ABBEY. ABBEY, HENRY (1842-). An American poet and merchant, born at Rondout, N. Y. He is the author of May Dreams, Ralph and Other Poems, Stories in Verse, Ballads of Good Deeds, The City of Success, and Phaeton. His works are collected in Poems of Henry Abbey, of which there are three editions. ABBIATEGRASSO, åb-byä'tâ-gräs'sò. A city in north Italy, 394 feet above the sea, on the Grande and Bereguardo canals, and 16 miles west of Milan (Map: Italy, C 2). It manufactures fertilizers and markets rice. It was captured in 1167 by Emperor Frederick I., and in 1245 by Emperor Frederick II. In 1313 Matteo Visconti vanquished the Guelphs here, and in 1524 Giovanni de' Medici the French. Pop., 1901, 12,270. AB'BITIB’BIE, or ABBITIBBE. A Canadian river and lake. The river flows northward to James Bay in Hudson Bay, and is the outlet of the lake which is situated in latitude 49° N., with a trading station of the same name upon its shores. AB'BO OF FLEURY, fle're (ABBO FLORIACENSIS) (945?-1004). A French theologian. He studied at Rheims and Paris, and at the request of Oswald, Archbishop of York, taught in 985-987 in the English abbey of Ramsey. When he returned to France he was chosen Abbot of Fleury, whose school he developed. He was sent by King Robert upon a diplomatic mission to Pope Gregory V., and was killed at the priory of La Réole, Gascony, in an uprising against his reforms in monastic discipline. He wrote an Epitome de Vitis Romanorum Pontificum, Desinens in Gregorio I. (printed in 1602). His biography was written by his pupil Aimoin in the Vita Abbonis abbatis Floriacensis. AB'BOT (through Lat. abbas, Gk. åßßāç, abbas, from Syriac abbā, father). A name originally given as a term of respect to any monk, especially to one noted for piety, but afterward ordinarily applied to the superior of a monastery or abbey. The first abbots were laymen, as the monks were, but in the Eastern Church priestly abbots appear in the fifth century, and in the Western Church in the seventh, and such ordained abbots are now the rule. After the second Nicene Council (787), abbots were empowered to consecrate monks for the lower sacred orders; but they remained in subordination under their diocesan bishops until the eleventh century. They exercised absolute authority over their monasteries. As abbeys became wealthy, abbots increased in power and influence; many received episcopal titles; and all were ranked as prelates of the Church next to the bishops, and had the right of voting in Church councils. Even abbesses contended for the same honors and privileges, but without success. In the eighth and ninth centuries, abbeys began to come into the hands of laymen, as rewards for military service. In the tenth century many of the chief abbeys in Christendom were under lay-abbots (abbates milites, or abba-comites), while subordinate deans or priors had the spiritual oversight. The members of the royal household received grants of abbeys as their maintenance, and the king kept the richest for himself. Thus, Hugo Capet of France was lay-abbot of St. Denis, near Paris. Sometimes convents of nuns were granted to men, and monasteries to women of rank. These abuses were, in great measure, In reformed during the tenth century. After the reformation of the order of Benedictines, monasteries arose that were dependent upon the mother-monastery of Clugny and without abbots, being presided over by priors or pro-abbates. Of the orders founded after the eleventh century, only some named the superiors of their convents abbots; most used the titles of prior, major, guardian, rector. Abbesses have almost always remained under the jurisdiction of their diocesan bishop; but the abbots of independent or liberated abbeys acknowledged no lord but the Pope. In the Middle Ages, the so-called abbates mitrati frequently enjoyed episcopal titles, but only a few had dioceses. Before the period of secularization in Germany, several of the abbots in that country had princely titles and powers. England there were a considerable number of mitred abbots who sat and voted in the House of Lords. The election of an abbot belongs, as a rule, to the chapter or assembly of the monks, and is afterward confirmed by the Pope or by the bishop, according as the monastery is independent or under episcopal jurisdiction. At the time he must be at least twenty-five years of age. From early times, the Pope in Italy has claimed the right of conferring abbacies, and