the decline of handwriting. in conclusion, it may be noticed that in mss. written in the vernacular tongues contractions are more rarely used than in latin texts. a system suited to the inflexions and terminations of this language could not be readily adapted to other languages so different in grammatical structure. _palimpsests, &c._--palimpsest mss., that is, mss. written upon material from which older writing has been previously removed by washing or scraping, are described in a separate article (palimpsest). the ornamentation of mss. is fully dealt with under the headings illuminated mss., and miniatures. _writing implements._--in conclusion, a few words may be added respecting the writing implements employed in the production of mss. the reed, [greek: kalamos], _calamus_, was adapted for tracing characters either on papyrus or vellum. by the ancient egyptians, and also probably by the early greek scribes in egypt, it was used with a soft brush-like point, rather as a paint-brush than as a pen. the greek and roman scribes used the reed cut to a point and slit like the quill-pen; and it survived as a writing implement into the middle ages. for scratching letters on the waxen tablet the sharp pointed bodkin, [greek: stylos], [greek: grapheion], _stilus_, _graphium_, was necessary, made of iron, bronze, ivory, or other suitable material, with a knobbed or flattened butt-end wherewith corrections could be made by smoothening the wax surface (hence _vertere stilum_, to correct). although there is no very early record of the use of quills as pens, it is obvious that, well adapted as they are for the purpose and to be had everywhere, they must have been in request even in ancient times as they afterwards were in the middle ages. bronze pens, fashioned exactly on the model of the quill-pen, that is in form of a tube ending in a slit nib (sometimes even with a nib at each end), of late roman manufacture, are still in existence. a score of them are to be found scattered among public and private museums. the ruler for guiding ruled lines was the [greek: kanon], _canon_, _regula_; the pencil was the [greek: molubdos], _plumbum_, the plummet; the pricker for marking the spacing out of the ruled lines was the [greek: diabates], _circinus_, _punctorium_; the pen-knife, [greek: glyphanon], [greek: smile], _scalprum_; the erasing-knife, _rasorium_, _novacula_. _inks._--inks of various colours were employed from early times. the ink of the early papyri is a deep glossy black; in the byzantine period it deteriorates. in the middle ages black ink is generally of excellent quality; it tends to deteriorate from the 14th century. but its quality varies in different countries at different periods. red ink, besides being used for titles and colophons, also served for contrast, as, for example, in glosses. in the carolingian period entire mss. were occasionally written in red ink. other coloured inks--green, violet and yellow--are also found, at an early date. gold and silver writing fluids were used in the texts of the ancient purple vellum mss., and writing in gold was reintroduced under charlemagne for codices of ordinary white vellum. it was introduced into english mss. in the 10th century. authorities.--h. geraud, _essai sur les livres dans l'antiquite_ (1840); e. egger, _histoire du livre depuis ses origines jusqu'a nos jours_ (1880); t. birt, _das antike buchwesen_ (1882) and _die buchrolle in der kunst_ (1907); w. wattenbach, _das schriftwesen im mittelalter_ (1896); k. dziatzko, _untersuchungen uber ausgewahlte kapitel des antiken buchwesens_ (1900); j. w. clark, _the care of books_ (1901); w. schubart, _das buch bei den griechen und romern_ (1907); and generally the authorities quoted in the article palaeography. see also textual criticism. 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