Calligraphy and Language of the Liber Linteus ©Z

The Calligraphy

The linen book is the work of an experienced scribe. The calligraphy is surprisingly regular. The position of the letters is perfectly vertical (their sloping in some parts of the book is due to the condition of preservation of the bandages); their height is constant, about 7 mm, and the space between the lines is regular as well: 11 mm. The lines consist of minimum 26 and maximum 35 letters; with the directions and positions of the lines, starting at 2 mm distance from the red line of the right edge, care has also been taken of the left edge, in order to avoid breaking up the words. So, in some rare cases (Column II Line 21, Column VIII Line 5, Column IX Line 33, Column X Lines 19 and 33) the last letters of a word, which would go over the border marked by a frame on the left side, have been put above the preceding letters - "sticking out" - but in the reverse direction.

The procedure of the scribe in regards to punctuation seems unusual. The dot on the half height in the line, as a rule, divides the words (never at the end of the line), but obvious omissions are so frequent, that one must consider it a sign of insufficient expertise on the part of the scribe, as compared with the overall "ritual character" of this work. It is quite clear that he is copying an already traditionally established text and it is obvious, that he is skilled at measuring out the "horizontal" space between letters, aware of the length of every line in advance; and he is ready, if the circumstances require, to waive the punctuation, which anyway rarely has a bigger space allocated than the normal spacing between letters. Basically, he is working on a text, based on tradition, in which archaic signs scriptio continua prevail, so avoiding breaking up the words and turns their sticking-out ends backwards at the end of the lines, thereby bringing back to life the ancient art of "bustrophedon" writing, where the text flows continuously, in lines which change direction, without coming back to the start.

Only in two certain cases, that at first glimpse might look like mistakes (Column III Line 21: s' .pures'tres', Column VIII Line 33: s'acnics' .tres') some words, which are elsewhere put together without interruptions, here occur with internal dots. Uncertain whether it could be a trace of another calligraphic tradition, I would rather say that the hesitant and optional use of the punctuation that divides the words, could be a more "recent" contribution than those represented in the text.

The Diacritical Marks

The text is divided into shorter or longer paragraphs, markedly separated by bigger or smaller line spacings, which obviously mark the different sections or "parts" of the text in regards to contents. The other markings are made by the scribe's red ink (which are today barely noticeable, unfortunately). Besides for the page frames, red ink was actually also used for some markings, added to emphasize the importance of some "instructions" or "warnings" to the reader. Thus, for example, a long stroke in the shape of a letter "L" in Column XI descends and stretches down the right edge, from the 12th till 13th line, underlining their first words; one needs to mention here the close similarities that the layout, text and format of this book show in comparison to the Tabulae Iguvinae (first of all I-I, II-IV), which have identical sections, and in one case (Tab. IV-13) even the underlining, that starts from the first words of the line and completely matches the one from this book, drawn in red ink in Column VI Line 8. We have to include to these markings a horizontal row of vertical strokes of different heights, in the 9th line of the last Column: this is not a number sign, as it first thought, but a rather intuitive sign of emphasized separation, which supposed to single out the last sentence from the rest. Certainly, the unique case of the word vinum in Column IX Line 22, also belongs to this system, where all letters are divided by a dot in-between them: an excellent indicator of the character of the book, in which the word "wine" - frequent in the text - obviously has a ritual meaning, divided into individual letters, as though one would wish them to prompt a stretched out reading (singing?) or chanting, probably as an accompaniment to a liturgical movement or act.

The Alphabet

The letters contained in this text belong to mid late period of the Etruscan alphabet. The closest comparisons (having in mind the uniqueness of the method used here) could be found in the 3rd - 2nd century BCE, in the geographical region between Perugia, Cortona and the Trasimen Lake. The trident sign for chi, phi, ypsilon and rho, still with a vertical stroke at the bottom, contradicts though to a too close chronological proximity (the 1st century CE/common era was suggested, and lately 1st century BCE/before common era). The same is the case with the rectangular shape of the letter "h" in northern areas, unless one wants to consider it as a sign of a southern influence in the scribe's education, who adds it to the already accepted usage of gamma sign, for recording the voiceless velar consonant, which was widespread in the northern Etruscan regions of the 3rd century BCE instead of the usual kappa. One needs to remember that the epsilon and digamma are vertical, contrary to the usual pattern in the northern region, where they are leaned forward.

The Language

Besides of this, there is one more peculiar feature of the text, something between graphic and linguistic level. From the first studies, it has been noticed that there is a multitude of variants the scribe has adopted in copying the same words, that can be interpreted not only as a symptom of an exceptionally archaic transcript, but also simply as an insufficient knowledge of the Etruscan language on the part of the transcriber. A few examples will suffice:

the inconsistency between t and th:	cluctras' - cluc0ras' zamtic - zam0ic
inconsistency between c and ch:	cemnac - cemnax enac - enax
inconsistency between ai and ei:	aiser - eiser
inconsistency between s, s', z:	ais - ais' s'acnicstres' - s'acnics'tres' sacnicleri - s'acnicleri cealxus - cealxus' - cealxuz

It is considered for example, that the different markings of sibilants by sigma or tsada (M), mean - both in northern and southern Etruscan regions - their different values ("pronunciations") in apical sense: it seems that the processes, like for example the change to aspirants (-c-, t-0) or the change of diphthongs (-ai -ei) happened gradually with time. Not being able to accept the idea that the Etruscan language was already a "dead language" at a time of the creation of the "Liber Linteus", we have to assume that the accumulation and preservation of old lost traditions in a text, in the style of writing, is justified by it's character. It is known, that the sphere of religion is very conservative; the innovations here, if they exist, do not cancel the old: it is known as well, that the Etruscan civilization had it's strongest unifying starting point in the religious dimension. Therefore it is understandable, that the cultural significance of the text is considered to be the explanation for the accumulation of traditions from different times, places, and codifications, coexisting within limits insofar their heterogeneity does not endanger the comprehension of the message. It is noticeable that at places where the value of the sibilants means an inflected ending (i.e. it is linguistically active), typically the "northern" variant is favoured.

 Bibliography: This English translation is an excerpt from Francesco Roncalli's editorial article published in Croatian (©Bibl. [2] pages 19-20).

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