the Concordat of Bologna (August 18, 1516) between Francis I. and Pope Leo X. gave that right to the king of France. Non-monastic clergy who possessed monasteries were styled secular abbots; while their vicars, who discharged the duties, as well as all abbots who belonged to the monastic order, were styled regular abbots. In France, the abuse of appointing secular abbots was carried to a great extent previous to the time of the revolution of 1789 (see ABBÉ); indeed, often monasteries themselves chose some powerful person as their secular abbot, with a view of "commending" or committing their abbey to his protection, and such lay-abbots were called abbés commendataires. In countries which joined in the Reformation of the sixteenth century the possessions of abbeys were mostly confiscated by the crown; but in Hanover, Brunswick, and Württemberg several monasteries and convents were retained as educational establishments. In the Greek Church, the superiors of convents are called hegumeni or mandrites, and general abbots, archimandrites. A ABBOT, BENJAMIN, LL.D. (1762-1849). New England teacher, who had among his pupils Jared Sparks, Daniel Webster, George Bancroft, Edward Everett, and others who became famous. For nearly fifty years (until 1838), he was at the head of Phillips Academy, Exeter, N. H. ABBOT, CHARLES, first BARON COLCHESTER (1757-1829). A Speaker of the House of ComHe was born at Abingdon and was educated at Christ Church. After he had occu mons. pied numerous positions under the Government he became Speaker of the House (1802) and held the office until 1816, when ill health compelled him to resign. He was one of the ablest Speakers that ever occupied the chair, and also rendered valuable services as a trustee of the British Museum. His valuable Diary and Correspondence was published by his son in 1861. ABBOT, EZRA (1819-84). An American biblical scholar. He was born at Jackson, Waldo Co., Me., and died at Cambridge, Mass. After graduation at Bowdoin College (1840) he taught school in Maine and in Cambridge, Mass., until in 1856 he became assistant librarian of Harvard University. From 1872 till his death he was Bussey Professor of New Testament Criticism and Interpretation in the Divinity School of Harvard University. He received the degrees of LL.D. (Yale, 1869; Bowdoin, 1878); S.T.D. (Harvard, 1872); D.D. (Edinburgh, 1884). His industry, classical scholarship, wide acquaintance with books, and rare capacity for retaining minute information made him a remarkable bibliographer and textual critic. He won fame in the first direction by his valuable Literature of the Doctrine of the Future Life (1864), append ed to W. R. Alger's book on the subject, and by his bibliographical additions to Smith's Bible Dictionary (American edition, Boston, 1867-70, 4 volumes), though the value of the additions is not commensurate with their number, as no critical distinctions were made between the books whose titles were so accurately given. But much wider was his fame in the second direction, for his acquaintance with the text of the Greek New Testament was recognized throughout the biblical world, and gave him a place beside Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Scrivener, Westcott, and Hort. He was therefore an efficient member of the American New Testament Revision Company (1871-81), and enabled it to boast textual scholarship equal to the British. Into the revision he put the most painstaking and accurate learning. He displayed his attainments in ways which won him the hearty thanks of the authors he aided, but not much public recognition. Thus he was the coadjutor of Caspar René Gregory upon his prolegomena to the eighth major edition of Tischendorf's Greek New Testament (Leipzig, 1884-94, 3 parts); he revised the whole of Schaff's Companion to the New Testament (New York, 1883); and greatly enriched E. C. Mitchell's Critical Handbook of the New Testament (New York, 1880). His modesty made him indifferent to fame, and he put his strength upon correcting other people's books and upon monographs which the scholarly world appreciated. These latter have been collected by J. H. Thayer, and are published under the caption, Critical Essays (Boston, 1888). Consult Barrows' sketch of Ezra Abbot (Boston, 1884). ABBOT, FRANCIS ELLINGWOOD (1836-1903). An American writer on philosophy. He was born in Boston, Mass., and graduated at Harvard University (1859) and the Meadville Theological