RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Inscriptions
showed the tendency to do away as far as possible with spaces between the letters; but they become less usual from the sixteenth century on. Abbreviations also were very common in the Middle Ages, but later become much less usual. Punctuation was not systematic until comparatively modern times; in the Middle Ages the commonest marks were dots half-way up the letters, though crosses and other signs are occasionally used. The language employed until late in the Middle Ages was almost always Latin — seldom the vernacular, and still less often Greek or Hebrew. The Latin continued to be used on the tombs of scholars and in similar places until modern times; and the Renaissance brought in the use of Greek, especially in the sixteenth century. Medieval inscriptions, like the ancient, show many peculiarities in spelling, vocabulary and grammar.
3. History of Epigraphy: The first demonstrable collection of inscriptions is assigned to various dates within the period from 550 to 839; i; but a number of collections resulted
Period from the Carolingian Renaissance, headed by the Codex Einsidlensis, the unknown author of which flourished in the eighth or early in the ninth century. These collections included both Christian and non-Christian specimens, and were made largely for the purpose of instruction in writing Latin verse. A period of inaction followed, closed by the revival of classical learning at the Renaissance. Cola Rienzi and Giovanni Dondi in the fourteenth, Ciriaco de' Pizzicolli in the fifteenth, and in the sixteenth century Felice Feliciano, Giovanni Marcanuova, Johannes Jucundus, and Petrus Sabinus were the principal collectors. Much new material was discovered in the sixteenth century, especially in the Roman catacombs, opened in 1578 by Antonio Bosio. The leading investigators of this century were Aldus Manutius the younger and Martin Smetius, while Melanchthon did not a little for the study, writing the introduction to the Inscriptiones sacrosanctae vetustatis of his friends Apian and Amantius (Ingolstadt, 1534), besides making independent researches of his own. The already published and newly discovered material was put together by Gruter, Scaliger, and Velser in their Inscriptiones antiquae totius orbis Romani (Heidelberg, 1602-03). More Christian material would have been included in Giovanni Battista Doni's Inscriptiones antiquae if he had lived to complete its publication, but as edited by Gori and others (Florence, 1731) a large part of this was neglected. Bosio also died (1629) before publishing the results of his labors, but they fell into better hands and appeared as Roma sotterranea (Rome, 1632). A supplement to Gruter's collection was published by Reinesius, a Leipsic physician (Leipsic, 1682), while Spon, Mabillon, and Montfaucon were not only working at home, but undertaking journeys outside of France for the purpose of collecting inscriptions. The eighteenth century did less for Christian epigraphy in the way of large general collections than in that of local publications and monographs, particularly by such Italian scholars as Muratori, Maffei, Zaccaria, Gori, Rivaute la Ricolvi, and De Vita.
From the Carolingian period down into the
eighteenth century Christian epigraphy was as a
science far behind classical epigraphy.
A. T e guj. ^e nineteenth century has quite
Century a different story to tell. Christian inscriptions are now collected with the same care and thoroughness as the classical, a result due in the first instance to the initiative especially of August Bockh and Theodor Mommsen; and they found in Giovanni Battista de Rossi a master who elevated the study of them from a mere dilettante amusement to a serious science. After Gaetano Marini had published, in 1785, his Iscrizioni antiche delle ville e de' palazzi Albani, and ten years later Gli atti e monumenti de' fratelli Arvali, scholars looked forward eagerly to the publication of his great collection of Christian inscriptions, which now fills thirty-one volumes in the Vatican library. But he died in 1815, and none of it saw the light until, in 1831, Angelo Mai published one of the four volumes planned by him (Nova collectio, v.), having in some places condensed the manuscript, and in some enlarged it from his collection. But no great loss to the science was involved in the failure of the others to appear, since (apart from other defects) his classification by subjects had now been finally discredited by Bockh. The German scholar, insisting on geographical arrangement, persuaded the Berlin Academy of Sciences to take up the gigantic task of uniting in one all the Greek inscriptions. In the great Corpus inscriptionum Graecarum (Berlin, 1825 sqq.) some scattered Christian inscriptions appeared in the first three volumes, but the main body of them was united in the second part of Vol. IV., under the editorship of Adolf Kirchhoff. In the revised form of this great work, the parts of especial value for Christian inscriptions are that including Italy, Sicily, Gaul, Spain, Britain, and Germany (ed. Kaibel, 1890), and that on the islands of the jEgean (ed. Hiller de Gaertringen, 1895-98). A complete Corpus inscriptionum Graecarum christianarum is hoped for from the French School at Athens, under the direction of Laurent and Cumont. Even more than BQckh accomplished for Greek epigraphy, Mommsen did for Latin. While he was not the first to conceive the idea of a Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum, in his memorial (1847) on its plan and scope he laid down the proper lines for its execution and carried out a great part of the work himself, the rest being done by his friends and scholars. An account of new discoveries made since the appearance of the various volumes is given in the Ephemeris epigraphica, 1872 sqq. Until the Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum is complete, it will still be necessary to make use of the older collections (which, indeed, will always have a value for their notes and illustrations) as well as of the works of the greatest authority in this subject west of the Vosges, Edmond Le Blant: Inscriptions chretiennes de la Gaule (Paris, 1856-65) ; Nouveau recueil des inscriptions chretiennes de la Gaule (1892). Long before De Rossi was requested by the Berlin Academy of Sciences to take part in the Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum (from 1854 until his death he was one of the editors of vol. vi. on the Latin inscriptions of Rome), he had planned
Inscriptions Inspiration