Ancient Manuscripts How Are They Dated?/Clues From Handwriting

Paleographers divide ancient Greek handwriting into two basic categories-book hand, which is elegant and formal, and cursive, a form of running, or flowing, writing used in nonliterary documents.  Greek scribes  also used various styles of letters, which can be categorized as capitals, uncials (a form of capitals), cursives, and minuscules.  One form of book hand, uncial writing, was used from the fourth century B.C.E. till the eighth or ninth century C.E. Minuscule writing, a small form of book hand, was employed from the 8th or 9th century C.E. till the middle of the 15th century, when printing by means of movable type began in Europe. Minuscule script could be written more rapidly and compactly, which saved both time and parchment. 

Paleographers have their preferred methods of dating manuscripts. Generally speaking, they first take an overall look a the script-a wide angle view, as it were-and they they examine it more closely. analyzing individual letters.  Because it usually took a long time for significant changes to occur in the general style of handwriting, a close examination of  the script, while useful, provides only a broad indication of the time of writing. 

Thankfully, there are other ways to narrow down the date.  These include identifying and dating the introduction of certain handwriting practices.  For instance, in Greek texts after the year 900 C.E., scribes began to increase the use of ligatures (two or more characters joined together).  Scribes also began to use  infralinear writing (the writing of certain Greek letters below the line) as well as pronunciation aids called breathing marks.

A person's handwriting tends to remain constant throughout his life. Therefore, texts often cannot  be dated to within 50 years.  What is more, scribs sometimes used earlier manuscripts as models, making the copy seem older than it is. Despite the man challenges, however, dates have been assigned to a number of important Bible manuscripts. 

Next time: Ancient Manuscripts How Are They Dated?/Dating Key Greek Bible Manuscripts

From the Awake! magazine