School (1863). After having had charge of Unitarian congregations from 1863 to 1868, he turned to journalism, and from 1870 to 1880 edited a weekly journal, the Index, devoted to religious topics. He published Scientific Theism (1886), and The Way Out of Agnosticism (1890). ABBOT, GEORGE (1562-1633). Archbishop of Canterbury. He was born at Guildford, Sur rey, and was educated at Oxford (B.A. 1582; M.A. 1585; D.D. 1597). He took holy orders in 1585 and rose rapidly. His pronounced Puritanism brought him into conflict with William Laud. In 1699 he was appointed Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, and in 1610 he was translated to the see of London. In 1611 he was enthroned Archbishop of Canterbury. He owed these successive appointments to the marked favor of James I., and used his exalted position to advance a narrow Protestantism and to persecute Roman Catholics. He also appeared in His political life as the determined foe of Spain and France, largely because they were Roman Catholic countries. His courageous opposition to the King on several momentous occasions cost him after 1613 much of the royal favor. While under a cloud he had the misfortune, when hunting, accidentally to kill a gamekeeper. enemies used the incident against him. Laud brought about a court of inquiry into the alleged infringement of canon law, and three persons designated to bishoprics refused to be consecrated by him. The inquiry came to nothing, but the stigma remained. The death of James I. (1625) was an additional misfortune to Abbot, as Charles I. was influenced by Laud. After 1627 he was practically deprived of the rights and privileges of his office. He died at Croydon, then the country residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, August 4, 1633. Of his writings the most popular was his commentary on the Book of Jonah (1600), which was reprinted with a life by Grace Webster (London, 1845). ABBOT, HENRY LARCOM (1831-). An American soldier and engineer. He was born at Beyerly, Mass., and graduated at the United States Military Academy, West Point, in 1854, entering the corps of engineers, in which he served with distinction until his retirement in 1895. He was engaged in the survey for the Pacific Railroad and the hydrographic survey of the Mississippi River delta. During, the Civil War he was engaged in engineering and artillery operations. He was wounded at the battle of Bull Run in commanded the siege artillery. At the close of 1861. In the operations around Richmond he the war he was brevetted Brigadier-General of United States Volunteers, and Major-General of the United States Army. For many years he was in command of the garrison of engineers at Willetts Point, N. Y., and while there developed the torpedo and submarine defense of the Long Island Sound approach to New York City and founded the school for engineers. In this connection he did much important work in military science, devoting himself to the design and construction of submarine mines and mortar batteries, as well as to the development of military engineering equipment and drill, and serving on the Gun Foundry Board, the Board on Fortifications and Defenses, and numerous other military commissions. He was a member of the board to of the Mississippi basin. In 1872 he was elected a devise a plan for the protection and reclamation member of the National Academy of Sciences. He served as president of a board of consulting engineers to consider the question of a proposed ship canal from Pittsburg to Lake Erie, and designed the harbor at Manitowoc, Wis. Technical Committee of the New Panama Canal May, 1897, he was appointed a member of the Company. He is the author of Siege Artillery Experiments and Investigations to Develop a in the Campaign Against Richmond (1867); System of Submarine Mines for Defending Harbors of the United States (1881), and with General A. A. Humphreys, Physics and Hydraulics of the Mississippi, in addition to a large number of reports of military and engineering commissions and boards. In ABBOT, JOSEPH HALE (1802-73). An American educator, born at Wilton, N. H. He graduated in 1822 at Bowdoin College, and from 1827 ABBOT. to 1833 was professor of mathematics and an instructor in modern languages at Phillips Academy, Exeter. He contributed numerous valuable papers to the Transactions of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was an associate editor of Worcester's Dictionary of