In the last Transcription lesson, you practiced transcribing a majuscule script without word separation (scriptio continua). You practiced using parentheses to indicate where you expanded an abbreviation by supplying letters the scribe omitted.

In this lesson, we continue working with manuscripts in scriptio continua, which was normal scribal practice until the 8th century (and in many places later than that). We work with both majuscule script (Uncial) and minuscule (Half-Uncial). In manuscripts in Uncial and Half-Uncial scripts, the letterforms usually do not present serious problems, though Half-Uncial has a few letterforms that are easily mistaken for each other. We will review these later in this lesson. If you become comfortable transcribing Half-Uncial manuscripts, you will be prepared to tackle the many medieval scripts that descend from Half-Uncial.

In this lesson, we also introduce new abbreviations, and new methods of indicating that a word is abbreviated. The abbreviations and styles of abbreviation we cover in this lesson are the most commonly-used ones for the whole of the Middle Ages (and for the rest of this course). It would be a good idea to memorize them. This lesson, and subsequent Transcription lessons, will include some quick drills on abbreviations in addition to the transcription exercises themselves, to help you consolidate your knowledge of the most common forms of abbreviation.

Among the few abbreviations used in high-grade late-antique manuscripts are the omission of word-final -m and the omission of -us in the -bus ending of the dative and ablative plural.

Omission of final -m after a vowel is indicated by the common mark of abbreviation, a horizontal line above the vowel that the -m would follow, like this: uerbu = uerbum. The common mark of abbreviation is also known as a titulus. Remember, when transcribing, we put in parentheses any letter that we are supplying but which the scribe omitted in abbreviation. So here, the m goes in parentheses, like this: uerbu(m)

Omission of -us after b is indicated by an apostrophe-like mark following the b, like this: b' So hominib' = hominibus. Again, since we are supplying the -us in expanding the abbreviation, we put the letters we are supplying in parentheses, like this: hominib(us)

The nomina sacra are a small set of standard abbreviations for names of the deity. These are abbreviations by contraction. The nomina sacra usually have a horizontal line over the whole abbreviation to mark it as such.

DS stands for deus. The final S changes when the word is inflected, so, for example DM = deum, DO = deo, and DI = dei.

DNS, on the other hand, stands for dominus. It, too, changes its last letter according to the requirements of inflection (DNI, DNO, DNM).

Be especially careful not to confuse DS and DNS. It may help to remember: DS = two letters standing for a two-syllable word; DNS = three letters standing for a three-syllable word.

IHS and XPS are nomina sacra for Jesus's name, with the added complication that they are mixed Greek abbreviations used to represent the Latin forms of the names. The IH in IHS are iota and eta. (Sometimes the S is written C, to represent the Greek sigma.) In XPS, X is chi, normally spelled CH in Latin, and P is the Greek letter rho. Despite the Greek letters, you should expand these abbreviations in Latin, as follows:

IHS = ie(su)s    XPS = chr(istu)s

Note that you do not put the e in iesus in parentheses when you expand, because it is present in the abbreviation's H (eta), and you do not put the h in christus in parentheses because ch together are represented by X in the abbreviation.

(Note: You do sometimes find medieval scribes spelling Jesus "ihesus", which probably arose from a misunderstanding of the IHS abbreviation. If your scribe consistently spells out ihesus with the h, then you may expand that scribe's IHS abbreviation with an h in it, too, but not otherwise!)

As with DS and DNS, IHS and XPS change their last letter according to the inflection of the word. Thus IHU is used for iesu (the form for all cases of iesus other than nominative), and we find XPI, XPO, XPM as needed.

The other two most common nomina sacra are those for the Holy Spirit: SPS SCS = spiritus sanctus. Both abbreviations also change their last letter for inflection, and you will of course find them used separately as well as together.

When you have digested all this, click through to try some practice exercises in expanding abbreviations.