ABBREVIATORE. – This was an official of the Apostolic Chancery entrusted with the task of drafting the rough draft (*notam facere*) of papal acts. Under the antipope Benedict XIII in 1724, the abbreviators rose to 70 under Pius II, who constituted them into a college (1463), which Paul II reorganized the following year. Sixtus IV (1479) increased their number to 72, divided as follows: 12 *de parcu maiori* for preparing the rough draft of documents; 22 *de parcu minori* for their taxation and dispatch (the *parcus* was that part of the chancery hall enclosed by a balustrade); and 38 *de prima visione*. The office of abbreviator could be purchased, hence the office was called venal. Platina (v.) are well known following his dismissal of the abbreviators by Paul II.
Pius X, with the constitution *Sapienti consilio* of 1908, completely suppressed the college of abbreviators and transferred their functions to the college of Apostolic Protonotaries of the Number.
ABBREVIATIONS. – In ancient manuscripts and inscriptions, words were often abbreviated to write more quickly and to save space, also economizing on writing material. The use and frequency of abbreviations varied according to the period, region, and nature of the text.
I. LAPIDARY ABBREVIATIONS
In monumental epigraphic writing, two types of abbreviations are found: those omitting part of the final letters of a word and those omitting the central letters (the Latins called the former *suspensiones* and the latter *contractiones*). An abbreviation reduced to one or two letters (initial; initial and final) is often called a *siglum* (*sigla* means "small sign"). True *sigla* include, for example, Roman numeral digits. The use of abbreviations is naturally always limited for reasons of clarity.The Greeks used them far less than the Latins, who commonly abbreviated names designating offices: *co(n)s(ule)*, *ep(isopus)*, official titles *c(larissimus) v(ir)*, *d(omi)n(us)*, divine cult *d(eus)*, *s(an)c(tus)*, kinship *f(ilius)*, *m(ater)*, formulas of affection or courtesy *b(ene)m(erenti)*, *a(uima) s(ancta)*, burial formulas *h(ic) s(itus) e(st)*, *d(e)p(ositio)*, *p(osuerunt)*, *f(ecit)*, elements of the date *III k(a)l(endas) ap(viles)*, and age at death *vix(it) an(nos) V m(enses) X*; praenomina and some frequently used *nomina* such as *Q(uintus) Aur(elius)*; names of cities and various set phrases are also often given in *sigla*. Abbreviations are especially numerous where space is very restricted, as on coins and seals.
A system of abbreviations in the high Middle Ages gives only the initials of each syllable. Particular abbreviations are the *nexus* that merge elements of two successive letters and monograms (v.), a kind of multiple *nexus*; related is the use of smaller letters, higher or lower, often inscribed within others to save space. Famous examples of abbreviations include the cryptogram ΙΧΘΥΣ (v.), which in Greek means "fish" and is to be read as *Ἰησοῦς Χριστός Θεοῦ Υἱός Σωτήρ*, and the Sibylline *g* and *ΧΜΠ* (*palma feliciter* and *Χριστός Μιχαήλ Γαβριήλ*). Signs of abbreviations are usually punctuation at the end, a bar above, or a transverse stroke.
Antonio Ferrúa
II. GREEK PALEOGRAPHIC ABBREVIATIONS
Two main types of abbreviations are generally distinguished: suspension or truncation, when letters at the end of a word are omitted; and contraction, when the internal part of a word is omitted, leaving only the beginning and end.In pre-cessional literary majuscule (uncial) writing on papyrus, abbreviations almost never appear: the only one that occurs with some frequency is the replacement of *v* at the end of a line with a horizontal line placed above: ΠΟΛΙΤΟΥ. This form of abbreviation continued in the following centuries.
Abbreviations were much more widely used in documents (receipts, accounts, public and private acts), whose nearly uniform formulas made it unnecessary to write out in full many terms that recurred frequently and were easily understood by contemporaries.
The oldest and simplest system of abbreviation is suspension: words were indicated by the initial letter alone, with an abbreviation mark according to the ancient Greek usage of indicating numbers: Π (πέντε), Δ (ἕξ); thus: ν' = νίο, γ' = γάζω, μ' or μ' = μάστιζα, etc.; or with the first letters, to which were added, in smaller script above the line, those letters immediately preceding the omitted part: τ'εκ = τέκνυ, αδέ = ἀδέκος, πολύ = πολύς. This system of abbreviation underwent many variations later (v. table II).
Later, in the Christian era, the contraction system was used to abbreviate sacred words – the *nomina sacra* – which also occurred very frequently in the Holy Scriptures (v. NOMINA SACRA).
Then, with the introduction of minuscule as a literary script (9th century), the ancient system of suspension (which has no break in the history of Greek paleography) was enriched, besides Christian contractions, by many signs – mostly derived from tachygraphy – that partly or wholly replaced a word; and abbreviations, initially not very frequent, became increasingly numerous until the 13th-14th centuries, acquiring such a personal character that it is difficult to establish a fixed form. We therefore limit ourselves to indicating the most common or characteristic abbreviation signs (v. annexed tables), adding brief explanatory notes for some of them.
