brevigraph

— Early prints used many abbreviations which were the descendants of the abbreviations used in manuscripts; we discuss here a subset of them, called brevigraphs. Quite often they consisted of a regular non-modified letter supplemented by a diacritical mark, usually a macron or a similar glyph, placed above. It is natural to call them composed brevigraphs. On the other hand there are abbreviations in a shape of a modified letter or a letter-like symbol; we call them basic brevigraphs even if they are accompanied by a diacritical mark.