PALEOGRAPHY 157 Merovingian. The writing of the Prankish empire, to which the title of Merovingian has been applied, had a wider range than the other national hands. It had a long career both for diplomatic and literary purposes. In this writing, as it appears in documents, we see that the Roman cursive is subjected to a lateral pressure, so that the letters received a curiously cramped appearance, while the heads and tails are exaggerated to inordinate length. Merovingian Cursive, 679-680 A.D. (dedit in respunsis eo quod ipsa de annus triginta et uno inter ipso ondaia semper tenuerant et possiderant si ) Facsimiles of this hand, as used in the royal and imperial chanceries, are to be found scattered in various works ; but a complete course of Merovingian diplomatic writing may be best studied in Letronne s Diplomata, and in the Kaisemirkunden of Profs. Sybel and Sickel now in course of publication. In the earliest documents, com mencing in the 7th century and continuing to the middle of the 8th century, the character is large and at first not so intricate as it becomes later in this period. The writing then grows into a more regular form, and in the 9th century a small hand is established, which, however, still retains the exaggerated heads and tails of letters. The direct course of this chancery hand may then be followed in the imperial documents, which from the second half of the 9th century are written in a hand more set and evidently influenced by the Caroline minuscule. This form of writing, still accompanied by the lengthened strokes already referred to, continued in force, subject, however, to the varying changes which affected it in common with other hands, into the 12th century. Its influence was felt as well in France as in Germany and Italy ; and certain of its characteristics also appear in the court-hand which the Normans brought with them into England. The book-hand immediately derived from the early Merovingian diplomatic hand is seen in MSS. of the 7th and 8th centuries in a very neatly written but not very easy hand (Cat. Anc. MSS., ii., pis. 29, 30 ; Arndt, Xchrifttaf., 28). ^^ <^^ Merovingian Writing, 7th century. ( dam intra sinum sawciae eclesiae quasi uicinos ad positos iucrepant. Saepe uero arrogantes dem quam tenent arrogantiam se fugire osten ) But other varieties of the literary hand as written in France are seen to be more closely allied to the Roman cursive. The earliest example is found in the papyrus fragments of writings of St Avitus and St Augustine, of the 6th century (Etudes paleogr. sur des Papyrus du YI me Siecle, Geneva, 1866); and other later MSS. by their diversity of writing show a development independent of the cursive hand of the Merovingian charters. It is among these MSS. that those examples already referred to occur which more nearly resemble the Lombardic type. f^snfu tunic fabiKtiiJtc hum fdlunum ftmclfln jiUumJmcuin dpi) Franco-Lombardic Writing, 8th century. (propter unitatem salua propriaetate na non sub una substantia conuenieutes, neque itam sed unum eundem filium. Unicum deum) The uncial and half-uncial hands had also their influence in the evolution of these Merovingian book-hands ; and the mixture of so many different forms accounts for the variety to be found in the examples of the 7th and 8th centuries. In the Notice sur un MS. Merovingien d Eugyppus (1875) and the Notice sur un MS. Mero vingien de la Bibl. d JEpinal (1878), Delisle has given many valuable facsimiles in illustration of the different hands in these two MSS. of the early part of the 8th century. See also Exempla Codd. Lot. (tab. 57), and autotypes in Cat. Anc. MSS. ii. There was, however, through all this period a general progress towards a settled minuscule writing which only required a master-hand to fix it in a calligraphic form. Irish Writing. The early history of the palaeography of the British Isles stands apart from that of the Con tinental schools. It is evident that the civilization and learning which accompanied the establishment of an ancient church in Ireland could not exist without a written litera ture. The Roman missionaries would certainly in the first place have imported copies of the Gospels and other books, and it cannot be doubted that through intercourse with England the Irish would obtain Continental MSS. in sufficient numbers to serve as models for their scribes. From geographical and political conditions, however, no continuous intimacy with foreign countries was possible ; and we are consequently prepared to find a form of writing borrowed in the first instance from a foreign school, but developed under an independent national system. In Ireland we have an instance how conservative writing may become, and how it will hand on old forms of letters from one generation to another when there is no exterior influence to act upon it. After once obtaining its models, the Irish school of writing was left to work out its own ideas, and continued to follow one direct line for centuries. The English conquest had no effect upon the national hand writing. Both peoples pursued their own course. In MSS. in the Irish language the Irish character of writing was naturally employed ; and the liturgical books produced in Irish monasteries by Irish monks were written in the same way. The grants and other deeds of the English settlers were, on the other hand, drawn up by English scribes in their national writing. The Irish handwriting, then, went on in its even uninterrupted course ; and its consequent unchanging form makes it so difficult a matter to assign dates to Irish MSS. A stereotyped form of letters is transmitted for so long that there is more risk of giving an early date to a late Irish MS., when written with care, than to one written, under similar conditions, in the English or Continental schools. And nowhere is it more necessary to look for the changes, slight though they be, which may indicate an advance. The early Irish handwriting is of two classes the round and the pointed. The round hand is found in the earliest examples ; the pointed hand, which also was
