JURISTIC NOTATION. — These are the abbreviations used in ancient manuscripts of legal works, in which, unlike literary manuscripts, many technical terms were conveniently abbreviated. They constitute a complex system of abbreviation, such as that which later developed in medieval manuscripts (v. ABBREVIATIONS).
The table attached here shows some examples grouped according to certain principles of abbreviation: 1) simple truncation indicated by an apostrophe; 2) syllabic truncation with a superimposed line; 3) contraction; 4) contraction with a superscript letter; 5) truncation with a transverse oblique line; 6) special abbreviations of the letters p, q, r; 7) signs derived from Tironian notes; 8) particular forms.
The earliest known examples date from the 3rd century; in order to avoid reading ambiguities or fraud, they were prohibited in 438 by the Roman Senate for copies of the Codex Theodosianus, and then again by Justinian in 530 and 533. By the 6th century they had fallen into disuse. The term n. i. is found in the notarum laterculi of the Carolingian era.