Revival: Society and Politics in Ancient Rome (1912)

Essays and Sketches

Frank Frost Abbott

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781351344302
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

The book is aimed at the general reader, as well as to the special student of Roman life and literature. It includes articles which discuss social, political and literary questions, with the majority of which are in some measure comparative studies of certain phases of life at Rome and in modern contemporary life.

The Evolution Of The Modern Forms Of The Letters Of Our Alphabet

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.

The same process, some steps only of which have been here indicated, we follow with another MS., and then another, until we have covered all those which are available. Thereupon we make a comparative survey of them all; we reject those MSS. which are worthless for the purpose in hand; we arrange the rest in family groups on the basis of common ancestry, and we determine the comparative value of the several families and the members of each family. From these results we proceed to reconstruct a text which shall represent as nearly as possible that left by Cicero or Livy.

All this is necessary, and one may freely recognize the fact that the primary value of paleography lies, and should lie, in its use in restoring a text, but it is unfortunate that we should stop at this point in our study of it. It is unfortunate that we should give almost all our attention to the study of applied paleography, and very, very little to the investigation of pure paleography. We have handbooks and collections of facsimiles which give us this working knowledge of the science of writing which I have described above; the introductions to our classical texts and our classical journals give us collations of MSS. and papers based upon the application of paleography to difficult passages in a text; but one very rarely sees discussions of paleographical questions dissociated from their practical application in restoring a text, and yet as a pure science paleography furnishes a discipline which in some respects can hardly be excelled.

Furthermore, handwriting in its development, like all the other arts, reflects the temper and tastes of a period, the characteristics of a race, a nation, a school of learning, or an individual, in a most illuminating fashion. We study every other art historically and for its intrinsic value, and we consider the art of a given period as an expression of the temper of the times. In other words, we study its development in the light of contemporary social and political history. The art of writing has not the importance for us which literature or pictorial art or architecture has, but it has an independent value, and deserves to be studied for itself; and the method of study which is applied to the other arts is equally applicable in this field. In the case of paleography, when a script is so novel in form, or when a change in style is so extraordinary that it challenges even a languid attention, we may stop for a minute’ to consider its historical setting. The script of Tours for instance, by its extraordinary beauty and symmetry, or later Roman cursive or Merovingian texts by their complex awkwardness, may call so loudly for an explanation of their existence that we make some effort to find one; but we rarely stop to consider how the social or political changes of a period, or the characteristics of a nation or a race, are reflected in handwriting, or to ask ourselves through what stages ARMAVI-RVMQVE developed into arma virumque, and how and why the successive changes took place.

We rarely bring the script of the Aufschriften into vital relation with that of the Inschriften, or try to estimate the influence of the book hand and the diplomatic hand upon each other. Our study of the three scripts is carried only to the point where it will be of service in reading and interpreting inscriptions, classical ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Dedication1
• Municipal Politics in Pompeii
• The Story of Two Oligarchies
• Women and Public Affairs Under the Roman Republic
• Roman Women in the Trades and Professions
• The Theatre as a Factor in Roman Politics Under the Republic
• Petronius: A Study in Ancient Realism
• A Roman Puritan
• Petrarch’s Letters to Cicero
• Literature and the Common People of Rome
• The Career of a Roman Student
• Some Spurious Inscriptions And Their Authors
• The Evolution Of The Modern Forms Of The Letters Of Our Alphabet
• Index