Strata: Sherlock Holmes, Paleographer

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Paleography, the science of judging the date and authenticity of an inscription based on the shape and slant of the letters, has become almost as well-known a word as be-bop since the surfacing of the controversial ossuary inscription that reads “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.”

Which raises the question as to who was the first paleographer. Most living paleographers can go back no further than the own mentors. But BAR sleuths have uncovered a far earlier one, Sherlock Holmes—from The Hound of the Baskervilles:

“I have in my pocket a manuscript,” said Dr. James Mortimer.

“I observed it as you entered the room,” said Holmes.

“It is an old manuscript.”

“Early eighteenth century, unless it is a forgery.”

“How can you say that, sir?”

“You have presented an inch or two of it to my examination all the time that you have been talking. It would be a poor expert who could not give the date of a document within a decade or so. You may possibly have read my little monograph upon the subject. I put that at 1730.”