Since ancient times, people have sought to convey their thoughts, knowledge, experience and chronology of important events occurring in their time, not only in oral traditions, but also in making notes. First, letters were carved on the bark of a tree, 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 writing devices began to be replaced by paper. Over the entire history of mankind, such documents containing a lot of valuable information have accumulated enough. Paleography studies them. This is a discipline that comprehends the secrets of handwritten historical monuments in terms of graphics and writing methods.
The origin of paleography
The name of the discipline has Greek roots and came from the addition of the two words "ancient" and "write." And the history of the term itself takes us several centuries back to the end of the XVII century. At that time, in France there was a learned congregation of monks ranked as Benedictine. They were called the Maurits. One of them, named Jean Mabillon, leading a polemic with the Jesuits and defending the good name of his order, allowed himself to express doubts about the legality of a number of documents. Among them were letters allegedly issued by ancient kings, the authenticity of which the Moorists did not want to recognize.
To prove his innocence became a matter of honor for Mabillon. Therefore, he published in 1681 in Paris a whole work on paleography. The interesting facts presented there were intended to give the early classifications the first medieval writing.
Paleography spread
Mabillon’s case was continued by a colleague at the Monfocon congregation. He took up a detailed study of Greek writing. He deduced the evolution of types of letters and letters used, as well as meticulously disassembled methods for conducting this kind of research. The Moorish monk also first coined the term, indicating that paleography is a science that studies the ways 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 XVIII century. The first works of this kind belonged to the Old Believer polemicists who wanted to challenge the authenticity of church documents provided by the government as evidence of condemnation by the ancestors of ancient rites. The indicated was the starting point of the development and establishment of paleography in Russia, the history of which will be described in more detail below.
The origin of Russian paleography
Until the XVIII century, the study of manuscripts was carried out, as a rule, not for scientific, but for purely practical purposes. Such a thing could be useful to win a complicated court case, especially if it was of a political or religious nature. In Russia, most often the objects of paleography became church documents used as a source of a certain kind of information. But the description and study of ancient texts did not receive much attention. But the experience gained 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 in the battlefield caused an outbreak of patriotism and the rise of national identity among Russian scientists. Since then, progressive circles have encouraged the desire to most fully study the history and writing of their people. For this period, archaeological expeditions soon began to characterize, aimed at identifying and studying manuscripts.
Musin-Pushkin
As already clarified, paleography is a science that studies ancient manuscripts. In this area, until 1917, some unforgettable personalities were particularly famous. Among them, Count Alexei Ivanovich Musin-Pushkin - a famous historian and collector of ancient manuscripts. This man was born in 1744 in a noble family and in his youth he tried to make a military career by following in his father's footsteps. But he soon abandoned the service and went to travel. Interest in ancient manuscripts prompted him to purchase part of the archive containing ancient Russian texts and documents from the time of Peter I. Since then, Alexei Ivanovich has seriously engaged in collecting such papers.
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 valuable items. Thanks to the efforts of Musin-Pushkin, under his leadership, on the orders of Catherine II, the most valuable historical documents were found, notes by Vladimir Monomakh, the outstanding literary monument “The Word of Igor's Campaign” was discovered and carefully preserved. The last manuscript, which at one time replenished the collection of ancient Russian chronicles, was purchased by Alexei Ivanovich in Yaroslavl from the former head priest of the Transfiguration Monastery. It was thanks to the luck of the collector and his find that the “Word” was known to descendants.
The main objectives of the discipline
The subjects of paleography are letters and other written signs, tools and materials for creating manuscripts, ink and paints used to make inscriptions, watermarks, and ornaments. Specialists of this profile are interested in graphics and features of handwriting, binding and format of old books, various stamps and stamps on historical documents. The analysis of the above objects and forms helps to clarify the circumstances of interest and helps to solve the problems of paleography. These include identifying the authenticity of certain written sources, the time and place where the inscriptions were made, as well as the establishment of authorship.
In fact, this science is among the applied historical disciplines. Paleography is closely connected with archeology, epigraphy, numismatics, chronology, sphragistics and, of course, archival affairs. For successful work in this area it is necessary to master not only the skills of reading and analyzing manuscripts, but also the ability to analyze all of the listed paleographic objects. You also need to learn how to systematize the data into a single whole.
Historical findings
One of the merits of this science and a striking example of what paleography studies is the discovery of the secrets of the Tmutarakan stone. This find was made in 1792, but the indicated exhibit still occupies an honorable place in the Hermitage. It is a slab of marble 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 Alexei Nikolaevich Olenin. He drew his conclusions on the basis of the antiquity of the stone, established by external signs, and he also conjectured taking into account the style of the inscription, taking into account the correspondence of the characters inscribed on the plate with the letters in ancient manuscripts. In addition to the archaeological, such a find was of great political importance. It proved to be undeniable evidence that more than 1000 years ago, Russians were present in the Crimea and the Caucasus.
About discipline
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 be added that a special branch of this science is cryptography, which reveals the mysteries of cryptography, systematizes various methods of 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 time, the methods of analysis of ancient documents and manuscripts that had formed the basis of the described discipline had already basically developed. Academician Sobolevsky was seriously engaged in the study of writing tools, earnestly delved into the features of decorative writing and paper watermarks, devoted a lot of time to 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 was becoming increasingly popular, and many serious scientists and intellectuals showed increased interest in it. Significant works of that era in this area include the research of Kulyabkin, Lavrov, Uspensky, Bodyansky, Grigorovich in the field of South Slavic writing, Yatsimirsky on manuscripts of the ancient peoples of Eastern Europe, as well as Likhachev's works on ancient books, documents and manuscripts.
Cryptography history
Defining: what is paleography and talking about the main areas of this discipline, it is necessary to mention cryptography - the science of encrypting and reading secret documents. Such recording systems became widespread even 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 conversion of badges to give secrecy to records in those days that laid the foundations of cryptography. In the next 3000 years, this science either revived, then died along with civilizations that actively use it. But it got its true distribution only in the Renaissance in Europe.
Cryptography Methods
Today, important information requiring confidentiality may belong to a wide variety of states, transnational 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 symmetric, that is, using the same key for writing and reading, and asymmetric, where different methods are used for encryption and decryption. Modern ways of writing secret documents are so complex that they cannot be read by hand. Decryption is done specifically for this purpose by the created devices and computers. Today, many of the cryptographic algorithms can be obtained by contacting patent offices, libraries, bookstores, or found out via the Internet.
Paleography of the last century
The next era in the development of paleography began in the period from 1917. Prior to the Second World War, the new government placed considerable emphasis on improving cryptography and cursive writing. In the post-war period, the nature, main directions and angle of issues to be resolved have changed somewhat. Specialists spent more time on the story. 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 letters.
Since 1991, for some time, the historical sciences, like their auxiliary disciplines, have 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 through foreign grants, which dictated the topic. Therefore, experts in this field were engaged in the study of Latin and Greek texts.
The approaching 21st century has renewed interest in the described discipline, but from a slightly different perspective. Modern paleography studies broader issues, 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.