Abbreviations

Introduction

One of the most complicating factors of reading old handwritten records is the common use of abbreviations. This is due to the repeated use of the same words in records of the same type; most scribes would speed up the recording process and attempt to save paper or expensive vellum, ink, and time by abbreviating common given names, last names, and other words using certain abbreviating conventions. Yet, as a consequence, it makes some documents almost inaccessible to the regular reader who is not initiated into the scribe tradition.

The information on this page will provide the tools and resources to help you unravel the many abbreviations you will doubtless find while searching through old records.

Italian Abbreviations

While there were many attempts made to codify, limit, or completely ban the use of abbreviations, it is rare to work with a document that does not have some form of abbreviation. Generally, a greater amount of abbreviations are present the older the document is. Since abbreviations were so common in handwritten documents, there developed various types or styles of abbreviations. Having a basic understanding of how these different styles generally work and look will help to spot these abbreviations and avoid making mistakes. Even if a researcher does not immediately know what an abbreviation is, it is useful to be able to mark it for further investigation at a later date.

In Italian documents, there are five categories of abbreviations, which are:

1. Contractions
2. Superpositions
3. Suspensions
4. Acronyms
5. Conventionalism

Below are brief explanations and examples of these categories.

Contractions

An abbreviation by contraction is formed by writing the first and last letters of the word and eliminating the middle letters. For example, the word fratello could be abbreviated f.llo with or without a period to indicate the abbreviation. The name Domenico could be abbreviated Domco, often with a tilde-like symbol or a straight line above the abbreviation. Below are some examples of this type of abbreviation taken from the records. For more examples, refer to the List of Abbreviations included in this site.

Below are some examples of this type of abbreviation taken from real records.

Abbreviation	Meaning	Samples from Document
Domco	Domenico
Franco	Francesco
Gio Batta	Giovanni Battista

Superpositions

This may be considered a variation of the process of contraction. The first letters are written on the baseline, and the last one or two letters are written above the baseline in a smaller, superscript size. For example, the name Francisco would be abbreviated as Fran^co, with the superscripted letters having a line, a double line, a colon, or no symbol underneath. These are generally the easiest kinds of abbreviations to spot due to the offset letters that contrast with the rest of the text.

Below are some examples of this type of abbreviation taken from the records.

Abbreviation	Meaning	Samples from Document
Ant.o	Antonio
Fran.co	Francesco
Catta	Catterina

Suspensions

This is an abbreviation that is formed by writing the first part of the word and eliminating the last part. Sometimes this is marked by a period at the end of the suspension, but this is not the rule, so they can sometimes be trickier to spot. For example, vecino would be abbreviated vec. or vecin., and legitimo would be leg. or legit.

Below are some examples of this type of abbreviation taken from actual records.

Abbreviation	Meaning	Samples from Document
id	idem [Latin]
antim. - ant.	antimeridiane
calz.	calzolaio

Acronyms

These could be considered a type of suspension where the first letter of a word has come to stand for the entire word. Common examples: S.M.E. stands for the Latin phrase Sancta Mater Ecclesia or S.V. stands for Segnoria Vostra, and A.D. for Anno Domini. Frequently, such abbreviations are doubled in the case of plurals or superlatives. For example, SS means Santissimo. Below are some examples of this type of abbreviations taken from the records. For more examples, refer to to the List of Abbreviations included in this site.

Below are some examples of this type of abbreviation taken from the records.

Abbreviation	Meaning	Samples from Document
S.R.	Santa Religione
S.V.	Segnoria Vostra
SS.	Santissimo

Conventionalisms

Usually found in older documents, these are symbols that represent entire words or syllables. The most common is the use of X or Xpo or Xpto to represent Cristo (Christ). This particular conventionalism is used in the abbreviation of the name Cristoforo as Xptoforo.

There are many syllables that may appear abbreviated using conventionalisms, such as: per, par, por, pro, mer, ser, ver, vir, etc. Usually these symbols consist of the initial letter of the syllable with a curl or a line crossing the letter.

A particular kind of abbreviation using conventions is exemplified by the use of numbers to abbreviate the first part of some of the months of the year, such as: 7bre for settembre, 8bre for ottobre, 9bre for novembre, and 10bre or Xbre for dicembre. The use of these numbers may be misleading at first as the abbreviations do not match their actual numerical order in the current Gregorian Calendar; the explanation for this is that the names of the month still follow the original 304-day, ten-month Roman Calendar that started in March and ended in December, or Mensis December "the tenth month;" the remaining winter days that would later be organized into January and February where left as the unorganized "winter."¹

Below are some examples of this type of abbreviation taken from the records.

Abbreviation	Meaning	Samples from Document
Xpofano	Cristofano
ßnardo	Bernardo
ƒvitore	Servitore
p​	per
8brio	ottobrio (in dialect) ottobre (in Italian)
9brio	novembrio (in dialect) novembre (in Italian)
9bre	novembre
9mbre	novembre
Xbrio	decembrio (in dialect) dicembre (in Italian)
10brio	decembrio (in dialect) dicembre (in Italian)

1. Macrobius, Saturnalia Vol 1, ed. Robert A Kaster (Cambrige: Harvard University Press, 2011), Book I, Ch. 12, §34.

• Image: Christopher Columbus, Colombus Notes To Marco Polo, Image, Digital Image, Wikimedia Commons (https://en.wikipedia.org : accessed 20 July 2023). This image is in the public domain.