Paleography

The paleography (of the Greek palaios , “old” and graphein , “to write”) is the study of the writings Manuscrit are old, independently of the language used (Greek old, Latin traditional, Latin medieval, Former French, French traditional, etc)

Paleography is a discipline preliminary to the Philologie, which is characterized especially by two difficulties: on the one hand, the C-W communication of the same writing having constantly evolved/moved (writing Caroline, Gothic script, etc), it is necessary to know to decipher the characters which constitute the texts of these manuscripts. In addition, the manuscripts comprise necessarily abbreviations being used to gain place because, the material support forming the manuscript (in particular the parchment and paper) being very expensive, one sought to use it to the maximum. The paleographer must thus know the current Abréviation S. The Esperluette, for example, is in the beginning one of these abbreviations, just like the Tilde.

This knowledge allows to the paleographer to transcribe the document, i.e. to produce a modern copy of it by restoring the abbreviations. This work is particularly important for the texts in Latin because the abbreviations frequently relate to the finales, but the variation of the Latin word is particularized by the use of different finales.

Paleography must be distinguished from the epigraphy, the study of the inscriptions, which, they, can go back to highest Antiquity. The Papyrology, as for it, is a discipline-girl of the paleography, which is characterized by the support (papyrus against handwritten Codex), more fragile and much less readable because of the damage of time.

See too

External bonds

The site of the School of the Charters " Theleme" This site proposes excellent tools for the transcription, of the files, and a bibliography including/understanding the references in this field.

Ménestrel, repertory critical of bonds, offers a heading detailed on the paleographic resources and more largely the facsimiles of old manuscripts available on line.

Internal bonds

Glossary of diplomatic and paleography
Critical apparatus (and Obèle, hooks, Rafter S, Asterisk, not subscribed);
Ecdotique ;
Philology;
Codex, papyrus;
writing (and History of the Greek alphabet, of the Latin alphabet);
epigraphy, Papyrology.
Lectio difficilior potior
Archivist paleographer
Transcription (paleography)

Zh-classical: 古文書

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