Paleography, the science of judging the date and authenticity of an inscription based on the shape and slant of the letters, has become almost as well-known a word as be-bop since the surfacing of the controversial ossuary inscription that reads “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.”
Which raises the question as to who was the first paleographer. Most living paleographers can go back no further than the own mentors. But BAR sleuths have uncovered a far earlier one, Sherlock Holmes—from The Hound of the Baskervilles:
“I have in my pocket a manuscript,” said Dr. James Mortimer.
“I observed it as you entered the room,” said Holmes.
“It is an old manuscript.”
“Early eighteenth century, unless it is a forgery.”
“How can you say that, sir?”
“You have presented an inch or two of it to my examination all the time that you have been talking. It would be a poor expert who could not give the date of a document within a decade or so. You may possibly have read my little monograph upon the subject. I put that at 1730.”
“The exact date is 1742.” Dr. Mortimer drew it from his breast-pocket. “This family paper was committed to my care by Sir Charles Baskerville, whose sudden and tragic death some three months ago created so much excitement in Devonshire. I may say that I was his personal friend as well as his medical attendant. He was a strong-minded man, sir, shrewd, practical, and as unimaginative as I am myself. Yet he took this document very seriously, and his mind was prepared for just such an end as did eventually overtake him.”
Holmes stretched out his hand for the manuscript and flattened it upon his knee.
“You will observe, Watson, the alternative use of the long s and the short. It is one of several indications which enabled me to fix the date.”
I looked over his shoulder at the yellow paper and the faded script. At the head was written: “Baskerville Hall,” and below, in large, scrawling figures, “1742.”
If Sherlock Holmes was the first paleographer, who was the first person to excavate stratigraphically, as all modern archaeologists do? Answer: Thomas Jefferson. See William H. Stiebing, Jr., “Who First Excavated Stratigraphically?”BAR, January/ February, 1981.
Paleography, the science of judging the date and authenticity of an inscription based on the shape and slant of the letters, has become almost as well-known a word as be-bop since the surfacing of the controversial ossuary inscription that reads “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.”
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