As far back as material is available for comparison, it appears that abbreviations and contractions in Latin MSS. followed the same lines as those in Greek MSS. We have no very early papyri written in Latin as we have in Greek to show us what Abbreviations in Latin MSS. the practice of Roman writers was in the 3rd and 2nd and early 1st centuries B.C.; but there can be little doubt that in that remote time there was followed in Latin writing a system of abbreviation similar to that in Greek, that is, by curtailment of terminations, and that in ephemeral documents written in cursive characters such abbreviation was allowed more freely than in carefully written literary works. The early system of representing words by their initial letters has already been referred to. It was in common use, as we know, in the inscriptions on coins and monuments, and to some extent in the texts of Roman writers. But the ambiguity which must have always accompanied such a system of single-letter abbreviations, or sigla, naturally induced an improvement by expressing a word by two or more of its letters. Hence was developed the more regular syllabic system of the Romans, by which the leading letters of the several syllables were written, as EG = ergo, HR = heres, ST = satis. At a later time Christian writers secured greater exactness by expressing the final letter of a contracted word, as ds = deus, dō = deo, scs = sanctus. Further, certain marks and signs, many derived from shorthand symbols, came into use to indicate inflections and terminations; or the terminating letter or a leading letter to indicate the termination might be written above the line, as Qo = quo, Vm = verum, No = noster, Si = sint. This practice became capable of greater development later on. Among the special signs are c = est,
= vel, n = non, p’ = pre,
= per,
= pro, 9 = termination us. The letter q with distinctive strokes applied in different positions represented the often recurring relative and other short words, as quod, quia.
In Latin Biblical uncial MSS. the same restrictions on abbreviations were exercised as in the Greek. The sacred names and titles DS = deus, DMS, DNS = dominus, SCS = sanctus, SPS = spiritus, and others appear in the oldest codices. The contracted terminations Q· = que, B· = bus, and the omission of final m, or (more rarely) final n, are common to all Latin MSS. of the earliest period. There is a peculiarity about the contracted form of our Saviour’s name that it is always written by the Latin scribes in letters imitating the Greek IHC, XPC, ihc, xpc, and ihs, xps.
The full development of the medieval system of abbreviation and contraction was effected at the time when the Carolingian schools were compelling the reform of the handwriting of western Europe. Then came a freer practice of abbreviation by suppression of terminations and the latter portions of words, the omission of which was indicated by the ordinary signs, the horizontal or oblique stroke or the apostrophe; then came also a freer practice of contraction by omitting letters and syllables from the middle as well as the end of words, as oio, omnino, prb, presbyter; and then from the practice of writing above the line a leading letter of an omitted syllable, as inta = intra, tr = tur, conventional signs, with special significations, were also gradually developed. Such growths are well illustrated in the change undergone by the semicolon, which was attached to the end of a word to indicate the omission of the termination, as b; = bus, q; = que, deb; = debet, and which in course of time became converted into a z, a form which survives in our ordinary abbreviation, viz. (i.e. vi; = videlicet). The different forms of contraction were common to all the nations of western Europe. The Spanish scribes, however, attached different values to certain of them. For example, in Visigothic MSS., qm, which elsewhere represented quoniam, may be read as quum; and