Brachigraphy, Post-writ, OR, THE ART OF Short-writing.  
The sum whereof is couched into one Table, plainly demonstrating the whole Method of the INVENTION.  
By W. FOLKINGHAM his majesties Post of Stamford.  
 printer's device of Thomas Snodham (1603-25)?  
LONDON: Printed by Thomas Snodham.   

To the Reader.  
IN the breeding of this small body of Short-writing I aimed at the husbanding of the Hand( as of Time and Place) that it might not with distorted Characts be discustomed from good forms of usual Letters; and to that end of the selected particles of their several structures, I haue composed part of my Alphabet, which with a few short Rules( of the due disposure of the Characters) comprised in two Chapters, contains in effect the whole Art. Touching th' steeme of the Method, the judicious may satisfy himself, put it to the Test, and determine of the difference twixt it and other forms, both for easy compassing and for speedy, close, secret, and pleasant dispatch. For the Angles, Breaches, Passages, Combinations and other Dimensions in this and in all other writings, are so manifest to the Eye( of iudgement) that a mere stranger to the Art may plainly discern the compendious and commodidious frame of words, and by consequence be a competent judge of the most active, swift, and close penship of several inventions resolved unto him by exemplary demonstration. But these curious incorporations of Letters varied into diuers Spellings by ordinary Impression, by Incorporation, by Implication, do varie one and the same Writ into several expressions, and so necessary encumber the Lexion. A shrewd encumbrance sure, when a judicious Tutor stands always prest at elbow( or rather at each hand one) to train and teach to spell and speak, I mean the sense of the Place by precedent and sequent dependence, which at an instant doth trace out, led and tread the roadway to the Reading, and clearly discuss all difficulties, which indeed are nothing( for matter of intrication, but rather the very praise of the invention, if duly estimated) to the various Lections in every language attributed to the self same words, which carrying identity of sound and composure, do yet transfer the sense to far different significations, without any imputation of confusion or imperfection to the Tongue. And all these difficulties( admit them such) are easily salved, and half the fourth Chapter, and all the fifth saved by applying my Letters to those forms of Short-writing, which intimate regionarie Vowels by contiguitie of Consonants( not by their contingence) as mine doth many times, and to which no Alphabet can be more accommodate; for then all conjunctions of Characters will be mere Incorporations sans Implication of Vowellage or intrication of the Lecture. But I haue confined myself to a more exact Method, which recompenseth th'expense of some few more minutes( which yet I may not grant) borrowed to th'attayning of this theory with the profitable purchase of many houres gain in the Praxis, rather than for the idle fond esteem of a small measure of truant Time( once to be lent but oft repaid with loan) be always bound to distracted and exorbitant Wanders, which are grown tedious both in Writs and Wits. For every practic hath its Art, and every Art its Compendium, which built vpon a few selected Bases, balks all circulating compliments as deuiations and extrauagants, if they pursue not the direct Medium to the Meta in Quest. In approuement of which Practise my Pen( to post to the Post-writ) pitches period with crave of friendly entertain, which obtained shall ever oblige me to challenge the grand Champion S. George himself to afford thee the like at Stamford, where Post-sure the Post-les Posture of one of us( though neither disclaim the Post) thou mayest find at Exeter inn, where sans Rest I rest  
Thine in this and that WILLIAM FOLKINGHAM.   

The Record of marcus MANILIVS 1660. yeeres ago, touching the Art of SHORT-writing.  
HIc et erit foelix Scriptor cvi Litera verbum est,  
Quique Notis Linguam superat cursumque loquentis,  
Excipiens longas noua per compendia voces.  
Her'th Pen-post blessed shal be whose words impressing  
One carat is, who Tongue with Quill out-strips  
Long speeches in compendious Writ expressing.  
The Post-writ to the POST.  
DVly thy place and Pen may style the Post;  
Stamford thy Stage( where Arts the Muses yore,)  
( Strangers Thee since by troops) saluted host,)  
To speed the States command; and with quaint Lore  
Thou packs thou Posts( in faire-coucht current gloze)  
And sealest up my Lines with secret skrewes;  
Whose closure Oedipus can nere disclose,  
Nor once vnwinde my Laborinthian Clewes  
Which cause the winged Pen to equipage  
The fluent tongue with Characts luminous,  
The margin small to parallel the page.,  
The Vade-mecum the Voluminous  
Bulks of selected Books of choicest Writs,  
Their Principles, their axioms their Flores,  
Their Abstracts brief the Marrow of their Wits,  
Their Extracts chief and Quintissence of Stories:  
My Lines so limne and lock the treasury  
Of precious Time and trustfull secrecy.   

THE ART OF Brachigraphy.  

