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Origin from 1681

The comparative classification of historical handwriting by letterform and scribal convention, founded by Jean Mabillon in 1681 to expose forged charters. Dates an undated scripture manuscript by its script alone, independent of any claim made about its age.

Facts
Method
Method
comparative classification of historical handwriting styles by letterform, ductus and regional scribal convention, used to date and localize an undated manuscript 2
Subject
Subject
the historical development of handwriting across scripts and periods, and what a given hand can establish about when and where a manuscript was actually written 2
Identity
Field Category
Humanities 1
Parent Field
Manuscript Studies 1
Origins
Emerged As Named Discipline
from 1681 2
Learn More
Mabillon Defends a Forged Charter and Founds a Discipline

Palaeography classifies historical handwriting by letterform, the sequence of pen strokes that produced it and regional scribal convention, building a comparative record detailed enough that an undated, unsigned manuscript's hand alone can place it within a specific period and region. The Benedictine monk Jean Mabillon founded the discipline with his 1681 treatise De re diplomatica, written to defend the authenticity of monastic charters that a Jesuit critic had dismissed as forgeries, in which Mabillon set out the first systematic criteria for distinguishing a genuine medieval hand from a later imitation, turning what had been connoisseurship into a repeatable method.

Dating a scripture manuscript by its script is frequently the only evidence available when a colophon is missing, illegible or was never present, and palaeography routinely narrows a manuscript's date to within a few decades using nothing but the shape of its letters, evidence that survives independently of any claim the manuscript's own scribe or a later tradition makes about its age. The atlas relies on palaeographic dating wherever a sacred text's antiquity is central to its claimed authority and no other independent dating evidence exists.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Branch Of

Manuscript Studies, Scholarly Disciplines
Source Frascati Manual 2015: Guidelines for Collecting and Reporting Data on Research and Experimental DevelopmentOECD

Open Questions Needing This

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Source John Dee's Conversations with Angels: Cabala, Alchemy, and the End of NatureDeborah E. Harkness
Where does the Theban sign for A come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?, Open Questions
Source Theban alphabet (reference article)Wikipedia contributors
Where does the Theban sign for B come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?, Open Questions
Source Theban alphabet (reference article)Wikipedia contributors
Where does the Theban sign for C come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?, Open Questions
Source Theban alphabet (reference article)Wikipedia contributors
Where does the Theban sign for D come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?, Open Questions
Source Theban alphabet (reference article)Wikipedia contributors
Where does the Theban sign for E come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?, Open Questions
Source Theban alphabet (reference article)Wikipedia contributors
Where does the Theban sign for F come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?, Open Questions
Source Theban alphabet (reference article)Wikipedia contributors
Where does the Theban sign for G come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?, Open Questions
Source Theban alphabet (reference article)Wikipedia contributors
Where does the Theban sign for H come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?, Open Questions
Source Theban alphabet (reference article)Wikipedia contributors
Where does the Theban sign for I come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?, Open Questions
Source Theban alphabet (reference article)Wikipedia contributors
Where does the Theban sign for J come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?, Open Questions
Source Theban alphabet (reference article)Wikipedia contributors
Where does the Theban sign for K come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?, Open Questions
Source Theban alphabet (reference article)Wikipedia contributors
Where does the Theban sign for L come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?, Open Questions
Source Theban alphabet (reference article)Wikipedia contributors
Where does the Theban sign for M come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?, Open Questions
Source Theban alphabet (reference article)Wikipedia contributors
Where does the Theban sign for N come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?, Open Questions
Source Theban alphabet (reference article)Wikipedia contributors
Where does the Theban sign for O come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?, Open Questions
Source Theban alphabet (reference article)Wikipedia contributors
Where does the Theban sign for P come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?, Open Questions
Source Theban alphabet (reference article)Wikipedia contributors
Where does the Theban sign for Q come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?, Open Questions
Source Theban alphabet (reference article)Wikipedia contributors
Where does the Theban sign for R come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?, Open Questions
Source Theban alphabet (reference article)Wikipedia contributors
Where does the Theban sign for S come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?, Open Questions
Source Theban alphabet (reference article)Wikipedia contributors
Where does the Theban sign for T come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?, Open Questions
Source Theban alphabet (reference article)Wikipedia contributors
Where does the Theban sign for U come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?, Open Questions
Source Theban alphabet (reference article)Wikipedia contributors
Where does the Theban sign for V come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?, Open Questions
Source Theban alphabet (reference article)Wikipedia contributors
Where does the Theban sign for W come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?, Open Questions
Source Theban alphabet (reference article)Wikipedia contributors
Where does the Theban sign for X come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?, Open Questions
Source Theban alphabet (reference article)Wikipedia contributors
Where does the Theban sign for Y come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?, Open Questions
Source Theban alphabet (reference article)Wikipedia contributors
Where does the Theban sign for Z come from, and does Trithemius's ascription of the script to Honorius of Thebes rest on anything but his own word?, Open Questions
Source Theban alphabet (reference article)Wikipedia contributors
Which of the circulating Theban forms for W, if any, is the one Trithemius actually printed in 1518?, Open Questions
Source Theban alphabet (reference article)Wikipedia contributors
Sources
1. Frascati Manual 2015: Guidelines for Collecting and Reporting Data on Research and Experimental Development
OECD, OECD Publishing, 2015View the Source
2. The Oxford Companion to the Book
Michael F. Suarez and H. R. Woudhuysen (editors), Oxford University Press, 2010
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