Palaeography

Palaeography (UK) or paleography (US; ultimately from Greek: παλαιός, palaiós, 'old', and γράφειν, gráphein, 'to write') is the study and academic discipline of the analysis of historical writing systems, the historicity of manuscripts and texts, subsuming deciphering and dating of historical manuscripts, including the analysis of historic handwriting, signification and printed media. It is primarily concerned with the forms, processes and relationships of writing and printing systems as evident in a text, document or manuscript; and analysis of the substantive textual content of documents is a secondary function. Included in the discipline is the practice of deciphering, reading, and dating manuscripts,^[2] and the cultural context of writing, including the methods with which writing and printing of texts, manuscripts, books, codices and tomes, tracts and monographs, etcetera, were produced, and the history of scriptoria.^[3] This discipline is important for understanding, authenticating, and dating historic texts. However, in the absence of additional evidence, it cannot be used to pinpoint exact dates.

The discipline is one of the auxiliary sciences of history, and is considered to have been founded by Jean Mabillon^[4] with his work De re diplomatica, published in 1681, which was the first textbook to address the subject. The term palaeography was coined by Bernard de Montfaucon^[5] with the publication of his work on Greek palaeography, the Palaeographia Graeca, in 1708.^[6]