Inscriptions

“ The superiority of the inks known to the ancients has long been the object of surprise and admiration. The inscriptions on mummy-cases, made at a time long antedating the Christian Era, and the writing on manuscripts made in the early centuries of Christian history, in addition to the beauty of the form and finish of the writing, have a freshness of appearance as though they were only of years' instead of centuries' duration. ”

“ The date of inscriptions is determined partly by the internal evidence of the subject, persons, and events treated of, and the character of the dialect and language. But the most important evidence is the form of the letters and style of execution. For the Attic inscriptions the development Date of Inscriptions. from the earliest times to about A.D. 500 is elaborately treated by Larfeld, Handbuch der att. Inschr. (1902) . bk. ii. Much of the evidence is of a kind difficult to appreciate from a mere description. ”

“ The inscriptions, of which the lines, as well as the lines of the effigy, are filled up with red or black mastic, are generally on the border of the slab, and merely indicate the deceased's name and title, and the year of his death, concluding with a brief pious invocation or consolatory sentiment. ”

“ And we shall presently have occasion to notice other sins, scarcely less flagrant, against every canon of chronology belonging to the subject Pg 372 which he professes to handle. But first let us say a few words as to what those canons are, and how they have been established.
It is only in our own day that the study of inscriptions generally, and especially of Christian inscriptions, has received that development which entitles it to a place among real sciences. It has now acquired a light and a solidity which constitute it one of the most trustworthy founts of ancient history. ”

“ INSCRIPTION, n. Something written on another thing. Inscriptions are of many kinds, but mostly memorial, intended to commemorate the fame of some illustrious person and hand down to distant ages the record of his services and virtues. To this class of inscriptions belongs the name of John Smith, penciled on the Washington monument. ”

“ It is highly probable that they took the form of inscriptions in temples and upon monuments, and gradually developed into historical and topographical records, preserving local memories, and giving form to local legends. ”

“ The following inscription was lately discovered when digging in the church of St Hilary, in the island of Jersey. If we except one barbarism, and one strong license, the epitaph may bear a comparison with most of the inscriptions in the Latin Anthology. ”

“ Our indefinite acceptance, by preponderance of three or four groups of museum-experts against one person, is that a stone bearing inscriptions unassimilable with any known language upon this earth, is said to have fallen from the sky. ”

“ Should a copy of the inscriptions in this receptacle (which are numerous) be acceptable, I will endeavour to procure one; but in this case I should be glad to know whether these extracts should be confined to names, dates, and genealogical information only, or include the various tributes of affection or of friendship, by which they are generally accompanied. ”

“ A lovelier walk, or a lovelier scenery could not well be imagined. The inscriptions carved in such a place cannot fail to produce a grand effect on the mind. They are carved at such regular intervals that no sooner has one completed his thoughts on one inscription, another meets one's gaze. ”

“ It is, therefore, in and near modern villages and towns that inscriptions are chiefly to be found, as well as smaller antiquities, such as clay tablets, pots or fragments of them, terra–cotta figures, coins, and so forth. The smaller articles may sometimes be found in the bazaars, but they are usually in the hands of individuals.
It should not be assumed that inscriptions which are exposed to public view have all been copied; moreover, new stones are constantly being turned up, especially where building is going on and where there are old sites or cemeteries close at hand. ”

“ The inscriptions of India are extremely numerous, and are found, on stone and other substances, in a great variety of circumstances. They were mostly recorded by incision. But we have a few, referable to the 2nd or 3rd century B.C., which were written with ink on earthenware, and Materials on which the inscriptions were recorded. some others, of later times, recorded by paint,—one on a rock, the others on the walls of Buddhist cave-temples. ”

“ It is necessary to look closely to distinguish on the smooth walls the hieroglyphic inscriptions, the rows of little figures, little owls, little jackals, that tell in a lost language the history of ancient peoples. ”

“ If only they had really blotched up their foreheads with those inscriptions, it would be some satisfaction to us, at least; but as it is, we are being imposed upon by an actor’s tricks, and hoaxed by a fake inscription! ”

“ In the utter carelessness of some, as regards the preservation of monumental inscriptions; or in the total disregard of others for the value of them as a source of evidence, either in a legal, or in a genealogical point of view, we may perhaps find something to extenuate:—their pursuits, their defective education, or want of experience in such matters, may be pleaded in their behalf. We have not all the same views ”

“ In short, the inscriptions of India are the only sure grounds of historical results in every line of research connected with its ancient past; they regulate everything that we can learn from coins, architecture, art, literature, tradition, or any other source. ”

“ Fig. 196. BROADSIDES, WALL INSCRIPTIONS, &C.
Set Inscriptions.—Ordinary inscriptions generally consist of a given number of words to be set out in [p351] a given space. Careful planning may sometimes be required to fit in the words suitably, or to adapt the lettering to the space. But setting-out (p. 258) becomes much simpler after a little practice, and the good craftsman avoids over-planning.
The Place of the Inscription.—The actual space for a wall inscription is commonly suggested by an architectural feature—a stone, a panel, or a niche—of the wall ”

“ My reward for having ascertained and proved those facts, was to be denied the prize, and to have my manuscript mislaid or lost or stolen! My historical researches ever since have continued to confirm nearly all these facts.1
2. Documents and monuments. The historical titles and proofs, inscriptions, [pg 046] medals, coins, charters, &c., which are so common elsewhere, are but few as yet, in America, belonging to early times: most belong to modern history. ”

