Editing Autograph

{{Short description|Personal signature}}
{{Distinguish|Signature|Audograph}}
{{About|<!--autograph as manuscripts written by their authors and celebrity's signatures-->|autograph as manuscript written by its author|Autograph (manuscript)|collecting of autographs|Autograph collecting|other uses}}
[[File:B-a-c-h Reger.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|"[[B-A-C-H]] is beginning and end of all music", signed autograph document by [[Max Reger]] (dated 7 May 1912)]]An '''autograph''' is a person's own [[handwriting]] or [[signature]]. The word ''autograph'' comes from [[Ancient Greek]] ({{lang|grc|[[wikt:αὐτός|αὐτός]]}}, ''autós'', "self" and {{lang|grc|[[wikt:γράφω|γράφω]]}}, ''gráphō'', "write"), and can mean more specifically:<ref name="EB1911">{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Autographs|first=Edward Maunde|last=Thompson|volume=3|pages=45–47}}</ref><ref name="Webster's">[[Philip Babcock Gove|Gove, Philip B.]] (ed.), 1981. ''[[Webster's Third New International Dictionary]]'', p.&nbsp;147. {{ISBN|0-87779-206-2}}</ref>
* a [[manuscript]] written by the author of its content.<ref name="EB1911" /><ref name="Webster's" /> In this meaning the term ''autograph'' can often be used interchangeably with [[holograph]].<ref name="EB1911" /><ref name="Tomita">{{cite book |last1=Tomita |first1=Yo |date=2016 |chapter=Autographs, Copies and Original Manuscripts |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SCklDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA52 |editor1-last=Leaver |editor1-first=Robin A. |title=The Routledge Research Companion to Johann Sebastian Bach |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SCklDwAAQBAJ |publisher=Taylor & Francis |pages=52–54 |isbn=9781315452807 }}</ref>
* a celebrity's handwritten [[signature]].<ref name="Webster's" /> [[Autograph collecting]] is the activity of collecting such autographs.<ref name="EB1911" />

==History==
{{expand section|date=December 2019}}
What might be considered the oldest "autograph" is a [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]] clay table from about 3100 BC which includes the name of the scribe Gar.Ama. No ancient written autographs have been found, and the earliest one known for a major historical figure is that of [[El Cid]] from 1098.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W-MIChVmZwQC&pg=PA101|title=The Quest for El Cid|first=Richard A.|last=Fletcher|date=1 January 1989|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780195069556|via=Google Books}}</ref>

==Autograph manuscript==
{{main article|Autograph (manuscript)}}
"Autograph" can refer to a [[document]] transcribed entirely in the handwriting of its [[author]], as opposed to a [[typesetting|typeset]] document or one written by an [[amanuensis]] or a [[copyist]]. This meaning overlaps that of "[[holograph]]".<ref name="Tomita" />

==Celebrity's signature==
[[File:Franzl Lang.jpg|thumb|Picture of German yodeler [[Franzl Lang]], autograph (likely for a fan's collection) at bottom.]]
{{main article|Autograph collecting}}
[[Autograph collecting]] is the hobby of collecting autographs of famous persons.<ref name="EB1911" /> Some of the most popular categories of autograph subjects are [[president (government title)|president]]s, [[military]] [[soldier]]s, [[athlete]]s, [[movie star]]s, [[artist]]s, [[social]] and [[religious leader]]s, [[scientist]]s, [[astronaut]]s, and [[author]]s.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Collection: Autograph Collection {{!}} USF Libraries - Tampa Special Collections ArchivesSpace |url=https://archives.lib.usf.edu/repositories/2/resources/53 |access-date=2023-02-03 |website=archives.lib.usf.edu}}</ref>

==See also ==
* {{Annotated link |Asemic writing}}
* {{Annotated link |Profiles in History}}
* [[Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence]], stone blocks with depicted signatures
* {{Annotated link |Autograph show}}
* {{Annotated link |Law of agency#Allograph}}, specifically a signature made by an agent on behalf of a principal

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* ''Collecting Autographs and Manuscripts'' by Charles Hamilton, Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1961, 269 pages.
* ''Autographs and Manuscripts: A Collector's Manual'' edited by Ed Berkeley, Charles Scribner's Sons Pub., 1978, 565 pages.
*T.J. Brown's series on Autographs in [[The Book Collector]].

==External links==
{{Commons category|Autographs}}
* {{HathiTrust Catalog|008611000|The Autograph}} (early 20th-century periodical, full view)

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Manuscripts]]
[[Category:Signature]]