CALLIGONUM. See BOTANY Index.
CALLIGRAPHUS anciently denoted a copyist, or scrivener, who transcribed fair, and at length, what the notaries had taken down in notes or minutes. The word is compounded of καλλος, beauty, and γραφω, I write. The minutes of acts, &c. were always taken in a kind of cypher, or short hand; such as the notes of Tyro in Gruter: by which means the notaries, as the Latins called them, or the επιγραφω and υπογραφω, as the Greeks called them, were enabled to keep pace with a speaker or person who dictated. These notes, being understood by few, were copied over fair, and at length, by persons who had a good hand, for sale, &c. These persons were called calligraphs, a name frequently met with in the ancient writers.