Editing Palaeography (section)

==== Minuscule hand ====
The uncial hand lingered on, mainly for liturgical manuscripts, where a large and easily legible script was serviceable, as late as the 12th century, but in ordinary use it had long been superseded by a new type of hand, the [[Greek minuscule|minuscule]], which originated in the 8th century, as an adaptation to literary purposes of the second of the types of Byzantine cursive mentioned above. A first attempt at a calligraphic use of this hand, seen in one or two manuscripts of the 8th or early 9th century,<ref>Cf. P.F. de' Cavalieri & J. Lietzmann, ''Specimina Codicum Graecorum Vaticanorum'' No. 5, Bonn, 1910; G. Vitelli & C. Paoli, ''Collezione fiorentina di facsimili paleografici'', Florence (rist. 1997).</ref> in which it slopes to the right and has a narrow, angular appearance, did not find favour, but by the end of the 9th century a more ornamental type, from which modern Greek script descended, was already established. It has been suggested that it was evolved in the [[Monastery of Stoudios]] at [[Constantinople]].<ref>Cf. T.W. Allen, "Notes on Abbreviations in Greek Manuscripts", ''Joun. Hell. Stud.'', xl, pp. 1–12.</ref> In its earliest examples it is upright and exact but lacks flexibility; accents are small, [[Greek diacritics|breathings]] square in formation, and in general only such [[Typographic ligature|ligatures]] are used as involve no change in the shape of letters. The single forms have a general resemblance (with considerable differences in detail) both to the minuscule cursive of late papyri, and to those used in modern Greek type; uncial forms were avoided.

In the course of the 10th century the hand, without losing its beauty and exactness, gained in freedom. Its finest period was from the 9th to the 12th century,{{According to whom|date=April 2013}} after which it rapidly declined. The development was marked by a tendency
# to the intrusion, in growing quantity, of uncial forms which good scribes could fit into the line without disturbing the unity of style but which, in less expert hands, had a disintegrating effect;
# to the disproportionate enlargement of single letters, especially at the beginnings and ends of lines;
# to ligatures, often very fantastic, which quite changed the forms of letters;
# to the enlargement of accents, breathings at the same time acquiring the modern rounded form.
But from the first there were several styles, varying from the formal, regular hands characteristic of service books to the informal style, marked by numerous abbreviations, used in manuscripts intended only for a scholar's private use. The more formal hands were exceedingly conservative, and there are few classes of script more difficult to date than the Greek minuscule of this class. In the 10th, 11th and 12th centuries a sloping hand, less dignified than the upright, formal type, but often very handsome, was especially used for manuscripts of the classics.

Hands of the 11th century are marked in general (though there are exceptions) by a certain grace and delicacy, exact but easy; those of the 12th by a broad, bold sweep and an increasing freedom, which readily admits uncial forms, ligatures and enlarged letters but has not lost the sense of style and decorative effect. In the 13th and still more in the 14th centuries there was a steady decline; the less formal hands lost their beauty and exactness, becoming ever more disorderly and chaotic in their effect, while formal style imitated the precision of an earlier period without attaining its freedom and naturalness, and often appears singularly lifeless. In the 15th century, especially in the West, where Greek scribes were in request to produce manuscripts of the classical authors, there was a revival, and several manuscripts of this period, though markedly inferior to those of the 11th and 12th centuries, are by no means without beauty.