NOTHING IS NEW

Evening Star, Issue 20988, 30 December 1931, Page 9

NOTHING IS NEW

ROMAN SHORTHAND Is there anything new under the sun? Recently it was stated that new records had ‘ been created in typing and shorthand speeds.- It would probably astonish 'even the record-breakers to learn that sixty-three years before Christ’there was in use a system of shorthand very much like the most popular method of to-day. It flourished at a period when ancient Rome was known chiefly for the eloquence of its orators, says a Britsh exchange. At that time a freedman and friend of Cicero, one Marcus Tullius Tiro, invented a system which was used for the recording of speeches made in the Roman Senate. ( His system was taught in all Roman schools, and among his private pupils were two Roman Emperors. Tiro’s method remained in use for several centuries. Plutarch, in his ‘ Life of Cato the Younger,’ quotes from the speeches of Caesar and Cato in connection with a conspiracy. These speeches were taken down verbatim by Notarii, who had been placed by Cicero in secret places in the Senate.

On a marble slab from the Acropolis at Athens, now in the Britsh Museum, there is actually a fine sample of fourth century shorthand in use among the Greeks. Tiro’s system was based on the orthographic principle. It abounded in the use of initials, following in this respect abbreviating formulae in common use with the Romans. It was marked by a peculiar excellence and faithfulness which rendered it superior to every other system known until very recent times. ' A sample which has been preserved in stone is so much like the leading system of to-day that a student who saw it might be easily deceived into thinking ho was looking at Pitman’s.

After the fall of the Roman Empire the use of the Tironian system survived for several centuries. In the year 625 a.d. shorthand notes were made of a royal decree, and in subsequent years lawyers’ notes were made in shorthand for the composition of deeds. These, along with the signatures to the formal legal documents, were regarded as a protection against forgery. Greek shorthand of the fourth to the eighth century is to be seen on vases in the British Museum. The Vatican is the largest possessor of shorthand manuscripts, one of them comprising forty-seven pages of eleventh century writing. With the rise of the Christian Church and a demand for the exact utterances of religious leaders of the day, the teaching and practice of the Tironian system received new impetus. Many of the trials of the early Christians are reported in the documents in the possession of the Vatican, specially competent shorthand writers being employed by the church for the purpose of an official report. England was the birthplace of modern shorthand. The first publication dealing with the principles of 1 Secret Writing in Character ’ .appeared in 1588, and after that there was a very rapid development of' note-taking in shorthand.

The records for shorthand-taking which have never been excelled were made by three Americans engaged for court work. One of them wrote at the astounding rate of 280 words a minute when taking evidence; another did 250 words a minute when recording the judge’s charge to the jury;.- and the third went at a speed of 220 words on “ straight ” literary matter—with 99 per cent, efficiency!