The development of the Ptolemaic book-hand is difficult to trace, as there are few examples, mostly not datable on external grounds. Only for the 3rd century B.C. have we a secure basis. The hands of that period have an angular appearance; there is little uniformity in the size of individual letters, and though sometimes, notably in the Petrie papyrus containing the Phaedo of Plato, a style of considerable delicacy is attained, the book hand in general shows less mastery than the contemporary cur sive. In the 2nd century the letters grew rounder and more uniform in size, but in the ist century there is perceptible, here as in the cursive hand, a certain disintegration. Probably at no time did the Ptolemaic book-hand acquire such unity of stylistic effect as the cursive.
The Roman Period.—Papyri of the Roman period are far more numerous and show greater variety. The cursive of the ist century has a rather broken appearance, part of one char acter being often made separately from the rest and linked to the next letter. A form characteristic of the ist and 2nd cen turies and surviving after that only as a fraction sign ( = t) is 77 in the shape J. By the end of the ist century there had been de veloped several excellent types of cursive, which, though differ ing considerably both in the forms of individual letters and in general appearance, bear a family likeness to one another. Quali ties which are specially noticeable are roundness in the shape of letters, continuity of formation, the pen being carried on from character to character, and regularity, the letters not differing strikingly in size and projecting strokes above or below the line being avoided. Sometimes, especially in tax-receipts and in ster eotyped formulae, cursiveness is carried to an extreme. In a letter of the prefect, dated in 209, we have a fine example of the Chancery hand, with tall and laterally compressed letters, o very narrow and a and w often written high in the line. This style, from at least the latter part of the 2nd century, exercised considerable influence on the local hands, many of which show the same characteristics less pronounced; and its effects may be traced into the early part of the 4th century. Hands of the 3rd century uninfluenced by it show a falling off from the perfection of the 2nd century; stylistic uncertainty and a growing coarse ness of execution mark a period of decline and transition.
Several different types of book-hand were used in the Roman period. Particularly handsome is a round, upright hand seen, e.g., in a British Museum papyrus containing Odyssey III. The cross stroke of e is high, M deeply curved and A has the form a. Uniformity of size is well attained, and few strokes project, and these but slightly, above or below the line. Another type, well called by Schubart the "severe" style, has a more angular appearance and not infrequently slopes to the right; though handsome, it has not the sumptuous appearance of the former.
There are various classes of a less pretentious style, in which convenience rather than beauty was the first consideration and no pains were taken to avoid irregularities in the shape and alignment of the letters. Lastly may be mentioned a hand which is of great interest as being the ancestor of the type called (from its later occurrence in vellum codices of the Bible) the biblical hand. This, which can be traced back to at least the late 2nd century, has a square, rather heavy appearance; the letters, of uniform size, stand upright, and thick and thin strokes are well distinguished. In the 3rd century the book hand, like the cursive, appears to have deteriorated in regularity and stylistic accomplishment.
In the charred rolls found at Herculaneum and dating from about the beginning of our era we have specimens of Greek literary hands from outside Egypt; and a comparison with the Egyptian papyri reveals great similarity in style and shows that conclusions drawn from the hands of Egypt may, with caution, be applied to the development of writing in the Greek world generally.
The Byzantine Period.—The cursive hand of the 4th century shows some uncertainty of character. Side by side with the style founded on the Chancery hand, regular in formation and with tall and narrow letters, which characterized the period of Diocletian, and lasted well into the century, we find many other types mostly marked by a certain looseness and irregularity. A general progress towards a florid and sprawling hand is easily recognizable, but a consistent and deliberate style was hardly evolved before the 5th century, from which unfortunately few dated documents have survived. Byzantine cursive tends to an exuberant hand, in which the long strokes are excessively ex tended and individual letters often much enlarged. But not a few hands of the 5th and 6th centuries are truly handsome and show considerable technical accomplishment. Both an upright and a sloping type occur and there are many less ornamental hands, but there gradually emerged towards the 7th century two general types, one (specially used in letters and contracts) a current hand, sloping to the right, with long strokes in such characters as T, p, (which has the h shape), c, and K, and with much linking of letters, and another (frequent in accounts), which shows, at least in essence, most of the forms of the later minuscule. (See below.) This is often upright, though a slope to the right is quite common, and sometimes, especially in one or two documents of the early Arab period, it has an almost calligraphic effect.