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Latin Palaeography lesson 2
"The forms of the Latin letters "
Welcome
to the second lesson of Latin Palaeography
as you can see
is titled
as "the shapes of Latin letters" we begin finally to talk
about the Latin and the forms when the alphabet's letters
have appeared for the first time and then have
evolved
About the image which appears with the title of
lesson
you saw that we put a kind of chronological table
for order, centuries and times
just BC and AC centuries
the centuries, shown in yellow, will be precisely discussed later
as you can see here ...
I'll treat centuries from the seventh to first century before Christ
to indicate
albeit briefly
the changes about Latin letters in the first period of application
and use
the topics in this lesson
are essentially three ... " an alphabet derived from the Etruscan " to indicate
which changes in the Latin's demain the Etruscan alphabet has undergone
the second part is the oldest and important
attestation of Latin alphabet the so-called " Lapis Niger " ( Black Stone)
which will be discussed later
and the third with the title: " the ancestor and his descendants "
to indicate precisely the original and archaic forms of Latin letters
and then
subsequent evolutions and changes
So let's start
the derivation of the Latin alphabet from the Etruscan one
that, of course, hasn't come about overnight
it comes out by a long development
about the Mediterranean area
the first alphabet is indeed the Phoenician script
whence derives the Greek script
the Greek alphabet opens up some descents
about Western group
which is represented in Italy by the Etruscan one
then
all alphabets other Italic peoples, excluded the Messapian script,
result by the original alphabet of Italic entire area
including
of course the Latin script
then
the Latin doesn't directly derive from the Greek but
with the help of the Etruscan
we cartographically represent this
way
it was thought until some time ago in a direct derivation by the Latin
that is from Greek to Latin via Mediterranean
instead it's wrong
this is the exact derivation
by land
from the Greek alphabet to the Etruscan one
about these alphabetic systems' letters
you see here summary table that compares
letters of the Greek alphabet
letters of the Archaic Etruscan
alphabet
letters of the Classic Etruscan alphabet we scored only those that
submit substantial and important
modifications
about the Archaic Etruscan one
the fourth column represents some letters of the so-called Northern
Etruscan
the last two are devoted to letters of the Latin alphabet
the Archaic Latin "LA" and the Classic Latin "LC"
and finally these are our letters to indicate
the phonetic correspondences
and here you see the first letters
I'd say don't dwell on too many details
you see that there is a emptiness in the middle for some letters
which means there isn't a direct derivation from the Etruscan letter to the Latin one
some Etruscan letters are abandoned, aren't used in
Latin domain because unnecessary from the viewpoint of language exploitation
here you see
other juxtaposed letters of the alphabet
and reconstructed so that's the original Latin alphabet and then
its realization
in Classic Lapidary style
let's take a closer and realistic comparison, not abstract as
previous synoptic regarding
two scripts like Etruscan and
Latin ones
we have assumed
the largest and known Etruscan text
to represent its script mode
this is
the so-called roll " Liber Linteus Zagrabiensis" ( Linen Book of Zagreb )
it presents a real exhibition about Etruscan script
the Linteus, therefore, a roll of flax that has been
reconstructed
unwinding
bandage that wrapped the girl's mummy
that should be dead on I century AD
a mummy found in Egypt and preserved
then in the Egyptian department of the museum National Zagreb ... hence the name
"Liber linteus " of Zagreb has of course nothing to do with the origine and
was therefore in Egypt
these bands of linen wrapped a body of a Egyptian girl and then
has long been thought that this was a Egyptian script but
neither Hieroglyphic nor Demotic ones
It's new type of Egyptian script
and has been demonstrated in 1892 by Krall
that should be an Ancient Etruscan text
