Since ancient times, people have sought to convey their thoughts, knowledge, experience and chronology of important events taking place in their times not only in oral traditions, but also by making records. At first, letters were carved on tree bark, clay tablets, even metal sheets. But already in the III millennium BC, handwritten texts appeared. In ancient Egypt, papyrus served for these purposes, which, together with parchment, was widely used in Europe. And only in the XII century, these devices for writing began to be replaced by paper. Throughout the history of mankind, such documents containing a lot of valuable information have accumulated enough. They are studied by paleography. This is a discipline that comprehends the secrets of handwritten monuments of history in terms of graphics and writing methods.
Origin of paleography
The name of the discipline has Greek roots and comes from the addition of two words "ancient" and "write". And the history of the origin of the term itself takes us several centuries back to the end of the 17th century. At that time in France there was a learned congregationmonks belonging to the Benedictine order. They were called Maurists. One of them, by the name of Jean Mabillon, arguing with the Jesuits and defending the good name of his order, allowed himself to express doubts about the legitimacy of a number of documents. Among them were letters allegedly issued by ancient kings, the authenticity of which the Maurists did not want to recognize.
Mabillon has become a matter of honor to prove his case. Therefore, in 1681 in Paris, he published a whole work on paleography. The interesting facts presented there were intended to give early medieval writing its first classifications.
Dissemination of paleography
The case of Mabillon was continued by a colleague from the congregation Montfaucon. He took up a detailed study of Greek writing. He deduced the evolution of the types of writing and letters used, and also scrupulously analyzed the methods for conducting this kind of research. The Maurist monk also introduced this term for the first time, pointing out that paleography is a science that studies the methods and types of writing in ancient texts and historical manuscripts.
The desire to reveal the falsification of ancient documents gave impetus to the development of this discipline also in our country. It happened at the beginning of the 18th century. The first works of this kind belonged to Old Believer polemicists who wished to challenge the authenticity of church documents provided by the government as evidence of the condemnation of the ancient rituals by the ancestors. The above became the starting point for the development and formation of paleography in Russia, the history of whichmore details will follow.
The birth of domestic paleography
Until the 18th century, the study of manuscripts was carried out, as a rule, not for scientific, but purely practical purposes. This could be useful in order to win a complicated legal case, especially if it was of a political or religious nature. In Russia, most often the objects of paleography were church documents used as a source of a certain kind of information. And no special attention was paid to the description and study of ancient texts. But the accumulated experience soon became an incentive for the emergence of a separate discipline.
As a special science, paleography began to develop especially rapidly in the 19th century. And the impetus for this was the victory in the Patriotic War of 1812. Significant achievements of the people on the battlefield caused an outbreak of patriotism and the rise of national self-consciousness among Russian scientists. Since then, in progressive circles, the desire to study the history and writing of their people as fully as possible has been encouraged. This period soon became characterized by archaeological expeditions sent to identify and study handwritten texts.
Musin-Pushkin
As has already been found out, paleography is a science that studies ancient manuscripts. In this area, in the period before 1917, some unforgettable personalities became especially famous. Among them, Count Alexei Ivanovich Musin-Pushkin, a well-known historian and collector of ancient manuscripts. This man was born in 1744 in a noble family and in his youth he triedpursue a military career, following in the footsteps of his father. But soon abandoned the service and went to travel. Interest in old manuscripts prompted him to acquire a part of the archive containing ancient Russian texts and documents from the time of Peter I. Since then, Alexei Ivanovich has been seriously collecting papers of this kind.
Musin-Pushkin Collection
After a decade and a half of hard work in this direction, the collection of the Russian count turned out to be 1725 most valuable copies. Thanks to the efforts of Musin-Pushkin, under his leadership, on the orders of Catherine II, the most valuable historical documents, notes of Vladimir Monomakh, were found, an outstanding literary monument “The Tale of Igor's Campaign” was discovered and carefully preserved. The last manuscript, which at one time supplemented the collection of ancient Russian chronicles, was acquired by Alexei Ivanovich in Yaroslavl from the former rector of the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery. It was thanks to the luck of the collector and his find that the descendants learned about the “Word.”
Main objectives of the discipline
The subjects of paleography are letters and other written signs, tools and materials for creating manuscripts, inks and paints used to produce inscriptions, watermarks, and ornaments. Specialists of this profile are interested in graphics and handwriting features, binding and format of old books, various stamps and hallmarks on historical documents. The analysis of the above objects and forms contributes to the clarification of the circumstances of interest and helps to solve the problems of paleography. To theminclude the identification of the authenticity of certain written sources, the time and place where the inscriptions were made, and the establishment of authorship.
