τασεναληθειακαθωσεντο
ληνελαβομεναποτουπρς (The πρς a contraction for πατρος.)
In Greek MSS. this method continued until the fourteenth century.
HOWTHEANCIENTSREADTHEIRWORKSWRITTENIN
THISMANNERITISNOTEASYTOCONCEIVE
St. Jerome (A.D. 324–420) wrote a Latin version of the Bible—“the foundation of the Vulgate”—“per cola et commata”; not with colons and commas as we understand those words, but by a stichometric arrangement,—dividing the text into short sentences or lines, according to the sense, chiefly with a view to a better understanding of the meaning, and a better delivery in public reading. It is not until the latter part of the seventh century that there is some separation of words in Latin MSS. In the later Latin (eighth century) the full point in various positions was introduced,—being placed on a level with the top, bottom, or middle of the letters,—as the students of “Andrews and Stoddard” are well aware. In still later MSS. in small letter, the full point on the line or high was first used; then the comma and {p75} semicolon; and the inverted semicolon (
), whose power was stronger than the comma.
In early Irish and English MSS., separation of words is quite consistently followed; and in these the common mark of punctuation was the full point, while to denote the final stop or period one or two points with a comma (..,) were used.
Contractions were much used in ancient MSS. to save time and labor. Some of these were denoted by a semicolon ; as b; = bus; q; = que; vi; = videlicet,—this character, in cursive writing, readily became a z, whence we have our viz = videlicet.