Alphabet Key To History Of Mankind

Author(s): David Diringer
Publisher: Hutchinsons Scientific and Technical Publications

Page 571

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THE ALPHABET a horizontal stroke on the top (I, II, III, IIII, V, X). Is this a cryptic system of writing consisting in numerals? Nobody knows. The script of the above-mentioned inscription of Peru consists mainly of signs similar to Arabic numerals 2, 3 (and its reverse form), 4, 7, 8, 9 and 0. Is this inscription spurious?
Finally, examining the problem of adaptation of alphabetic scripts to other languages, important factors, like that expressed by the phrase " the alphabet follows religion" (see pp. 269, 280, 301, etc.), or that indicated by Professor Kreber's "idea-diffusion" (see pp. 54, 58, ron, etc.) should not be overlooked.
EXTERNAL DEVELOPMENT OF LETTERS
The external development of the single letters of the various alphabetic scripts is due mainly to two reasons: (1) the necessity of speed in writing, which produces the various cursive scripts, this development, however, being limited by the exigencies of legibility; and (2) technical and asthetic reasons.
(a) The technical reasons: the materials of writing always played a great part in the external development of the single letters; for instance, the letters cut on stone or engraved on bronze generally differ in their shape from the letters written with ink on paper. (b) The study of the development of writing as dependent on ästhetic reasons is the subject of calligraphy. In some countries the profession of calligrapher was held in high esteem; indeed, Chinese, Arabic and Indian calligraphy have reached very high levels. In Christian manuscripts, the importance of calligraphy was perhaps slightly impaired by the development of the art of miniature.
NUMERALS - ABBREVIATIONS-STENOGRAPHY
The origin and the development of the numerals (Fig. 254 and 255), and the history of abbreviations and of stenography are other problems
987LYHEZI
123.94 GAS
Fig. 254 1, Earliest example of Arabic numerals (in inverted order) in Latin manuscripts, Escorial Library, manuscript of A.D. 976. 2, Arabic numerals in Var. Cod. On Lat.
from Montecassino, twelfth-thirteenth century A.D.
connected with the alphabet, which belong rather to the "history of writing," and will be dealt with in my book on writing, Stenography, that is to say the script which aims at the maximum speed in transmission of thought, is in a certain sense the last stage of the history of writing,