[B-Greek] strange looking pi?
frjsilver at optonline.net
frjsilver at optonline.net
Tue Sep 26 10:36:40 EDT 2006
It also occurred to me that the mechanically printed representation of cursive PI is, in its own way, not much different from the handwritten ligatures and abbreviations which appeared in early incunabula: that's just how people were used to seeing words on a page.
But modern paper is cheaper than parchment, and printing is easier to do now, so we can easily afford the space to spell out words in full.
Yet even now, many of the orthodox liturgical books still in use employ abbreviations which don't make much sense to people not used to reading the services in Greek (or Church Slavonic, or a few other languages, for that matter).
Father James Silver
----- Original Message -----
From: Jim Darlack
Date: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 9:33 am
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] strange looking pi?
To: b-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> Thanks to everyone for your reply about the strange looking pi.
>
> Just to let you know, the text that was scanned comes from the edition
> by Robert Holmes & James Parsons, Vetus Testamentum Graecum cum variis
> lectionibus (Oxford: Clarendon, 1798-1827).
>
> Jim Darlack
> Goddard Library
> Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
>
> *See also Brandon Wason's helpful response below:
>
> _______________________________________________________
> From: Brandon Wason
> Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 4:46 PM
>
> Jim,
>
> It seems that the different PIs are found in prepositions or
> prepositional prefixes. It was common in early printed Greek to write
> these prepositions in a ligature form. It appears that the text
> you have
> is from a middle era (seventeenth century?) that has retained
> some of
> the ligatures but not all of them. (I also noted the OU ligature
> on that
> page).
>
> This link might be of some help:
> http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~wbarker/harvey/greek/greek.htm
>
> Also, a book that I've found helpful is Al. N. Oikonomides,
> _Abbreviations in Greek: Inscriptions, Papyri, Manuscripts, and Early
> Printed Books_ (Chicago: Ares Publishers, 1974).
>
> I hope this helps. I've responded off list because my email is
> currentlynot configured to mail B-Greek.
>
> Sincerely,
> bw
>
> --
> Brandon Wason
> ---
> B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
> B-Greek mailing list
> B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
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>
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