the English Language (1860). ABBOT, SAMUEL (1732-1812). An American philanthropist. He was born at Andover, Mass., and was one of the founders of the Andover Theological Seminary, to which he gave $20,000 in 1807 and $100,000 more in his will. He was a successful merchant of Boston and a large contributor to charities. ABBOT, THE. The title of one of Sir Walter Scott's novels, published in 1820. Its incidents form a sequel to The Monastery, and are based upon the history of Mary, Queen of Scots, in the years 1567 and 1568, ending with the battle of Langside and her escape to England. ABBOT, WILLIS JOHN (1863-). An American author and editor, grandson of John S. C. Abbott. He was born at New Haven, Conn., and graduated at the University of Michigan in 1884. He is best known by his Blue Jackets of '61, Blue Jackets of 1812, and Blue Jackets of '76, a series of stories for boys relating to the naval history of the United States, and by his Battle Fields of 1861. Mr. Abbot was managing editor of the Chicago Times in 1892 and 1893, and from 1896 to 1898 was on the editorial staff of the New York Journal. ABBOT OF JOY (ABBÉ DE LIESSE). The title bestowed upon the chief of a brotherhood founded at Lille. Accompanied by a suite of officers and servants who bore before him a standard of red silk, he presided over the games which were held at Arras and the neighboring towns during the period of the carnival, coming under the general title of "Feast of the Ass" (q.v.). See also MISRULE, LORD OF. AB'BOT OF MISRULE'. See MISRULE, LORD OF. ABBOTSFORD. The estate of Sir Walter Scott, situated on the south bank of the Tweed, about three miles from Melrose Abbey. Before it became, in 1811, the property of Scott, the site of the house and grounds of Abbotsford formed a small farm known as Clarty Hole. The new name was given it by the poet in remembrance of the days when Melrose abbots passed over the fords of the Tweed. On this spot, a sloping bank overhanging the river, with the Selkirk Hills behind, he built at first a small villa, now the western wing. He added the remaining parts of the building, on no uniform plan, but with the desire of combining some of the features (and even actual remains) of those ancient works of Scottish architecture which he most loved. The result was a picturesque and irregular pile, which has been aptly called "a romance in stone and lime." It has remained in Scott's family now to the fourth generation. See Irving's Abbotsford (London, 1850); Lockhart's Life of Scott (Edinburgh, 1838); Mary Scott's Abbotsford (New York, 1893), and Smith and Crockett's Abbotsford (New York, 1905). ABBOTT, AUSTIN, LL.D. (1831-96). An American lawyer, born in Boston, Mass., the son of Jacob Abbott. He graduated at the University of the City of New York in 1851 and was admitted to the bar in the following year. He was in partnership with his brothers, Benjamin Vaughan and Lyman (afterward editor of the Outlook). He gained a national reputation as counsel for Theodore Tilton in his suit against Henry Ward Beecher. He aided his brother Benjamin in the preparation of his well-known digests of laws, and published many legal text books. He also wrote, in collaboration with his two brothers, two novels, Matthew Caraby and Conecut Corners. He was an able lecturer on law and was Dean of the Law School of the University of the City of New York from 1891 until his death. ABBOTT, BENJAMIN (1732-96). A Methodist Episcopal minister, born on Long Island, N. Y. He was apprenticed to a hatter in Philadelphia, and subsequently to a farmer in New Jersey. He was converted from a dissipated life when about 40 years old, and immediately became an itinerant Methodist preacher. After sixteen years' service in New Jersey he was assigned to the Dutchess (N. Y.) circuit in 1789. He was transferred to the Long Island circuit in 1791, to Salem, N. J., in 1792, to the Cecil circuit, Maryland, as presiding elder, in 1793, and died at Salem, N. J., in 1796. He was famous in his day, and is still remembered as a "rousing" preacher. His vehemence was such that he frequently fainted, and generally raised a commotion among his hearers. He ABBOTT, BENJAMIN VAUGHAN (1830-90). An American lawyer, the son of Jacob Abbott. graduated at the University of the City of New York in 1850, and was admitted to the bar in 1852. In legal practice his brothers Austin and Lyman were associated with him. He produced nearly 100 volumes of reports