paleography

Noun

paleography (countable and uncountable, plural paleographies)

1. (US) The study of old or ancient forms of writing.
   • Paleography might teach men to read documents, diplomatics to date them and to test their authenticity; but the full significance of an ancient deed might easily escape the most exact paleographer and the most accomplished diplomatist, for the want of that finished sense for legal technicality...1910, H. A. L. Fisher, Frederick William Maitland, Downing Professor of the Laws of England, Cambridge: University Press
   • This book is the culmination of a six-year detective hunt among local records, archives, and private collections in England and in Massachusetts. I do not recommend a similar study to any student who has a faint heart, lack of patience, inability to travel, or poor eyesight. Such a study demands...1963, Sumner Chilton Powell, “Preface”, in Puritan Village: The Formation of a New England Town, Wesleyan University Press
2. (US) Ancient scripts or forms of writing themselves, as uncial, scriptio continua, or methods of using papyrus scrolls.
3. (US, obsolete) Paleogeography.