ANCIENT SCRIPT

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 128, 26 November 1938, Page 13

ANCIENT SCRIPT

TURNBULL LIBRARY EXHIBITION

A FASCINATING SUBJECT

The exhibition of handwriting of bygone centuries, which is at present being held at the Alexander Turnbull Library, should prove of general intei'est.

The earliest examples are the papyrus records of ancient Egypt, and a specimen is. shown dating from about 1000 B.C. It is to be noted that from the word papyrus comes the modern word paper. A reproduction of a very sumptuous Egyptian Book of the Dead shows hieroglyphics at their best. It ( is an interesting commentary on1 ancient Egyptian business ethics thati many scrolls found in sarcophagi with mummies are simply blanks. The ■ fact indicates suspicious collusion between the scribe who sold the engrossed scroll and the embalmer who prepared the body for sepulture. Probably one scroll served as a sales factor for scores of burials. Reed books were considerably used in various parts of Asia over a long period, probably from the seventh to the seventeenth centuries. Several examples of these odd-looking recQrds, written in three or four languages, are on exhibition. One extremely good example was secured by the library within the last 'year from a Wellington man who oDtalned it under remarkable circumstances. Attending an auction sale, he bought a "lot" of workshop odds and ends, including several Venetian blinds. One of these blinds was obviously not a blind, and was taken to the Turnbull Library for identification, -when its real nature was immediately recognised. Formal manuscripts, monastic and Otherwise (dating from the eighth century), show the class of work that was done in Europe up to the sixteenth century. Some of it is extremely beautiful, not only for its excellent execution and artistic conception, but also for the gorgeous colours that seem so effectively to defy the passage of time. ORIGINS OF MODERN WRITING. Cursive handwriting as distinct from the lettered style was a different development. To trace, as here one can, the strange evolution of letters and from unrecognisable origins to the forms we know is most illuminating. Old Latin documents of 1500 years ago are to our eye practically unreadable without a key. Yet we think we would' be able at least always to read English, yet there are examples of diaries, letters, and wills from Elizabethan and Stuart times that one can gaze upon in vain. The reason is that modern handwriting is based on the Italian hand, and in Elizabethan times that was just starting to be adopted. Marginal notes in. ancient books are xshown for both the style of writing, and to show how people used their books in those far-off days. The development of this English style of writing can be followed well in a striking group of legal documents dating from the reign of Elizabeth, from about 1560 down to the early 19th century. : A number of these are indentures or agreements for apprenticeship, etc., and the origin of the term becomes obvious when one sees the "indented" tops of these old vellum deeds. I

,In the handwriting of our grandparents one often noticed the long "s" in such words, especially as "miss," where the first "s" looks like an "£." Older printed books have the same peculiarity, but certain of these ancient d6cuments show the reason—"s" seemed to catch the fancy of the medieval scribe as a subject for a flourish— and on one particular example the long "s" sweeps away up above and far down below its own line, giving a decorative though 'flamboyant effect. To bring the story closer to our own age, a few letters of early settlers and^ missionaries are included, showing the strange yet obviously economical method of writing two pages on one, the second lot at right-angles to the first.

Altogether, the exhibition is very entertaining and Instructive, and to add extra romance to it, there are a few reproductions of famous writings, such as Mairy Queen of Scots, Robert the Bruce, Lady Jane Grey, and Milton. Scots will be especially interested in the great charter of Kelso, a copy of which is shown. In conformity with the usual custom, the library extends an invitation to the general public to visit the exhibition.