ified lists of the most common abbreviations and signs have been
inserted and will be found useful for reference and practice. Sources of
further information on these points will be found under the head of
Supplementary Reading.

* * * * *

CONTENTS

PAGE
INTRODUCTION 1
GENERAL RULES FOR THE USE OF ABBREVIATIONS 3
DATES 3
TIME 5
OTHER ABBREVIATIONS INVOLVING NUMERALS 5
GEOGRAPHICAL ABBREVIATIONS, WITH LIST 7
ABBREVIATIONS OF NAMES, WITH LIST 10
ABBREVIATIONS OF TITLES, WITH LIST 12
SIZES OF BOOKS 18
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES 19
FOOTNOTES 19
SCRIPTURAL ABBREVIATIONS 23
COMMERCIAL ABBREVIATIONS 24
MISCELLANEOUS ABBREVIATIONS 25
MONETARY SIGNS 35
MATHEMATICAL SIGNS 35
MEDICAL SIGNS 36
ASTRONOMICAL SIGNS 37
ECCLESIASTICAL SIGNS 37
PROOFREADER'S SIGNS 38
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS 40
SUPPLEMENTARY READING 41
REVIEW QUESTIONS 42

* * * * *

{1}

ABBREVIATIONS AND SIGNS

INTRODUCTION

The use of abbreviations is as old as the use of alphabets. In inscriptions
and on coins and in other places where room is limited they have always
been used in order to save space. The words GUILIELMUS QUARTUS DEI GRATIA
REX BRITANNIARUM FIDEI DEFENSOR would hardly go around the circumference of
a sixpence, three quarters of an inch in diameter. Therefore, we find them
written GUILIELMUS IIII D: G: BRITANNIAR: REX F: D: In the manuscript
period abbreviations were very extensively used. This was done partly to
lighten the great labor of hand copying and partly to effect a double
saving of expense, in labor and in costly material. Certain of these
abbreviations were in common use and perfectly intelligible. Unfortunately
the copyists did not limit their abbreviations to these, but devised others
for their own use mu