and digests of Federal and State laws. In 1865, as secretary of the New York Code Commission, he drafted a penal code which, when adopted by the Legislature, became the basis of the present code. In 1870 President Grant appointed him one of three commissioners to revise the statutes of the United States. ABBOTT, CHARLES CONRAD (1843-). An American archæologist and naturalist, born at Trenton, N. J. He studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and served as a surgeon in the Federal Army during the Civil War. From 1876 to 1889 he was assistant curator of the Peabody Museum in Cambridge, Mass., to which he presented a collection of 20,000 archæological specimens, and he has given freely to other archæological collections. His book Primitive Industry (1881) detailed the evidences of the presence of pre-glacial man in the Delaware Valley, and is a valuable contribution to archæology. He has also published many books on out-door observation, such as A Naturalist's Rambles About Home (1884). His other works, besides some fiction, include: Upland and Meadow (1886); Wasteland Wanderings (1887); Outings at Odd Times (1890); Clear Skies and Cloudy (1899); and In Nature's Realm (1900). ABBOTT, EDWARD, D.D. (1841-). An American clergyman, journalist, and author, born at Farmington, Me. He graduated in 1860 at the University of New York, studied from 1860 to 1862 at the Andover Theological Seminary, and in 1863 served in the United States Sanitary Commission at Washington and with the Army of the Potomac. He was ordained in 1863 to the Congregational ministry, and was pastor of Pilgrim Church, Cambridge, Mass., from 1865 to 1869. From 1869 to 1878 he was associate editor of the Congregationalist, and from 1878 to 1888 editor of the Literary World, whose direction he again assumed in 1895. In 1879 he was ordained a priest of the Protestant Episcopal Church and appointed rector of St. James's parish, Cambridge. His publications include The Conversations of Jesus (1875), and Phillips Brooks (1900). ABBOTT, REV. EDWIN ABBOTT (1838–). An English author, born in London. He graduated at St. John's College, Cambridge, with distinction (B.A. 1861, M.A. 1864); was assistant master in King Edward's School, Birmingham (186264), and head-master of the City of London School (1865-1889), which he made one of the best day schools in England; retired in 1889, and received a pension the next year. He was twice Select Preacher at Cambridge and once at Oxford. He published Cardinal Newman (1892), St. Thomas of Canterbury (1898), Shakespearian Grammar (1869; third edition revised and enlarged, 1870), a pioneer work which, though unscientific, has hardly been superseded; Clue, a Guide through Greek to Hebrew Scripture (1900); Corrections of Mark Adopted by Matthew and Luke (1901), and Comparison of the Words of the Fourth Gospel with those of the Three (1905). ABBOTT, EMMA (EMMA ABBOTT WETHERELL) (1849-1891). An American soprano, born in Chicago, Ill. She began her musical experience in the choir of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, N. Y., and afterwards studied in Milan under San Giovanni and in Paris under Wartel and Albert James. She made her début at Covent Garden, London, as Maria in La Fille du Régiment. For three years thereafter she made an operatic and concert tour of England and Ireland under the direction of Colonel Mapleson. Subsequently she returned to the United States, where she sang with the Abbott and Hess Opera Company, and later with the English opera company long known by her name. She sang in Martha, Faust, Les Huguenots, The Chimes of Normandy, and the more popular works of Verdi, Bellini, and Donizetti. With the exception of Clara Louise Kellogg, she was perhaps more widely known than any other American singer of her time. ABBOTT, FRANK FROST (1860-). An American Latinist, born at Redding, Conn. He graduated at Yale in 1882, and in 1891 received the degree of Ph.D. From 1885 to 1891 he was tutor at Yale; and in 1891 was appointed professor of Latin in the University of Chicago. He was also professor in the American School of Classical Studies at Rome, from 1901 to 1902. He wrote A History of Roman Political Institutions (1901), The Toledo Manuscript of the Germania of Tacitus (1903), etc. ABBOTT, GORHAM DUMMER (1807-1874). An American Congregational clergyman and educator, born in Hallowell, Me. He graduated at Bowdoin in 1826 and at Andover in 1831. With his