In fact, this science is one of the applied historical disciplines. Paleography is closely connected with archeology, epigraphy, numismatics, chronology, sphragistics and, of course, archiving. For successful work in this area, it is necessary to master not only the skills of reading and parsing manuscripts, but also the ability to analyze all the listed paleographic objects. You also need to learn how to systematize the received data into a single whole.
Historical finds
One of the merits of this science and a vivid example of what paleography studies is the disclosure of the secret of the Tmutarakan stone. This discovery was made in 1792, but this exhibit still occupies a place of honor in the Hermitage. It is a marble slab with a Cyrillic inscription carved on it.
The authenticity of the find was proved by a man who is rightly considered to be the founder of Russian paleography. This is Alexey Nikolaevich Olenin. He made his conclusions on the basis of the antiquity of the stone, established by external signs, and he also made guesses taking into account the style of the inscription, taking into account the correspondence of the signs inscribed on the slab with letters in ancient manuscripts. In addition to archaeological, such a find was of great political importance. It turned out to be undoubted evidence that Russians were present in the Crimea and the Caucasus more than 1000 years ago.
Ohdiscipline
It's time to try to summarize the previously described information about what paleography is. The definition of this science can be given by mentioning its two main directions. Firstly, it is an applied discipline that reveals the secrets of ancient manuscripts, which are then used for purely practical purposes in jurisprudence, politics, theology and other fields. Secondly, this is a special historical and philosophical direction, where paleography studies the patterns of development of ancient writing in various manifestations of its graphic forms.
It should also be added that cryptography is a special branch of this science, revealing the mysteries of cryptography, systematizing various methods for encrypting texts and finding keys to them, which will be discussed later.
Slavic-Russian paleography
The first Russian textbook in this area is the book "Slavic-Russian paleography" written by Academician Sobolevsky and published in 1901. By that period, the methods of analyzing ancient documents and manuscripts had already basically developed, which formed the basis of the described discipline. Academician Sobolevsky was seriously engaged in the study of writing tools, diligently delved into the features of decorative writing and paper watermarks, devoted a lot of time to the binding and format of old books, their design and decoration with various complex ornaments.
In those days, that is, at the beginning of the 20th century, paleography began to enjoy increasing popularity, and many serious scientists and intellectuals showed increased interest in it. To the significant works of thatepochs in this area include the studies of Kulyabkin, Lavrov, Uspensky, Bodyansky, Grigorovich in the field of South Slavic writing, Yatsimirsky on the manuscripts of the ancient peoples of Eastern Europe, as well as Likhachev's works on ancient books, documents and manuscripts.
History of cryptography
Defining: what is paleography and talking about the main areas of this discipline, it is necessary to mention cryptography - the science of encoding and reading secret documents. Such record systems became widespread in ancient Egypt, where scribes used to display on the walls of the tombs of deceased owners with modified hieroglyphs the details of their lives. It was the transformation of icons to give secrecy to records in those days that laid the foundations of cryptography. In the next 3000 years, this science was either reborn or dying along with civilizations actively using it. But it received real distribution only in the Renaissance in Europe.
Methods of cryptography
Now important information that requires confidentiality can belong to a wide variety of governments, multinational corporations and large organizations.
The method of recording secret documents is called a cipher. And to read such records is possible only if the key is known. Decryption systems are divided into symmetrical, that is, using the same key for writing and reading, and asymmetric, where different methods are used for encryption and decryption. Modern waysthe writing of secret documents is so complex that it cannot be read by hand. Decryption is done by specially designed devices and computers. Today, many of the cryptographic algorithms can be obtained by contacting patent offices, libraries, bookstores, or on the Internet.
Palaeography of the last century
The next era in the development of paleography began in the period from 1917. Before the Second World War, the new government placed considerable emphasis on improving secret writing and cursive writing. In the post-war period, the nature, main directions and angle of the issues being resolved have changed somewhat. Specialists devoted more time to history. During this period, paleography was developed by a significant number of Soviet scientists who worked on the study of the Glagolitic alphabet and birch bark.
Since 1991, for some time, the historical sciences, as well as their auxiliary disciplines, experienced a great crisis. In those years, representatives of the cultural intelligentsia experienced difficulties with financing from domestic sources. Paleographers existed and had the opportunity to work mainly at the expense of foreign grants, which dictated the subject matter. Therefore, experts in this field were engaged in the study of Latin and Greek texts.
The coming 21st century has renewed interest in the described discipline, but from a slightly different angle. Modern paleography studies broader questions, and science itself is confronted with tasks of a general historical and cultural nature. The concept of discipline is changing. Now she is mainly engaged in the study of questions about society and man, texts in the aspect of the history and culture of civilization.
