Various Charts of Letter-Forms
in Ancient Greek Manuscripts and Other
Materials
this page copyrighted by Mr. Gary S. Dykes © 2010
Schubart Hunger Wilcken Nestle Metzger
Wessely Roberts Husselman E.G. Turner Schubart Gardthausen
E.M. Thompson Maas Cavallo Herbert Hunger Kenyon Wilcken Skeat Treu Lefort Kirsopp Lake
Turyn Nigel Wilson Karania Preisigke Wessely Turner Husselman Preisigke Treu
Aland Metzger Youtie
Click on the thumbnail images on the right side,
to view relatively sharp images
NOTE: Pickering's "warning" is seen in the very bottom of the box, below
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From Young Kyu Kim's work on papyrus P46. A demonstration of some of the letter forms. circa A.D. 125 -200. Genre - Biblical, NT material - papyrus |
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From F. G. Kenyon's 1899 volume: THE PALAEOGRAPHY OF GREEK PAPYRI. shows samples from 3rd century B.C. to 3rd century A.D. Image is in two halves. Genre - various/mixed material - papyrus |
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From E. M. Thompson's 1912 volume: AN INTRODUCTION TO GREEK AND LATIN PALAEOGRAPHY. This chart - 4th century B.C. to just prior to 160 B.C.. Genre - literary material - papyrus |
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From E. M. Thompson's 1912 volume: AN INTRODUCTION TO GREEK AND LATIN PALAEOGRAPHY. This chart - 2nd century B.C. to 1st century A.D.. Genre - literary material - papyrus |
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From E. M. Thompson's 1912 volume: AN INTRODUCTION TO GREEK AND LATIN PALAEOGRAPHY. This chart - 1st century A.D. to 2nd century A.D.. Genre - literary material - papyrus |
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From E. M. Thompson's 1912 volume: AN INTRODUCTION TO GREEK AND LATIN PALAEOGRAPHY. This chart - 1st century A.D. thru 3rd century A.D.. Genre - literary material - papyrus |
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From E. M. Thompson's 1912 volume: AN INTRODUCTION TO GREEK AND LATIN PALAEOGRAPHY. This chart - 3rd century and 2nd century B.C.. Genre - documentary/various material - papyrus |
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From E. M. Thompson's 1912 volume: AN INTRODUCTION TO GREEK AND LATIN PALAEOGRAPHY. This chart - 1st century B.C. thru 2nd century A.D.. Genre - documentary/various material - papyrus |
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From E. M. Thompson's 1912 volume: AN INTRODUCTION TO GREEK AND LATIN PALAEOGRAPHY. This chart - 3rd century thru 5th century A.D.. Genre - documentary/various material - papyrus |
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From, E. M. Thompson's 1912 volume: AN INTRODUCTION TO GREEK AND LATIN PALAEOGRAPHY. This chart - 6th century thru A.D. 830. Genre - documentary/various material - papyrus |
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From, Bernhard Abraham van Groningen's 1940 volume: A SHORT MANUAL OF GREEK PALAEOGRAPHY. (see this volume for specifics as concerns this chart). Genre - literary material - papyrus |
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From, Discoveries in the Judaean Desert (VIII). THE GREEK MINOR PROPHETS SCROLL FROM NAHAL HEVER (8HevXIIgr). Oxford. 1990. Letter-forms chart via Peter J. Parsons. Sample image is a portion of plate XIX. MSS not dated, circa 50 B.C. to A.D. 50 - C. H. Roberts. Image shows hand "B", text is Zechariah 8:18 - 9:7. Note the archaic Tetragrammaton in palaeo-Hebrew characters. A very interesting manuscript, included here as it shows an ancient non-Egyptian provenance document. The volume - DJD VIII, is a great work, very informative and worthy of study. (probably out of print). Genre - Biblical, LXX material - parchment, scroll |
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From, THE ANTIQUITY OF THE GREEK ALPHABET AND THE EARLY PHOENICIAN SCRIPTS, published in the HARVARD SEMITIC MUSEUM, HARVARD SEMITIC MONOGRAPHS, No. 9, Scholars Press, 1975. Article by P. Kyle McCarter, Jr.. inscriptions date circa - 700 B.C.. Fine samples of basic inscribed Greek characters from various locales. Genre - miscellaneous material - stone inscriptions |
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From, GREEK MANUSCRIPTS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD. E.G. Turner. Oxford, 1st ed. 1971. Shows samples of 6 letter forms from a variety of MSS. Great book, a standard reference work, abbreviated as GMAW [1]. The numbers refer to images in the publication. Note, one MS is dated (# 47), and one is from Thessalonica. (# 51). Genre - literary, Biblical, one receipt material - papyrus, rolls and codices |
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From, S.R. Pickering's essay: THE DATING OF THE CHESTER BEATTY-MICHIGAN CODEX OF THE PAULINE EPISTLES (P46). published in ANCIENT HISTORY IN A MODERN UNIVERSITY (Vol. II). Early Christianity, Late Antiquity and Beyond. 1998. William B. Eerdmans Publisher. Quotes are from pages 226, and 221. Hopefully, experienced palaeographers will use and keep, in a proper perspective, the various letter forms of the available documents. It is recommended that whenever possible, to illustrate the letter forms within several lines of their original context. Showing the upper and lower "lines" as well as displaying the general ductus of the hand involved. Just showing individual letter forms is NOT sufficient! |
"Many of Kim's examples recall the dangers of analyzing hands on the basis of individual letter shapes without taking adequate account of overall script style." "The main fault in Kim's method of comparison appears to be that, although reference is made to both styles and individual letter forms, the latter are allowed to take precedence over the former. It is in fact fairly easy to find similar letter shapes in hands many centuries apart which have no stylistic connections apart from a common heritage of the hand-written letter shapes of the Greek alphabet. There are therefore serious methodological difficulties in giving the evidence of individual letters precedence over the evidence of the general styles in which they occur." |
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