Facebook group dedicated to old Greek handwriting

[RandyHelzerman]

Man, this world we're living in is so much different from the one I was born into....

There is a very active facebook group dedicated to old greek cursive handwriing.....the theotokos is smiling on us.


https://www.facebook.com/groups/644593159775658/

[Peter Kirby]

Since you're interested in this stuff, Randy... in Smith and Landau, p. 112, they cite Dr. Panagiotis Agapitos, who referred to the "fluid, cursive style of private hands" and clarified that it is not the kind of writing seen in the setting of professional copying of manuscripts by hand. Dr. Agapitos pointed to a couple 18th century marginal notes as examples, such as this one from Venetia Chatzpoulou, ΚΑΤΑΛΟΓΟΣ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΩΝ ΧΕΙΡΟΓΡΑΦΩΝ ΤΟΥ ΜΟΥΣΕΙΟΥ ΜΠΕΝΑΚΗ (16ος-20ὸς αἰώνας), plate 25.

sample-18th-century-cursive.png (1.49 MiB) Viewed 117 times

A difficult aspect of the topic is its obscurity even among paleographers. Scholarly interest often concludes with Byzantine (down to 16th century) rather than Ottoman era (17th / 18th / 19th century) paleography. And in any era the focus is usually not on the paleography of informal handwriting.

I'm sure I've unwittingly stumbled on 2 or 3 more proofs of forgery in what I just wrote.

[RandyHelzerman]

"fluid, cursive style of private hands" and clarified that it is not the kind of writing seen in the setting of professional copying of manuscripts by hand.

Thanks for this sample!!!! I note with perhaps an inordinate amount of pride how closely my reconstructed omicron matches up with the omicrons from this sample:

omicron_comparison.png (28.75 KiB) Viewed 49 times

ductus.png (8 KiB) Viewed 49 times

How's that for ductus

I'm sure I've unwittingly stumbled on 2 or 3 more proofs of forgery in what I just wrote.

Well, the letter to Theodore at least has 18th-century style omicrons....I go back and forth on the authenticity, but if the letter *is* a fake, why is everybody working so hard to keep the rest of us from being able to examine the evidence???