MSS.

mss., there is a tendency to separation. in a text thus continuously written occasional ambiguities necessarily occurred, and then a dot or apostrophe might be inserted between words to aid the reader. following the system of separation of words which appears in ancient inscriptions, wherein the several words are marked off by single, double, or treble dots or points, the words of the fragmentary poem on the battle of actium found at herculaneum are separated by single points, probably to facilitate reading aloud; monosyllables or short prepositions and conjunctions, however, being left unseparated from the words immediately following them--a system which is found in practice at a later time. but such marks of separation are not to be confounded with similar marks of punctuation whereby sentences are marked off and the sense of the text is made clear. throughout the career of the uncial codices down to the 6th century, continuity of text was maintained. in the 7th century there is some evidence of separation of words, but without system. in early latin minuscule codices partial separation in an uncertain and hesitating manner went on to the time of the carolingian reform. in early irish and english mss., however, separation is more consistently practised. in the 9th and 10th centuries long words tend to separation, but short words, prepositions and conjunctions, still cling to the following word. it was not till the 11th century that the smaller words at length stood apart, and systematic separation of words was established. in greek minuscule codices of the 10th century a certain degree of separation takes place; yet a large proportion of words remain linked together, and they are even incorrectly divided. indeed a correct system of distinct separation of words in greek texts was never thoroughly established even as late as the 15th century. paragraphs. but while distinction of words was disregarded in early literary texts, distinction of important pauses in the sense was recognized from the first. the papyrus of the _persae_ of timotheus of miletus, the oldest ms. of a greek classic in existence, of the end of the 4th century b.c., is written in independent paragraphs. this is a natural system, the simplicity of which has caused it to be the system of modern times. but, in addition, the greek scribe also separated paragraphs by inserting a short horizontal stroke, [greek: paragraphos], between them at the commencement of the lines of writing. it should be noted that this stroke indicated the close of a passage, and therefore belonged to the paragraph just concluded, and did not stand for an initial sign for the new paragraph which followed. the dividing stroke was also used to mark off the different speeches of a play. besides the stroke, a wedge-shaped sign or tick might be used. but to make every paragraph stand distinctly by itself would have entailed a certain loss of space. if the concluding line were short, there would remain a long space unfilled. therefore, when this occurred, it became customary to leave only a short space blank to mark the termination of the paragraph, and then to proceed with the new paragraph in the same line, the [greek: paragraphos] at the same time preventing possible ambiguity. the next step was to project the first letter of the first full line of the new paragraph slightly into the margin, as a still further distinction; and lastly to enlarge it. the enlargement of the letter gave it so much prominence that the dividing stroke could then be dispensed with, and in this form the new paragraph was henceforward indicated in greek mss., it being immaterial whether the enlarged letter was the initial or a medial letter of a word. as early as the 5th century there is evidence that the [greek: paragraphos] was losing its meaning with the scribes, for in the codex alexandrinus of the bible it is not infrequently found in anomalous positions, particularly above the initial letters of different books, as if it were a mere ornament. in latin mss. there was no such fixed system of marking off paragraphs as that just described. a new paragraph began with a new line, or a brief space in a line separated the conclusion of a paragraph from the beginning of the next one. it was only by the ultimate introduction of large letters, as the initial letters of the several sentences and paragraphs, and by the establishment of a system of punctuation, in the modern sense of the word, that a complete arrangement of the text was possible into sentences and paragraphs in accordance with its sense. punctuation. from the earliest times an elementary system of punctuation by points is found in papyri. thus the papyrus of the _curse of artemisia_, at vienna, which is at least as early as the 3rd century b.c., and in one or two other ancient examples, a double point, resembling the modern colon, separates sentences. but more commonly a single point, placed high in the line of writing, is employed. this single punctuation was reduced to a system by the alexandrian grammarians, its invention being ascribed to aristophanes of byzantium, 260 b.c. the point placed high on a level with the top of the letters had the value of a full-stop; in the middle of the line of writing, of a comma; and low down on the line, of a semicolon. but these distinctions were not observed in the mss. in the early vellum codices both the high and the middle point are found. in medieval mss. other signs, coming nearer to our modern system, make their appearance. in latin mss. by the 7th century the high point has the value of the modern comma, the semicolon appears with its present value, and a point emphasized with additional signs, such as a second point or point and dash, marks a full-stop. in the carolingian period the comma appears, as well as the inverted semicolon holding a position between our comma and semicolon. division of words at the end of a line. another detail which required the scribe's attention in writing his text was the division of the last word in a line, when for want of room a portion of it had to be carried over into the next line. it was preferable, indeed, to avoid such division, and in the papyri as well as in the codices letters might be reduced in size and huddled together at the end of the line with this view. in the early codices too it was a common practice to link letters together in monogrammatic form, such as the common verbal terminations _ur_, _unt_, and thus save space. but when the division of a word was necessary, it was subject to certain rules. according to the greek practice the division was ordinarily made after a vowel, as [greek: etu|chon] (even monosyllables might be so treated, as [greek: ou|k]). but in the case of double consonants the division fell after the first of them, as [greek: ip|pos]: and, when the first of two or more consonants was a liquid or nasal the division followed it, as [greek: ophthal|mos], [greek: man|thano]. when a word was compounded with a preposition, the division usually followed the preposition, as [greek: pros|eipon], but not infrequently the normal practice of dividing after a vowel prevailed, as [greek: pro|seipon]. in latin the true syllabic division was followed, but occasionally the scribes adopted the greek system and divided after a vowel. colometry. a modification of the practice of writing the text continuously was allowed in the case of certain works. rhetorical texts, such as the orations of demosthenes and cicero, and the text of the bible, might be broken up into short clauses or sense-lines, apparently with the view of assisting reading aloud. instances of mss. so written are still extant. this system, to which the name of "colometry" has been given, is the arrangement by _cola_ and _commata_ referred to by st jerome in his preface to isaiah. it will be found more fully explained under the heading of stichometry; where also is described the mechanical computation of the length of a text by measured lines, for the purpose of calculating the pay of the scribe. titles and colophons. quotations. the title of a ms., both in roll-form and in codex-form, was frequently written at the end of the text, but even at an early date it stood in some instances at the beginning; and the latter practice in course of time prevailed, although even in the 15th century the title was sometimes reserved for the close of the ms. in this latter position it might stand alone or be accompanied by other particulars concerning the