This roll dates on III--II century BC
and in particular in the area between Perugia and Cortona ( Italy ) then
historic Etruria but politically if not culturally Romanized by that time
in fact it's a
belated bequest of a Etruscan script
maybe not perfectly suited to represent the Etruscan
during the period of its greatest vitality
you can see
uncertainties in viewpoint of linguistics and as if it were
a long sedimented text
that
presented some ambiguities and uncertainties in his last phase
It's
therefore a cultic and ritual text
that is a kind of calendar
so the holidays are announced for days of each month
and the Priests' formulas,
requirements, rites
for each holiday
then verbal formulas
but also with prescriptions, wine offerings and other materials
it's also called as "Liber ritualis "
of Zagreb
we'll compare this text with
the " Lapis niger " of the Roman Forum later on
that is rather well rearmost
It's
probably on VI century BC
still see a representation of a section, page
of the "Liber linteus "
as it has been rebuilt through the overlapping's unwinding
of the bands
that covered the body
of
girl
obviously in the first century AD This already archaizing text
had completely lost its meaning
and the support or strips of linen were re-used for another purposes
even in far away Egypt
the overall length of this text as has been reconstructed
is over 13 meters
here you can see the different
bands
each with its length and height
this is more or less the structure of the
"Liber linteus "
as it has been rebuilt
the bands
are therefore these ones
the text within them is divided by some red lines
and overlapping different bands have precisely opportunity
of seeing the whole unwinding of the text
some pages
some pages are written or curtailed or no longer exist or
are no longer been preserved
or have been lost
here you see what was the structure more or less of the ritual Etruscan book
of Perugia and Cortona
that ended more or less with
two blank pages
the fifth band is completely lost, only preserved four pages in the sixth
are written here
It's called as roll but indeed we imagine the "Liber Linteus"
like an accordion book
which means that the individual pages were alternately
bent in such a way
that would unwound
the text has to be read and written alternating between right to left and left to right
although we see the Boustrophedon in other Etruscan texts
whereof we'll talk again
about Lapis Niger here you see reproduced
a Liber's page
that is the tenth page with right-to-left text.
this is the infrared photo It's of course difficult
to read with your human eye
this is the so--called apograph that is the graphic reconstruction
of letters
see clearly now all the letters and not only the text
are oriented
from right to left
and this is finally the transcription
but sorry don't ask me to read and translate it
I leave this task to others
the fact is that this
roll of Zagreb
but we might call the Perugino, Cortona, Umbro ones
what you want
It's produced by a very clever scribe
the letters are perfectly aligned and vertical
the dots between the words, as detachment points,
are marked by half
height points
the script is very regulated, disciplined, this amanuensis
had obviously at his disposal an antigraph, a model from which to copy
then he could
as he like regularly
set both letters' orientation
that page's structure
This is therefore one of the finest examples of Etruscan script
material is soft the shape is that of a book even if
of a book "sui generis" ( it means "of its own kind/genus" or "unique in its characteristics")
that are forms more familiar to us
the writing is perfectly ripe and able to realize a very complex text
and then we move to the example
we assumed to represent
the Archaic Latin alphabet
that is Lapis niger or Roman Forum's cippus ( as square pillar )
this is the site
in which is located
obviously
the Lapis one
near Rome
this is Forum's overall zone
and this is the comitium as the archaic and original
part
of the Roman Forum
Finally, the top and bottom layers of the site in which it was
found in 1899
this "cippus"
script as you can see in this table is bustrophedic
It's a word that means a zigzag pattern
from right to left
and next line from left to right
