ABSTRACT
It has often seemed to me that the study of the art of writing an und für sich, of pure paleography as opposed to applied paleography, if one may use those expressions to indicate two different methods of investigating the art of writing, is sadly neglected. This will be apparent, I think, if we call to mind the end or ends toward which our study of paleography is directed, and the work which we actually do in this field. Our first object in pursuing the subject is to learn how to expand abbreviations and to read the common scripts —this for the purpose of acquiring some facility in simply reading an original MS. Then we study the shapes which the several letters, or combinations of letters, take in different periods and countries; we examine the scribal practices of different schools in the matter of using initials and ornaments, and we learn something about the history of ink, papyrus, parchment, and paper, about the division of the page into columns, and about other similar matters, so that, when we take up a MS., we may form an intelligent opinion on the question when and where it was written. We try to acquire some acuteness in distinguishing different inks and the hands of different correctors; in diagnosing the scribal weaknesses and the besetting sins of a given copyist; in noting the points at which he has evidently gone astray, either on account of his own ignorance of Latin or his unfamiliarity with the script which he was copying, or because the text before him was illegible. Our purpose here, of course, is to get back as near as possible to his archetype — to the text which he was trying to follow.
