Those that are
found are subject to strict rules. What is true of the twelve pages was
doubtless true of the entire manuscript, inasmuch as the sparing use
of abbreviations in conformity with certain definite rules is a
characteristic of all our oldest manuscripts.[14] The abbreviations
found in our fragment may conveniently be grouped as follows:
[Footnote 14: That is, manuscripts written before the eighth
century. The number of abbreviations increases considerably
during the eighth century. Previously the only symbols found in
calligraphic majuscule manuscripts are the "Nomina Sacra" (_deus_,
_dominus_, _Iesus_, _Christus_, _spiritus_, _sanctus_), which
constantly occur in Christian literature, and such suspensions as
are met with in our fragment. A familiar exception is the manuscript
of Gaius, preserved in the Chapter library of Verona, MS. xv (13).
This is full of abbreviations not found in contemporary manuscripts
containing purely literary or religious texts. Cf. W. Studemund,
_Gaii Institutionum Commentarii Quattuor_, etc., Leipsic 1874; and
F. Steffens, _Lateinische Palaeographie{2}_, pl. 18 (pl. 8 of the
Supplement). The Oxyrhynchus papyrus of Cicero's speeches is
non-calligraphic and therefore not subject to the rule governing
calligraphic products. The same is true of marginal notes to
calligraphic texts. See W.M. Lindsay, _Notae Latinae_, Cambridge
1915, pp.
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