palæography

plural palæographies

1. UKalternativecountabledateduncountableAlternative form of paleography (study of ancient forms of writing).

   1898, Joris-Karl Huysmans (translated by Clara Bell), The Cathedral, Chapter X Now they are editing and printing a musical Palæography, one of the most learned and abstruse of modern publications.

   5 more examples

   We should like to have them collected by Dr. Young; whose acuteness and learning seem calculated to subdue the difficulties of palæography.

   1822, Sir Francis Palgrave, K.H. in The Edinburgh Quarterly Review, number 26, page 195 (quoted in: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=V3cDAAAAMAAJ&q=%22whose+acuteness+and+learning+seem+calculated+to+subdue+the+difficulties+of+Palaeography%22&dq=%22whose+acuteness+and+learning+seem+calculated+to+subdue+the+difficulties+of+Palaeography%22&ei=xLrOSIfPEZDoigHFnqSGDA&pgis=1 & http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=FQsQAAAAYAAJ&q=%22whose+acuteness+and+learning+seem+calculated+to+subdue+the+difficulties+of+Palaeography%22&dq=%22whose+acuteness+and+learning+seem+calculated+to+subdue+the+difficulties+of+Palaeography%22&ei=xLrOSIfPEZDoigHFnqSGDA&pgis=1)

   PALÆOGRAPHY. The study of antient documents, called by modern antiquaries ‘Palæography,’ is too extensive a subject to be canvassed at length in a work like the present.

   1840, Charles Knight, The Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, volume 17, page 149

   Judging from the palæography of the inscriptions, they may have been in use from the age of Augustus to that of Marcus Aurelius, or even of Severus.

   1858, Samuel Birch, History of Ancient Pottery, page 196

   The study of the caligraphy, or penmanship, of ancient MSS. is replete with interest; and the art of deciphering ancient writings, or palæography, has received of late years some of the attention it deserves.

   1864, Thomas John Gullick and John Timbs, Painting Popularly Explained, page 101 (second edition; first edition published in 1859)

   Palæography is the study of ancient handwriting from surviving examples.

   1885, Sir Edward Maunde Thompson, Encyclopædia Britannica XVIII, page 143

2. UKalternativecountableobsoleteuncountableAlternative form of paleography (paleogeography).

   Principles of palæography*— The value of palæontology; meaning of archæan land masses; search for ancient shore-lines; reconstruction of original […] ancient mountains.

   1896, The Geographical journal, number 8, page 67