the word comes
by the walk of oxen plowing a camp
it's the main archaic attestation of lively use of Latin
it should go back to the first half of VII century BC
of course you are uncertain about the equipment, you cannot be
precise
other attestations are more or less the same time
I leave aside the "Praeneste fibula" (or the "brooch of Palestrina") referred
it's doubtful that it's a nineteenth-century fake
cite at least the bronze foil of Lavinio
and other engraved or scratched plates
the support
of these early uses of Latin Alphabet is always hard one
as stone, metal foil, that is an etched or scratched
hard material
some of these attestations have same fundamental orientation that
we have seen in
Liber of Zagreb
from the right
to the left
others have the so-called bustrophedic trend
like "Cippus"
of the Roman Forum ( Lapis niger )
the Cippus presents script as positioned vertically
but pages should be read as if you roll this stone
the upper part is mutilated
and then resulting lines from
right are intermitted at the end
rsulting lines the left are mutilated at the beginning
what you see on the right is
return via apograph
of Lapis niger's letters which of course we don't
stall now
we only note that the words are separate
by three points in vertical line
just as punctuation and words' separation
this text continues to roll
as you see
we have emphasized the word "regei"
here is also transcription
the word "regei" is important for dating and qualification of the "Lapis Niger"
means King but we don't know if it's a Monarch
or Priest ones
then we have doubts about
dating of the Lapis Niger now
I can go faster with the transcription because it's Archaic Latin
so this is the alphabet Latin
which
is present on "Lapis"
at VII century BC
order in which we put the letters is more or less the ours
0:18:11.600,1193:02:47.295
the "R" and "P" ones have shape so different from ours
but all other letters are quite easily recognizable
as " D", " E", " F ", the " H " one has two crossbars because it's directly descended by the Etruscan
the "K" , "L" , "M" , "N" ones are relatively different from ours
then "P ", "Q ", " R", " S" and " T"
"Y"
"X"
on " Lapis Niger " there isn't
the "B" but we can easily reconstruct by this form
This is the Latin alphabet's example that lasts long enough
we'll have only a few
changes
in the alphabetical structure because will be introduced the "G"
which is a sound that isn't directly derived by the Etruscan but
introduced by addition of a
further second sign to the "C"
remember both "C" and "G " have guttural sound ( "C" as "school" and "G" as "girl" )
we'll introduce later distinction between "V" and "Y"
with Greek influence
and there will be the elimination of the letter "K"
then we're talking about the archaic forms of Latin letters
and the so-called descendants letters
we have always more or less artificially to imagine all the letters
over following adaptations and modifications
are descended by this archetypal alphabet and
that
have historically assumed
determinate forms in Latin script
we'll talk about every use of Latin script
in the early centuries by showing whitch different
forms
took these letters in periods
with different....functions and detailed rules for implementing
we introduce some fundamental concepts will be very useful for the entire
course about Latin script's history now
first important distinction is between
upper-case and lower-case letters
the upper-case ones
are
those letters which are all including within a bilinear
diagram
like
our capital
and also
the ancient capital ones
the term as "capital"
means more or less upper-case
we use "capital" as the Archaic and Classical upper-case
because this writing was
used for " capitula "
meaning " symbols to mark chapters or paragraphs"
as you can see all the letters of a upper-case system fit and
fill a bilinear diagram
on the contrary
the term as "lower-case" is that complex of alphabetic writing
that it does need a quadrilinear diagram to be fulfilled
we have Letters with bilinear diagram
as our Roman character as "a", "c" , "e"
and so on
and instead we have letters do need
an upper line to be fulfilled
such as "d ", " h", "l " and "b"
the "f" goes its own way.
