In most books treating of ancient handwriting, the abbreviations and contractions are put forward as the most important part; certainly it is necessary to study them carefully, but it was never intended by the old scribes that they should be regarded as a language in themselves. At first they were used to save time and space, then, by degrees, they increased in multiplicity as well as complexity, till banished altogether by the invention of printing, upon the advance of which the professional scribe disappeared.
The contracted words most frequently used are not always necessary to the sense of the sentence, which may be arrived at without them. It is a waste of time to puzzle over a word after its meaning has been arrived at. Many persons who require MS. extracts from public offices take rough notes with the letters of the contracted word; thesecan be extended afterwards at home, when there is time to seek in dictionaries for the abbreviation or its meaning; with practice the opening words of a sentence will very often supply the context. The oldest forms of contraction are a straight line over a word or a curve; these indicate that a portion of the word only is present, but no clue is given as to the letters left out, or else the straight line may meanmorn.
Later on the straight line above a word came to represent the lettersmandn. In words where these letters were duplicated the second one was omitted and the line placed above to indicate its absence. This continued in use until late in the eighteenth century. Com̄on meant ‘common,’ and com̄endation ‘commendation.’ If a curved line was over the end syllable of a word, it meant one or more letters omitted at the end of a word.
Verbs are the most troublesome class of contracted words, for a contraction over a verb may mean any syllable, according to the proper grammatical conjugation. Here it is that knowledge of the Latin grammar is a necessity. The meaning of the sentences may often be deciphered without extending the words, and the correct conjugation of the verbs can be added afterwards by another person, if the student’s knowledge of Latin is too limited to accomplish this with accuracy. Certain signs or contractions are fairly constant in theirmeanings, always taking the place of special syllables. Thus a bold apostrophe above the line will be found to indicate ‘er,’ ‘ir,’ ‘or,’ ‘re.’
A small letter over a word shows that a syllable is left out of which this letter formed part.
The letter ‘p’ had a system of its own, frequently used in old deeds and also in old letters:
In old court rolls ‘and’ is written ‘’ and ‘est’ appears as ‘÷,’ especially in courthand law deeds.
A line drawn through the head of the letter ‘’ means also the addition of other letters, asis,e, etc. This contraction in names is apt to be confused with double ‘tt.’
It is said that our alphabet did not formerly contain as many letters as at present. The letters ‘i’ and ‘j’ were identical until a recent period. ‘W’ is said to have been derived from two ‘u’s,’ and is always so written in old deeds, joined together, while ‘u’ and ‘v’ were used indiscriminately. In old manuscripts the shortstrokeletters were formed alike; thus ‘n,’ ‘u,’ ‘w,’ ‘i,’ are merely strokes or minims, difficult to distinguish, more particularly where any of these letters occur side by side in the formation of words; to count the strokes is the only guide. Practice and a knowledge of likely words to be employed solve the knotty point.
The chief difficulty of all lies in the correct rendering of names, for these have perpetually changed in their spelling. In a single deed several different forms may be observed, the result of clerical copying. Even with names the system of abbreviation was carried on, especially among court rolls; this will be noticed in such surnames as ‘Couper’ written ‘Coup,’ ‘Shepherd’ as ‘Shep.’
In certain styles of mediæval writing the terminals of words are carried upwards with a long sweep, and are confusing in their resemblance to abbreviation marks. Here, again, practice alone accustoms the eye to decide whether a word is complete or not.
Dots and other kinds of stops in writing have only come gradually into use in their present significance, and the use of these is now less observed than early in the last century.
In the Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, as in Roman inscriptions, the dot is freely used to denote contractions as well as to divide the words from each other. In Domesday this is also noticed; butwith later manuscripts the dot, or point, such as is used in Norman times, fell into disuse in favour of lines or curves for the abbreviated syllables. Upon the introduction of printing our various kinds of stops are first observed. It is said that the Elzevirs invented some of them. The reversed semicolon is commonly observed in some manuscripts.
Sooner or later, in any antiquarian search, the printed sources of information will be exhausted, and are not unfrequently found to be untrustworthy, especially existing county histories, which, being compiled by men unacquainted with every minor detail of the locality, are naturally liable to confuse places of similar names. Nor is it possible in so large a subject as a county history to enter minutely into the separate parish histories of places and people. Thus after awhile the untrustworthiness and insufficiency of book-knowledge will be discovered, and some more original source of information become desired. Manuscripts exist in plenty, but are of little value unless studied personally; for professional readers, although able to read quickly and correctly, only give the information desired; whereas in a personal search one subject opens out fresh clues to others of equal importance, and new light is continually being thrown upon hitherto unnoticed points; moreover, only by a personal investigation can the antiquary be certain that he has obtainedexactlywhat herequired. There are now plenty of opportunities open to the public of seeing the old documents pertaining to various offices and societies, besides private collections, but without some previous knowledge of the old handwritings, etc., this permission is practically valueless. Therefore, ‘Persevere and practise’ is the best motto I can give to those interested in the matter, for proficiency comes quickly to those who seek it; and, as in all subjects, ‘Nothing succeeds like success.’