Tironian Notes - History

History

The earliest western shorthand system known to us is that employed by the Greek historian, Xenophon in the memoir of Socrates, called notae socratae.
The first report of the usage of tironian notes is by Plutarch who notes that in 63 BC it was used to record Cato's denunciation against Catiline:

This only of all Cato's speeches, it is said, was preserved; for Cicero, the consul, had disposed in various parts of the senate-house, several of the most expert and rapid writers, whom he had taught to make figures comprising numerous words in a few short strokes; as up to that time they had not used those we call shorthand writers, who then, as it is said, established the first example of the art.

Dio Cassius attributes to Maecenas the invention of shorthand, and states that he employed his freedman Aquila in teaching the system to numerous others.

Isidore of Seville, however, details another version of the early history of the system, ascribing the invention of the art to Quintus Ennius, who he says invented 1100 marks (Latin: notae). Isidore states that Tiro brought the practice to Rome, but only used Tironian notes for prepositions. Isidore tells of the development of additional Tironian notes by various hands, viz., Vipsanius, "Philargius", and Aquila (as above), until Seneca systematized the various marks to approximately 5000 Tironian notes.

In the Middle Ages, notae to represent words were widely used in conjunction with other scribal abbreviations and the initial symbols were expanded to 14,000 by the Carolingians; but the stenographic alphabet notation had a "murky existence" (C. Burnett) as it was often associated with witchcraft and magic, and was forgotten until interest was rekindled by Thomas Beckett, archbishop of Canterbury, in the 12th century. In the 15th century Johannes Trithemius, abbot of the Benedictine abbey of Sponheim, discovered the notae Benenses: a psalm and a Ciceronian lexicon written in Tironian shorthand.