and
some letters have instead a lower development such as
the "p ", " q"
also the "g " is a letter a bit special
may be familiar to those Italians who listen
the experience that we all had in elementary school
when we passed at Grade 3 of Primary school by notebooks
with quadrilinear structure like this one to to draw accurately all
letters of the alphabet
and therefore also to orient
our vertical sizing about the learned letters
to the bilinear striped notebook when we had already assumed full
mastery about the
diversities of form between upper and lower letters
This is a crucial distinction that's historically started
since Roman times
because we'll adjourn from the "capital" as upper-case letter
by non-regular and direct way but rather jagged and irregular ones
to a lower-case alphabetic system
so we see the fate of some
letters of Archaic Latin alphabet
if we get immediately from
Lapis niger
then see a further development
we get the "a"
"d"
"e"
"h"
perhaps "l" or"i"
after we shall see better this is the "m"
thiese
should be
the "r"
"q"
"s"
"p"
we have briefly represented through this game almost all the
letters
on " Lapis Niger "
as they are represented we begin for example
to consider the "a"
which is visible on Lapis Niger remember , however,
that depending on the orientation of the line
which may be from right to left and from left to right
letter changes shape
and has a specular form
so this is the form of "a" that we we see in letters from
left to right
this "a" will be reversed just as specular one
with rows that have instead a opposite trend
this is the archaic "a " one
and for almost all the letters
we put as second and largely recognizable example of realization
an epigraph
such as an engraved stone of classical age
from I BC to II -III AD
Indeed there was so a regularization
like almost letters' geometric shape
but quite irregular ones and albeit always engraved with care
by Archaic Latin alphabet
remember, because the dominant use of writing system
during that time is the epigraphic one
It's a process that gives rise to the so-called "capitalis monumentalis" or
" Roman square capitals "
and as you know it isn't a thing about squares, right angles and so on
but a strongly geometrized "capital"
when
all the alphabet's signs and all lines with each sign
are set according to a " ratio" or a geometric logic
so you see that the object of "A"
which was originally
and ascending oblique
from left to right
subsequently was instead unbended
by parallel position to the line of writing such as our Roman square capital "A"
still in use today
This is an example of "capital"
always a capital "A" on I century AD that is scratched and engraved on
walls
you see that it is practically gone the oblique crossbar
or straight line
and "a" has been reduced to just two signs
to tell you how these forms
can be arrived to totally different signs
I show you a cursive "a"
about VI century AD
when
two core lines of "a" as we have seen so far , apart from the bar,
are composed in a way that makes unrecognizable matrix
such as Archaic "a"
but is presupposed through performed processes
by paleography
Let's look at other examples here is "B"
we said that the "B " isn't
represented on Lapis Niger, however, we can imagine that
the Archaic Latin "B"
had the shape that you see at the beginning
hereof it's regularized and geometrized into Roman square
and epigraphic capital
this is taken from an example about III century AD
in which the bar of " B" is unbended
coming to
be perfectly perpendicular to lap
and two semi-circles that characterize the letter precisely took a
semicircular and very regularized shape
we are we surprised when we see for example that
this " B " is very frequently
made
by graffiti artists
that is, by people who scratch the walls
or even by able
operators of wax tablets
the so-called "B"
with belly to the left which is easy to understand
and take the opportunity by this letter to indicate some
analysis palaeographic's basics understood such as analysis of
individual forms or individual letters
if we only consider
capital epigraphic "B"
that is this adjust and geometrized one
we can call it as canonized "B" because during final stage
his one does not change thereafter
so much so that
attention , however,
through returns, and underground routes and so on
we use today this "b" to our " capitula " or titles of chapters
and
that
remains invariable and is no longer capable of give rise
to changes , developments and evolutions
But even more importantly, you need to know that
direct and continuous use of the writers achieves
moving and dynamics structures
that may give rise to developments
such as new forms of letters
So how to explain
this graffiti capital "B" with belly to the left?
going back to the
original archaic "B" !
In this regard , therefore, to understand how " b" has arrived
to other "b" we need carefully to assess another basic fact
to our analysis
which we can call " ductus" that means "hatching " such as drawing technique
i.e. the individuals traits' number, sequence and orientation
that constitute single letter
today we are accustomed to writing
"B" in this way that is first vertical line then first and the second semicircle
but
"B" wasn''t originally written according to this hatch but to this one
A line forming an angle of 90 ° and one in the shape of
the double hump
two lines, while the second one is compound
It's only intending this way of write "b" that we can understand
subsequent developments
and the forms that "b" has taken during time
In fact, if we imagine about a very economical , direct
and fast writing
a gradually depletion of first line such as eyelet
while about second line ( here is quite broad, precise ) , is softened
step by step
we arrive
almost exactly to that form of "B"
with belly left about this or other
instances
that looks and may be confused like "d" suche as
in many graffiti scripts ( by scratch ) on wax tablets
we'll get our current "b"
through
a process that begins always from this
"b" and its original hatch with " ductus" but that it ends to
a completely opposite outcome to its previous one
then we start drawing "B" the original
and we could find a evolution
that is progressive reduction of first angular hatch and
double-*** to a single hump
for example as you see here
from which
there is a further reduction and annulment of the first hump
then persistence and only subsistence
of second hump hence the lowercase "b"
so in this instance the palaeographic Jean Mallon has conducted
that is one of the analysis' most brilliant examples of signs' evolution
and
then
see
how you really can draw a descendant line
not so much
by shape but hatching ...