brothers, Jacob and John S. C. Abbott, he was a pioneer in the higher or collegiate education of young women. In 1847 he founded the Spingler Institute, in New York City. The school maintained a high reputation during its brief history. He wrote The Family at Home, Nathan W. Dickerman, Pleasure and Profit. ABBOTT, JACOB (1803-79). A popular juvenile and didactic writer. He was born at Hallowell, Me. He graduated at Bowdoin College in 1820. Like his brother John, he studied for the ministry at Andover, and was ordained to the Congregational ministry. From 1825 to 1829 he was professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at Amherst. He then established a girls' school in Boston, and in 1834 organized the Eliot Church, Roxbury. Five years later he moved to Farmington. He passed the remainder of his life there, in New York, and in foreign travel, devoting himself wholly to literature. He died at Farmington, October 31, 1879. Abbott published more than two hundred volumes, the most noteworthy of which are The Rollo Books (28 volumes), The Franconia Stories (10 volumes), The Rainbow and Lucky Series (5 volumes), a number of juvenile histories, written in collaboration with his brother, and a series of histories of America. He also edited many school books. His style had a singular fascination for the young, and many of his writings continue to be popular. ABBOTT, SIR JOHN JOSEPH CALDWELL (182193). A Canadian statesman, born at St. Andrew's, Quebec. He was educated at McGill College, Montreal; studied law, and in 1847 was called to the bar. Beginning in 1859 he represented Argenteuil County in the Canadian Assembly until the union in 1867, when he became a member of the Dominion Parliament for the same place. In 1862 he was solicitorgeneral in the cabinet of John Sandfield Macdonald, but resigned before his chief lost power. In 1887 Sir John A. Macdonald invited him to join the cabinet as a minister without portfolio. In June, 1891, on the death of Sir John A. Macdonald, Abbott was made Premier of the Dominion Government, but resigned in November, 1892, because of his ill health. He took a seat in the cabinet of his successor, Sir John Thomson, but without a portfolio. He was Dean of the Faculty of Law of McGill University for ten years, was considered an authority on commercial law, and was knighted in 1892. ABBOTT, JOHN STEVENS CABOT (1805-77). An American historian, pastor, and pedagogical writer, a brother of the equally prolific Jacob Abbott (q.v.). He was born at Brunswick, Me., and graduated at Bowdoin College in 1825. He studied for the ministry at Andover, and was ordained a Congregational minister in 1830. He held successive pastorates at Worcester, Roxbury, and Nantucket. His writings were, from the outset, popular. Beginning with semi-religious pedagogy, The Mother at Home (1833), The Child at Home, etc., he was presently diverted to history, and after 1844 resigned his pastorate, giving himself entirely to literature. He died at Fairhaven, Conn., June 17, 1877. His most noteworthy books are The French Revolution, The History of Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon at St. Helena, The History of Napoleon the Third (1868), The History of the Civil War in America (1863-65), and The History of Frederick II., Called Frederick the Great (New York). All these are readable, but none of them has any critical value. ABBOTT, LYMAN, D.D. (1835-). An American Congregational clergyman and editor. He was born at Roxbury, Mass., a son of Jacob Abbott. He graduated at the New York Univer ABBOTT. sity in 1853 and for a time practiced law with his brothers Austin and Benjamin Vaughan Abbott. Afterward he studied theology with his uncle, Rev. John S. C. Abbott, and became pastor of a church at Terre Haute, Ind., in 1860. Five years later he was made secretary of the American Union (Freedman's) Commission and became pastor of the New England Church in New York City. In 1869 he resigned this pastorate and thereafter was successively one of the editors of Harper's Magazine, the principal editor of the Illustrated Christian Weekly, and, as associate of Henry Ward Beecher, an editor of the Christian Union (now the Outlook), of which he afterward became editor-in-chief. He succeeded Mr. Beecher as pastor of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, in 1888, but resigned in May, 1899, and has since devoted himself entirely to editorial and literary work. In