History in Documents and a Document in History. Ольга Пасько

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      5. Say what part of speech are the following words. Translate them into Russian. Make your own sentences with these words:

      ➢ generally _______________

      ➢ originally _______________

      ➢ occasionally _______________

      ➢ primarily ________________

      ➢ slowly ________________

      ➢ gradually ________________

      ➢ early ________________

      Text 5

      Read the text and do the tasks after it.

      A correct assessment of the hand in which it was written is vital to ascertaining the provenance and authenticity of a document. Thus, the knowledge of paleography, different styles of ancient writing, is a skill essential to diplomatics. The broad basis of such knowledge begins with acquaintance with the general styles of writing current at particular times and places. This varied with the way the pen was held; whether the writing was cursive or had the letters formed separately; whether it was majuscule, all the letters being contained between a single pair of horizontal lines, or minuscule, with parts of the letters extending above and below the lines. There is a further distinction between what is called book hand and the business, or court, hand at one time used for documents.

      In Europe the Roman capital letters were distinguished as rustic or square, uncial, and Roman majuscule and minuscule cursive. They influenced all subsequent writing in the West. The Roman curial style (from the Curia, or papal court), used in the papal chancery until the 12th century, was a derivation of late Roman minuscule cursive. After the disintegration of the Western Empire, the Merovingian Franks used a Roman provincial script for their documents. Distinctive forms developed elsewhere, in Visigothic Spain and in Ireland. The Irish script, a half uncial (uncials are rounded letters) and a minuscule script, spread to Anglo-Saxon England and thence to the European continent. Under the

      Carolingian rulers, a particularly clear and attractive minuscule book hand (Caroline minuscule) was developed; modifications of this gradually became used in documents and eventually spread also to Italy, England, and Spain. A “Gothic,” more pointed form of script developed since the 11th century in northern France and soon spread all over Europe, so that writing became more spidery in appearance. In the early years of the Renaissance, Italian scholars such as Poggio (Poggio Bracciolini) and Niccolò Niccoli developed a minuscule based on the Carolingian, and variants of this style were used by the Venetian Aldus Manutius and other pioneers of printing.

      Notes:

      Curia – папская курия

      the Carolingian rulers

      Visigothic Spain

      Gothic

      the Venetian Aldus Manutius

      1. Read the text and give the title to it.

      2. Give Russian equivalents to the following words:

      1) ascertain ______________________

      2) assessment ____________________

      3) provenance ____________________

      4) authenticity ____________________

      5) diplomatics ____________________

      6) cursive _______________________

      7) rustic ________________________

      8) chancery _____________________

      9) derivation ____________________

      3. Find in the text the definitions for the following:

      ➢ paleography

      ➢ majuscule

      ➢ minuscule

      ➢ uncial

      ➢ Caroline minuscule

      ➢ Gothic

      ➢ Curia

      4. Say which words or phrases the pronouns given in bold refer to.

      5. Ask questions to the text using these question words:

      Who?

      What?

      When?

      Where?

      How?

      Text 6. Paper

      Read the text and do the tasks after it.

      Paper is thin material used for writing upon, printing upon or packaging, produced by the amalgamation of fibers, usually vegetable fibers composed of cellulose, which are subsequently held together by hydrogen bonding. Though the fibers are usually natural in origin, a wide variety of synthetic fibers, such as polypropylene and polyethylene, may be incorporated into paper as a way of imparting desirable physical properties. The most common source of these kinds of fibers is wood pulp from pulpwood trees, largely softwoods and hardwoods, such as spruce and aspen respectively. Other vegetable fiber materials including those of cotton, hemp, linen, and rice may be used.

      The word paper comes from the Greek term for the ancient Egyptian writing material called papyrus, which was formed from beaten strips of papyrus plants. Papyrus was produced as early as 3000 BC in Egypt, and sold to ancient Greece and Rome. The establishment of the Library of Alexandria in the 3rd century BC put a drain on the supply of papyrus.

      Paper is considered to be one of the Four Great Inventions of Ancient China, as the first СКАЧАТЬ