Dr. Timothie Bright, 1550-1615 : a survey of his life with a bibliography of his writings / by Geoffrey Keynes.

  • Geoffrey Keynes
Date:
1962
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Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Dr. Timothie Bright, 1550-1615 : a survey of his life with a bibliography of his writings / by Geoffrey Keynes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    teacher of his invention—apart from his brother, who already shared it. He thought it would be of special value in the Law Courts so as to take a speech from any man's mouth as he delivereth it, and also for University students. In fact Queen Elizabeth did grant Bright's request1, giving him by letters patent dated 26 July 1588 for a period of fifteen years the exclusive right of teaching and printing books in the new characters. It is common to designate Bright as the father of shorthand, though it has to be remembered, as Bright himself was well aware, that shorthand was known in classical times, and that it was in use among the Roman notarii under the Caesars. Their system is believed to have been devised by a man named Tiro, a freedman of Cicero, the system employing symbols of various kinds and abbreviations of the letters of the alphabet. Various modifications were introduced, particularly by Seneca in the first century A.D., and finally by Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, in the third century, to serve the interests of the Christian religion. A good deal is known about the Ciceronian system of shorthand. According to Sir Isaac Pitman it used all the principles of the stenographic art as at present practised, namely the adoption of simpler forms than the common letters of the alphabet, making each letter the representative of some common word, leaving out such letters as could be spared, particularly the vowels, in order to save time, and sometimes joining the initials or other parts of several words, in order to express them by one series of forms, and, if possible, without removing the hand from the paper.2 Modern practitioners of shorthand have gained brevity since classical times by means of a simpler alphabet. Even Roman Emperors, such as Augustus and Titus, themselves practised shorthand, so that Bright was quite in order in introducing his new form of writing to the notice of Queen Elizabeth, though it cannot be claimed that he invented shorthand. But he did re-invent it, and there is no evidence that it was known in modern times in any country besides England, xi 589 26 July: T. BRIGHT M.D. All works in Character and such other works as he might compile, &c. For fifteen years. 31 Eliz. Part 9 (Arber's Transcripts, II. 16) 2Pitman's A History oj Shorthand, fourth edition, London. [1918] p.4.