are written in the two-line system. The fourth oldest source according to Eckhardt is
OA with characters "around the middle line"'" (Fig. 1. 4).

GE VLAJ KHBA PAZDLJ P LRLNAU 4A"
(3H Q0&0d3 06 FPGPBALJVTSFSP RAD YWB:BAJ"

JGREVOIAJ) S<BAPSNNAZPITRIIVISJAI"
korh z Q9,00305 23791 ov -PM ANI1BA

Figure 1. Thorvi Eckhardt's line systems: (1) ZG; (2) AG: (3) KF; (4) 0A.*

OGFEVLAJ KCOAIASRKAIJIPVOILNAUJAJ
HEITIIROINJ SAT ITZFIZSTILJIIMICJAVA

JEPEVIAJODOVPOJIAJTITOVTIVSTJAV

= T

 

Figure 2. Eckhardt's lines applicd to the whole alphabet

1 applied Eckhardt's lines (Fig. 2) to the whole proposed alphabet to verify if they
properly describe character size and position. The lines confirm Eckhardt's own
statement that in ZG and AG “most frequently the seript floats between the lines" (Fig.
2.1 and 2.2 respectively). She does not describe the rules of floating?' although it
would be indispensable here to define the different character sizes which allow floating.
Fig. 2.3 shows that the significant size difference in KF characters cannot be described
by one upper line. Fig. 2.4 reveals that the middle line fals in the middle for five or six
characters only. For the others, it is an upper line from which they hang. From
Eckhardi's illustrated yet transparent hypothesis, it is obvious that upper, middle or
lower lines cannot successfully describe character size or position. It is a useful
demonstration of the difficulties inherent in defining the earliest line system.

Indeed, from the two-line point of view, the characters from other old Glagolitic
sources, like the Sinai Praer Book, the Krk Inscription or the Prague Fragment, also
seem inconsistent. KF and OA, with Eckhardt's one line, either upper (Fig. 2.3) or
"middle" (it is not really middle, Fig. 2.4), are likewise exceptions to the two-line
system.

Now we come to an internal reconstruction of the line system in analytical Glagolitic
paleography. All the aforementioned characteristics of different line systems in the
oldest known sources point toward an unknown older maximal system which would
allow for all these variants. Such a maximal system was discovered by the graphic

   

9 Ibid., 72-73.
*9 [bid., 72.
2! Tbid., 75.

287