The identification of scribal hands in the context of script plurality (Mehrschriftlichkeit) in the fifteenth century and the first half of the sixteenth century
Abstract. This paper deals with three topics when discussing the identification of scribal hand(s). One is how we might apply methods of forensic analysis and graphological analysis of a written text alongside a palaeographical analysis of a scribal hand to interpret our results. The second topic seeks to discuss the different forms of scribal autographs, the circumstances determining changes in a scribe’s autograph or the same person’s several autographs. The third topic involves paying attention to the ways in which we are able to identify scribal hands. Thirdly, the nomenclature of scribal hands from the fifteenth century-first half of the sixteenth century with reference to the ways in which it changes.
In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the fifteenth and the first half of the sixteenth century changes took place in the Latin cursive used by the scribes and secretaries of members of the highest political elite that had considerable influence on their hands. Several matters should be discussed. Firstly from the end of the 1410s to the 1520s modernizing tendencies became apparent in the use of Gothic Cursive. These can be seen, for example, in the Gothic Cursive used by the youngest generation of scribes serving the grand dukes of Lithuania. Secondly, during the second half of the fifteenth century scribes came increasingly to use a Gothic cursive containing Humanist elements alongside the dominant Gothic Cursive, and highly varied cursives spread, whilst at the end of the century we also find Humanist cursive (cancelleresca italica). Thirdly, during the first half of the sixteenth century scribes and secretaries emploeed by the highest political elite used a Renaissance Humanist cursive (cancellaresca italica), a very varied mixed cursive and also, when need arose, Gothic cursive. Many a secretary or scribe of the period made use typically of two or more scripts. Therefore we must speak of not a single but rather of two or more autographs belonging to the same person. This means that texts penned by the same scribe might be ascribed erroneously to several persons. This paper deals with three topics when discussing the identification of scribal hand(s). One is how we might apply methods of forensic analysis and graphological analysis of a written text alongside a palaeographical analysis of a scribal hand to interpret our results. The second topic seeks to discuss the different forms of scribal autographs, the circumstances determining changes in a scribe’s autograph or the same person’s several autographs. The third topic involves paying attention to the ways in which we are able to identify scribal hands. Two examples are examined, viz. 1. the consecutive changes in the hand of a grand-ducal scribe from the 1420s, which result in the combination of two quite similar variants of Gothic cursive; and 2. The ways to identify the hands of two srcibes from the first half of the sixteenth century who typically employ two or more styles, and the problems associated with identifying them. Thirdly, the nomenclature of scribal hands from the fifteenth century-first half of the sixteenth century with reference to the ways in which it changes.