and writing way for
signs, archaic letters
then hatch is arrived to all possible forms that those letters historically
have undertaken in history about Latin script
from
VII - VI century BC
to XV-XVI century AD / Printing Revolution
So remember at least these two basic concepts
Firstly, emphasis of hatching, not so much of letter shape,
that is number,sequence and hatches' orientation
secondly, the canonized scripts
such as more fortunate, recognizable and durable ones
have had actually no evolution script
rather than those that have generated evolution
because belong to usual and free structures
and carried out by literate people, not professionals
let's move on quickly
seeing other examples
as "d" of " Lapis Niger "
as regularized and geometrized "d" of "capital epigraphic "
as "d" of
"capital cursive "
and finally as cursive "d"
of VI century AD
that makes sure that bar is rectified and "d" has become
a specular letter
and specular of the " b"
Very interesting is history of "E"
this is " E" of " Lapis Niger "
as regularizated and geometrizated letter of Roman Square Capital
here we show an example
about I century BC
and you need to consider
letter hatching
or the " ductus"
palaeographers like disputing about right terminology
then
from Archaic "E"
composed by 4 lines
one, two , three and four
can be progressively got a very simplified letter
when three hatches
are gradually aligned
and identified in a single sign
we find equivalent path about " f" in many cursive
set out in this way
which then is become "E" eliminating intermediate point
so simplified here
and with second hatch more short
remember that may be derived all lower-case forms
by this shape of "F" and then
up-elongated letters
I'll talk about this cursive "e" later on you remember that its process is
viewed about used writings over time
"G" is introduced about
III century BC because
1) varying gutturals of Latin language
2) So to better meet the needs phonetic
3) regularization into Epigraphic Capital
4) similarity to " Bookish Capital " so far not discussed
5) and finally a strange but once again historically
explainable, understandable and more advanced "G"
the speech is a relatively simple about "H"
a modification occurred from the outset
or II-III century BC
for
waiver to up-hatch and down-hatch about Epigraphic demain
of "H"
directly derived by the Etruscan one
because unnecessary
in fact signs are used to distinguish letters
but those two hatches ( up and down ) are useless
because no letter could be confused
and so we have our Roman Square Capital "H"
whence derives up-lower-case " h"
here you see first hatching of "M" and It was mainly due to
its straightening
over time
was perfectly mirror and adjust
cursive "m" is the last one
Let's look quickly about other letters
"Q" with straight hatching
Epigraphic Capital "Q" as you see its last hatch is almost horizontal
and included in bilinear system
here is Bookish Capital "Q"
finally is a cursive "q" that gave rise to our lower-case one when
perpendicular bar is straightened to the writing line
here represented by VI century BC example
"R " is important because the original shape is derived by Etruscan one
the form has requested addition of a further sign about Latin domain
for the completion of eyelet of "P"
as third sign
below eyelet
about II-I century BC
this is third and slightly wavy sign
then resulted in all following outcomes about "R"
here you see "r" that reach our lower-case's level
Finally we see very quickly "s"
offer this lesson was essentially
technical
Latin Paelography studied the implementing techniques
of letters forms for a long time
In fact
alphabets and letters
don't change themselves independently
because their changes are determined by the people who wrote
in a certain way or wanted to write
learned letters
This is important thing you always to keep in mind
goodbye