Palaeography E-Book

Bernard Quaritch

• Herausgeber: Bernard Quaritch
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Palæography is the branch of science which deals with ancient writing (παλαιὰ γραφή). As the Greek word for writing comprises a great deal more than the work of pen and ink, palæographical study would be imperfect if it did not take into consideration the ancient inscriptions upon stone and metal which are usually left to numismatists and other archæologists. In a small treatise like the present, no such ambitious and comprehensive treatment is intended. The object is mainly to summarise the results of other men's labour, and to give a general idea of what is known at the present day about the diffusion of the art of writing and the methods of producing books before the sixteenth century.

Leseprobe

Bernard Quaritch

Palaeography

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Table of contents

Foreword

PORTION OF A FUNERARY INSCRIPTION.Written on papyrus in the Hieroglyphic character.

EGYPTIAN INSCRIPTION.Written on papyrus in the Demotic character.

A PAGE FROM A COPTIC LITURGY.Written in Egypt in the fifteenth century.

SAMARITAN MS. ON VELLUM, PROBABLY SEC. XV.Leviticus, X. 16 to XI. 13.

A MINIATURE IN THE TAMHERA MARYAM.An Ethiopic work on the life of the Virgin, written in 1522.

THE FIRST PAGE OF ST. JOHN'S GOSPEL.From a Greek MS. of the Tenth Century, brought by Cesnola from Cyprus.

A PAGE FROM MACDURNAN'S GOSPELS.A MS. written in Ireland in the Ninth Century, now at Lambeth.

THE FIRST PAGE OF GENESIS.In a Latin Bible, written probably in England about 1290-1300.

THE FIRST PAGE OF GENESIS.In a Latin Bible written in France about 1310-20.

THE SECOND ANGEL BLOWING HIS TRUMPET.From a series of unfinished designs illustrating the Apocalypse; executed at Nuneaton about A.D. 1280.

MINIATURE OF THE CRUCIFIXION.In a Missale written by an Italian hand about 1290.

CRISEIS SENT BACK TO THE GREEKS.From a MS. of the Liber Trojanus written at Venice about 1325.

A PAGE FROM THE REVELATIONS.In a French MS. Apocalypse Figurée, written about 1360.

FIRST PAGE OF THE ROMAN DE LA ROSE.MS. written in France about 1370.

JOHN GOWER AND THE PRIEST OF VENUS.From a MS. of Gower's Confessio Amantis, written before 1399.

A PAGE FROM A LIVRE D'HEURES.Written at Tournay about 1465.

TIBERIUS RECEIVING THE IMPERIAL CROWN.From a MS. of the Miroir Historial, written probably at Bruges about 1470.

CHRIST IN THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE.From the Prayer book of Grey, Marquis of Dorset, about 1470.

ADORATION OF THE MAGI.From an Italian Chorale written about 1530-40.

AN ABBOT AND MONKS KNEELING BEFORE AN ALTAR.From an Evangeliarium illuminated in Flemish style by a German hand in 1548.

MINIATURE OF THE ASCENSION.From the Suabian Breviary written at Ottenbeuern about 1160.

Foreword

Of the books which preceded the invention of Printing, a much larger quantity is still extant than the world in general would suppose, but they are nevertheless so widely scattered and so seldom immediately accessible, that only a very long experience will enable any one to speak or to write about them in other than a blundering fashion. So many qualifications are required, that it may seem presumptuous in me to treat upon a matter bristling with difficulties and uncertainties. The brief but admirable outline of its history which Mr. Maunde Thompson has lately published is likely to mislead the inexperienced into a belief that a science defined with so much clearness and apparent ease may as easily be mastered. No one knows better than that accomplished scholar how hard it would be to supply sure and definite criteria for the guidance of palæographical students in all the branches of their fascinating pursuit. My excuse must be that the observations which appear in the present opusculum may be useful to some who are unable for various reasons to give the necessary fulness of study to Mr. Thompson's work, and who, while loving manuscripts as well as I do, have not had so large an experience. I may venture to justify myself by a personal anecdote. The author of the "Stones of Venice" once said that he was surprised by my apparently exact knowledge of the commercial value of manuscripts; and my reply was that, as I had for twenty years been the buyer of, or the underbidder for, all the fine examples which had appeared in the public auctions, there was no great reason for his wonder.