 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Calligraphus" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(May 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Acalligraphus (pl.calligraphi) was an ancientcopyist orscrivener, who transcribed correctly and in its entirety what thenotaries had taken down in notes, or minutes—duties similar to the modern work of engrossing.
The minutes of acts were always taken down in a kind ofcipher, orshorthand, so that theNotaries, as theRomans called them, or theΣημειόγραφοι andΤαχύγραφοι, as theGreeks called them, could keep pace with a speaker or person who dictated. These notes being understood by few, were copied exactly by people with good handwriting; these were calledcalligraphi, a name often found in ancient writings.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chambers, Ephraim, ed. (1728). "Calligraphus".Cyclopædia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (1st ed.). James and John Knapton, et al.