“ II. Information regarding the forms of letters used on Roman inscriptions will be found under the articles Latin Language, Palaeography and Writing (cf. Hübner, Exempla scripturae epigraphicae Latinae, 1895) . The forms of the single letters vary not inconsiderably according to the material of the monuments, their age and their origin. Carefully cut letters, especially when on a large scale, naturally differ from those scratched or painted on walls by non-professional hands, or hewn on rocks by soldiers ”

“ The complete absence of inscriptions is an Ionic feature as are the ornamental patterns, such as the tongue-pattern round the handles; the fondness for winged figures also points in this direction. The combination of good technique with feeble compositions points to a late and imitative stage, and is contrary to the Attic tendency to prefer new ideas and new subjects to a high standard of technique. ”

“ The Roman tombs also afford us an example worthy of imitation, in the purity and simplicity of their inscriptions. They usually began with D. M. (Diis Manibus) , followed by the name, office, and age of the deceased, and a conclusion, which informed the reader by whom or through what means the inscription was erected.
Whether the Saxons or the Danes used monumental p. viiiinscriptions, either in their own or in the Latin tongue, has been doubted. The few which we have for people of the Saxon times, are probably the compositions of a later date. ”

“ It was in Germany and the Low Countries that the practice appears to have originated, chiefly among students and other members of the universities, of collecting autograph inscriptions and signatures of one's friends in albums, alba amicorum, little oblong pocket volumes of which a considerable number have survived, a very fair collection being in the British Museum. ”

“ These, with the folios of Fabretti and Reinesius, are indispensable in the library of an archæologist, who devotes himself to the study of inscriptions. The general scholar will find an admirable selection in the work of Orelli, to which a supplemental volume has been lately added by Henzen. [131] The monuments are carefully classified; they are illustrated, without being overwhelmed with notes, and more care is taken than in any previous collection, to separate the spurious from the genuine inscriptions. ”

“ All the display inscriptions are primarily of architectural character, whether intended to face the walls of the palace or to be deposited as a sort of corner stone under the gates or at the corners of the wall. We should not expect their value to be high, and indeed they are of but little worth when the corresponding annals on which they are based has been preserved. For example, we have four different recensions of a very long display inscription, as well as literally scores of minor ones, also of a display character, from the later years of Sargon. ”

“ It will be observed that the basis of most of them is a head seen in front or in profile. Bearing this in mind, and fixing definitely the differential marks, which alone were deemed of importance by the native artists, we could venture with considerable confidence on the interpretation of manuscripts and inscriptions, did we not meet with very serious obstacles in other directions. ”

“ One group is manifestly the older: in orthography, punctuation, and abbreviation it bears close resemblance to inscriptions of the classical or Roman period. The other group is as manifestly composed of the more recent manuscripts: this may be inferred from the corrupt or barbarous spelling, from the use of abbreviations unfamiliar in the classical period but very common in the Middle Ages, or from the presence of punctuation, which the oldest manuscripts invariably lack. The manuscripts of the first group show letters that are simple and unadorned and words unseparated from each other. ”

“ The greater part of what we know concerning the building operations of the reign comes from the documents already discussed. Of the specifically building inscriptions, perhaps the most important is the New Year's House inscription from Ashur, [Footnote: MDOG. 33, 14.] and the excavations there have also given a good number of display inscriptions on slabs [Footnote: KTA. 43 ff., 73 f.; MDOG. 21, 13 ff.; 22, 17 ff.; 26, 27 ff. 43, 31; 44, 29.] and on bricks, [Footnote: I. R. 7, VIII. H; Bezold, KB. 114f; KTA. 46-49; 72; MDOG. 20, 24; 21, 12 ff. 22, 15; 25, 36 f.] ”

“ But now the inscriptions show us a happy and industrious class of artisans and humble tradesmen, grading down through the freedmen to the slaves, many of whom now lived and worked under quite tolerable conditions of life. Especially noteworthy is the social tendency of the day. Every occupation and craft was forming its guilds or “collegia” about which the inscriptions give us full and most interesting details. ”

“ The illiterate inscriptions on many books, which have thus become valuable, point to the hands through which they have passed, and tell a story of prolonged neglect, too often culminating in appropriation to domestic requirements. ”

“ Inscriptions and ornaments are produced in relief on the bell from stamps, also in relief, which are pressed into the mould, making a hollow impression in it. Copies of coins were often produced in this way by the older founders. Down to about the end of the seventeenth century each letter, or sometimes each word, was placed on a separate patera or tablet of metal. The usual place for the inscription is just below the “shoulder”-angle; but modern founders prefer the middle or “waist.”
[Pg 15] ”

“ Therefore this hieroglyphic inscription begins with the personal pronoun
or I. That is very easy, of course.
"Now, the most ancient of Egyptian inscriptions read vertically in columns; there are only two columns in this papyrus, so we'll try it vertically and pass downward to the next symbol, which is inclosed in a sort of frame or cartouch. That immediately signifies that royalty is mentioned; therefore, we have already translated as much as 'I, the king (or queen) .' Do you see?"
"Yes," said Burke, staring. ”

“ The space available for a given inscription may in this way largely determine the arrangement of the lettering, comparatively small and large spaces suggesting respectively “Massed Writing” and “Fine Writing” (see p. 262) .
Fig. 155.
In certain decorative inscriptions, where letters are merely treated as decorative forms—readableness [p267] being a matter of little or no moment—the treatment of the spacing is adapted to a particular surface; and, for example:—
Fig. ”

“ It seems, young gentlemen, to be generally the cus [Pg 118] tom in colleges, for the students to ornament the walls and benches of their recitation rooms, with various inscriptions and carricatures, so that after the premises have been for a short time in the possession of a class, every thing within reach, which will take an impression from a penknife, or a trace from a pencil, is covered with names, and dates, and heads, and inscriptions of every kind. ”