collaboration with his brothers Austin and Benjamin he wrote two novels, Conecut Corners (1885) and Matthew Caraby (1888). Among his other numerous works are commentaries, Jesus of Nazareth (1869); Life of Henry Ward Beecher (1883); Christianity and Social Problems (1896); The Theology of an Evolutionist (1897); Life and Letters of Paul (1898); Life and Literature of the Ancient Hebrews (1901); The Rights of Man (1901); Henry Ward Beecher (1903); The Great Companion (1904); Personality of God (1905); and Industrial Problems (1905). ABBOTT, THOMAS KINGSMILL (1829-). An Irish scholar. He was born at Dublin and was educated at Trinity College, where he afterward occupied the chair of moral philosophy (186772), of biblical Greek (1875-88), and of Hebrew (after 1879). He wrote the following books: The Elements of Logic (third edition, 1895); Essays, chiefly on the original texts of the Old and New Testaments (1892); A Commentary on Ephesians and Colossians (1897); a translation of Kant's Ethics, with a memoir, and Kant's Introduction to Logic (fifth edition, 1878). ABBREVIATIONS (Lat. ad, to + brevis, short). Contrivances in writing for saving time and space. They are of two kinds, consisting either in the omission of some letters, or words, or in the substitution of some arbitrary sign. In the earliest times, when uncial or lapidary characters were used, abbreviations by omission prevailed, such as we find in the inscriptions on monuments, coins, etc. In these the initial letter is often put instead of the whole word, as M. for Marcus, F. for Filius. It was after the small Greek and Roman letters had been invented by transcribers for facilitating their work that signs of abbreviation, or characters representing double consonants, syllables, and whole words, came into use. Greek manuscripts abound with such signs, and often only one who has expressly studied Greek paleography can make them out. From the manuscripts they passed into the early printed editions of Greek books, and it is only within the last century that they have quite disappeared. Among the Romans the system was carried to such an extent that L. Annæus Seneca collected and classified 5000 abbreviations. The same practice has prevailed in all languages, but nowhere more than in the rabbinical writings. The abbreviations used by the ancient Romans were continued and increased in the Middle Ages. They ABBREVIATIONS. 15 occur in inscriptions, manuscripts, and legal documents; and the practice endured in these long after the invention of printing had made it unnecessary in books. An act of Parliament was passed in the reign of George II., forbidding the use of abbreviations in legal documents. Owing to these abbreviations, the deciphering of old writings requires special study and training, and forms a separate science, on which numerous treatises have been written. One of the most exhaustive is Tassin's Nouveau Traité de Diplomatique (6 volumes, Paris, 1750-65). See PALEOGRAPHY. In ordinary writing and printing few abbreviations are now employed. The sign &, originally an abbreviation for the Latin et, "and," is one of the few still to be met with of this arbitrary kind. It does not stand properly for a word, for it is used in different languages, but for an idea, and is as much a symbol as +. The abbreviations by using the initials of Latin words that are still in use are chiefly confined to titles, dates, and a few phrases; as M.A. (magister artium), Master of Arts; A.D. (anno Domini), in the year of our Lord; e.g. (exempli gratia), for example. Many are now formed from English words in the same way; as F.G.S., Fellow of the Geological Society; B.C., before Christ. The following table contains many of the more important abbreviations in general use. There are omitted from it many others whose meanings are obvious, and all abbreviations for days, months, countries, States, many proper names, as those of the Scriptures; grammatical, scientific, and other technical terms; familiar titles, as Mr., Gov.; and the majority of commercial terms, as B/1, bill of lading. The names of many societies are omitted, especially when their abbreviations, as Y.M.C.A., are well known. A.B., Bachelor of Arts. Abp., Archbishop. A.C. (ante Christum), Before Christ. A.H. (anno Hegira), In the year of the A.M. (ante meridiem), Before noon; (anno mundi), In the year of the world; (artium magister), Master of Arts. An. (anno), In the year. Anon., Anonymous. |