List of symbols

I. From the Greek alphabet to the Phoenician alphabet (from M. Guarducci, Epigrafia greca, I, Roma 1967, 74)

II. The Greek alphabet in the archaic and classic period (before the ‘Euclidean reform’)

from L. Jeffery, The Local Scripts of Archaic Greece, Oxford 1961

From A. Kirchoff, Studien zur Geschichte des Griechischen Alphabets, 4 ed., Gütersloh 1887

II. The Greek alphabet after the ‘Euclidean reform’

from M. Guarducci, Epigrafia greca, I, Roma 1967, 368- 383

A. General phenomena:

     a) end of 5th cent. B.C. ‘Geometric’ shapes

     b) 4th cent. B.C.

     - Bending of certain straight lines and round letters shrinking (Θ Ο Ω)

     c) from the mid-3rd cent. B.C. (approximately)

     - Use of apicatures

     d) Hellenistic and Imperial Age

     - Starting from the 3rd/2nd cent. B.C., lunate letters specific to cursive writing on papyrus are also used in stone writing, as far as the letters epsilon, sigma, omega are concerned.

     - Roman Imperial Age     

           Square shapes:

           Angled shapes:

           Upward extension of oblique lines for some letters:

B. Significant changes in single letters:

alpha
epsilon
zeta
eta
theta
my
ny
xi
pi
rho
sigma
ypsilon
phi
omega

III. Writing in manuscripts

Greek Paleography. From Antiquity to the Renaissance             © 2022 Vatican Library

MAJUSCULE BOOKHANDS

1. Biblical Majuscule

 Vat. gr. 1209 (4th cent.)

2. Alexandrian Majuscule

 Vat. gr. 2125 (700 A.D. ca.)

3. Ogival Majuscule

- slanted ogival

-upright ogival

 Vat. gr. 749 (9th cent.A.D.)

4. Liturgical Majuscule

 Vat. gr. 351

MINUSCULE BOOKHANDS

The Greek Minuscule Alphabet

- 9th-10th cent. minuscules

1. Old round minuscule

 Vat.gr.2079 (beginning of 9th cent.)

2. Old square minuscule

 Oxon. Clark 39 (895 A.D.)

3. Old sloped minuscule

 Pal. gr. 220, f. 14v (beginning of 10th cent.)

4. Old angular minuscule

Oxon. Chr. Ch. 5

5. “Philosophical collection” type

 Vat. gr. 2197 (9th cent.)

6.‘Baanes’ type

 Vat. gr. 218 (10th cent.)

7. ‘Efrem’ type

 Vat. gr. 124 (second half of the 10th cent.)

- Bouletée minuscule (10th cent.)

 Urb. gr. 15 (10th cent.) f. 105v.

- Perlschrift (10th-13th cent.)

 Vat. gr. 1613, p. 124 (1000 A.D. ca)

- Italo-Greek scripts (10th-12th cent.)

1. Ace of spades minuscule

 Vat. gr. 1553, f. 119v

2. Minuscule of the School of St. Nilus the Younger

 Ott. gr. 251, f. 50r

3. The “Rossano” style

 Vat. gr. 364, f. 132v

4. The “Reggio” style

 Vat. gr. 2290, f. 75r

5. Italo-Greek scripts with cursive elements

 Vat. gr. 1611, f. 106v

- 13th cent. scripts

1. The ‘Beta-Gamma’ style

 Vat. gr. 1899, f. 148r (second half of the 13th cent.)

2. Fettaugenmode

 Vat. gr. 690, f. 17r (13th cent.)

3. Palaeologan Mimetic hands

 Ott. gr. 426, f. 27v