From century to century this legislation underwent variations, according to the ideas of the times: and when the printing-press came, in the middle of the fifteenth century, to change the face of the world, the corporation of _scribes_ rose at first against the new art which was to ruin them. “But at last,” says Champollion-Figeac, “they submitted, and temporary measures were recommended to the public authorities for the defence of an ancient order of things which could not long resist the new.” Now let us go back to the first centuries of the Middle Ages, to resume the question from a palæographic point of view. The languages and literature of modern Europe are all Greek or Latin, Sclavonic or Gothic; these four great families of peoples and of languages have existed in spite of the vicissitudes of politics. Such is the basis whereon must be found all the researches by which we are to establish the origin and nature of the writing peculiar to each literature. The Greeks of Constantinople taught writing to the Sclavonic race, and with it the Christian faith. The most ancient Greek writing (we speak of the Christian era only) was the _capital_ writing, regular and well-proportioned; as it became general it was simplified more and more. After this sort of writing, examples of which are found only on stone or bronze, we come to the writing called, although we do not know why, _uncial_,[53] which, was the first step towards the Greek _cursive_ (flowing). _Uncial_ writing was employed, in Greek manuscripts, up to the ninth century; we may observe the transition from the _uncial_ to the _half-uncial_, and from the _half-uncial_ to the _minuscule_.[54] In the tenth century manuscripts in minuscule became very abundant--the tachygrapher’s (ταχὑς, quick, and γρἁφω, I write), or the partisans of quick writing, gained the day; the caligraphers (καλὁς, beautiful, and γρἁφω I write) desired to follow their example. These employed a great deal of time in painting the initials of running letters: the new method, which produced more in the same space of time, easily got into favour; the caligraphers abandoned the uncial and adopted the minuscule characters connected together, which combined good forms with greater facility of execution. Thenceforward, the uncial was no longer employed except for the titles or headings of books.