4 ms·
Amazing. It's interesting to see the typographical conventions. For example, the first sentence of Genesis (the first black sentence on image 15): "In principi
by ggchappell 13y ago
Amazing.
It's interesting to see the typographical conventions. For example, the first sentence of Genesis (the first black sentence on image 15): "In principio creauit deus celu et terram." meaning, if "celu" is really "celum", "In (the) beginning god created heaven and earth."
But look at all the oddities. The "d" and "e" of "deus" are run together. What's up with that? The "m" in "celum" is missing, but there is a horizontal line above the "u". I guess that means, "Throw in the obvious letter after this." And then there is another word thrown in between "celu(m)" and "et": "dicim". This is in red, apparently marking it as going with the note above, and so not part of the flow of the text.
And "creauit" would normally be written "creavit", but "u" and "v" used to be the same letter (along with "i" and "j").
After that red "dicim" mentioned above is a little mark that looks like a raised "9". That mark is all over. Does anyone know what it means?
Beginning at the end of the 5th line: "Dixitqz deus. Fiat lux." I guess that little "qz" thing is an abbreviation for "quoque"? Thus: "Dixit quoque deus. Fiat lux." "Also God said. Let (there) be light."
Fun stuff & a nice post. :-)
- asolove 13y agoYep, these are all conventions used in hand-written Latin texts of the time. I believe the 9-looking mark is short for "us" at the end of a word. See the top of the right column on that page: "Et vidit de9 qd esset" where "de9" is "deus" and "qd" is "quod" (cf. http://www.latinvulgate.com/verse.aspx?t=0&b=1 http://www.latinvulgate.com/verse.aspx?t=0&b=1).
- GotAnyMegadeth 13y agoIt would be good to read a similar analysis in 2514 of today's contemporary writings. "I believe the 2-looking mark is short for a 'too' sound, and the 'lol' throughout the text, although it originally signified laughter, has become a replacement for the end of a sentence"
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- seanstickle 13y agoThese are nice examples of scribal abbreviations in Latin. Q.v. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scribal_abbreviation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scribal_abbreviation
- involans 13y agoThe "m" elision (with the macron) is a standard orthographical device, and only for final "m". "-m" was very soft, even in Classical Latin; it functioned more like a vowel, and could be elided into following vowels. It was likely pronounced as a nasalisation of the preceding vowel sound, as in Portuguese today.
- nzp 13y agoIn addition to all convention others have mentioned, I expect a lot of oddities have to do with hacks to make justification and spacing perfectly uniform. The 42-line Bible font was composed of well over 200 unique characters.