Rethinking the Evidence for Latin Shorthand in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages

A fair number of Greek texts written in shorthand are preserved from the first to the seventh century from Egypt and in particular from Antinoopolis: copies of the tachygraphic manual, glossaries, syllabaries, and also annotations on the margins of literary texts. The situation for the same period concerning the evidence of the Latin shorthand is quite different: the texts in notae are extremely few in number, and they come from different and distant parts of the late Roman Empire, are written on various material supports, differing in form, length, and content, and among the direct attestations of Latin tachygraphy there is nothing comparable to the Greek tachygraphic commentaries. On this basis the chapter argues for the need to move beyond the classifications proposed by the greatest innovator in this field, Arthur Mentz, posing questions that have not yet been asked and seeking answers from a variety of elements and remarks that have not been involved so far in the investigation of the remains of the Latin shorthand from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, which represents the most problematic and crucial period for Latin palaeographers.