CAP. 1. Of the Definition and division of the ART.  
BRACHIGRAPHY is the Art of Short-writing impressed in compendious Time and Place.  
Short-writing is either of the bare Letter, or of Words composed of Letters. That I call literal or elemental, this Dictionall or Verball.   

CAP. 2. Of the Alphabet of Characters.  
THe Alphabet composing the structure of words in this Method, is distinguished into three sorts of Characters, according to the several scite and analogy they hold with the supposed Line or Rule you writ by.  
The first sort are such as range-with, or keepe-about the ordinary pitch of the Rule or row, exceeding neither in height nor depth, as are the Medials or Regulars being all the Alphabet except eight long Letters.  
The second are Altals drawn from above, and landing at the foot of the Line, viz. f. l. q. t.  
The third are Basals, falling from the Head of the Line, and landing below the Foot, viz. h. p. r. w. Yet all these Irregulars are reducible, and are oft contracted( h. and t. onely excepted) to Medials: so w. becomes a convert, both de facto and de jure, to u. his proper carat. The sole caveat in these contractions is, that the hair strokes in p. and q. be shorter than the latitude of the Line to distinguish them from joinings with c. the sloape.   

CAP. 3. Of incorporated Letters and double Consonants.  
THe Incorporation of Letters is a succinct contracting of Characts into selfe-bodied structures either Concretiue, when they are made one by a selfe-lineall and immediat continuation of the stroke, where imagination, rather than sensible distinction or connexion, limits th'extention and latitude of each several Letter therein comprised. Or Discretiue, when they are incorporated by Angular or Laterall coniunction, discovering the particular forms and extents of their several Characts.  
Concretes are such as are noted in the Table with c.  
These Incorporations are further increased by a punctual practise to imply Precedence and Duplicitie. Of the first, the incorporates lp. lr. fr. pr. gth. by a punct under them are inverted into pl. rl. rf. rp. ght.  
Of the second sort are all the Irregulars, which being of the same scite or posture with b. do oft comprise it, intimated onely by punct over or under th'incorporation to point forth the Precedence. Discretes are those( and others) in the Table left without notes.  
Here I would aduise you to be perfect in the Table for the Letters and elemental Incorporations, to rest well at each Stage, not chopping into another Chapter till you haue well ruminated on the last, and never to post-ouer nor quit a Principle nor an Element till both memory and hand find or form it prest for your impression.   

CAP. 4. Of the Places and Regions of the Vowels.  
THe Vowels are not always expressed by penning their peculiar Characts, but implyed very often by puncts, places or touches, vt sequitur.  
every Row or Rainge of Letters or Words doth admit( imaginarily) of a Diapent or fiuefold division by paralel-lines cutting longwayes through the breadth of the Letters or Line.  
The first parallel in height and Right runs along the space betwixt the heads of the Altals, and th'other Letters( in Medio scilt) for a.  
The second leuels the heads of the Medials and Basals for e.  
The third cuts through the Center or midst of the Medials for i.  
The fourth runs by and rules the feet of the Medials and Altals for o.  
The fift and last parallel lines the space twixt the feet of the Basals and th'other for u. see the demonstration.  
In all which the Puncts in the parallels imply the five Vowels respectively suitable to their stationall Regions and priorities in vulgar enumeration, and must be laterally placed to the Dexter or Sinister Hand of the Consonant respecting the precedence and sequence of the implicable vowell, see the Table.  
In like sort and position are Letters placed a part in Vowel Regions to imply interceding Vowels, but most eminently in parallels of a. i. u. This disjunct Implication is the usual form of intimating Vowels in other inventions of Short-writings, and the like practise here supersedes all encumbrance of intrication through various Lexions.  
There is another Implication of Vowels by single or mediate touch or coniunction of Consonants respectively and indifferently for all, but most frequently for e. i. o.  
But the peculiar Implication of Vowels in this Method is attributed to the immediate laterall and single touch of Consonants in Vowels Regions.  
Here note the Punctus e. later( or laterall touch) attends the Medials retaining regionarie right of vowellage both in their elevation and depression.  
The same Implication holds in double Consonants, which in that respect are ever esteemed as Singles.  
Here might I conclude Implication, save that the Art hath lent to the two Letters that sound and style it so a Ternarie of By-Characts for peculiar uses, viz. the two small Characts to r. and. the blot to t.  
The first r. to begin a syllable where the Basal frames not so fitly for that purpose.  
Th'other r. being the least production of or to a punct, is constant to his colours, though he march most in the rear, sets up his rest to be no Bigamus nor ambidexter, and hands but with one at once; for such lineal league extended to two Consonants dissolves the r and the double touch turns Vowell, as in f. 8.  
Besides this r. to avoid confusion with n. never joins with it, yet it admits punctual production( like n. produced to an acute point for th'old Brachigrapher &c.) to produce the syllable by implying e. after r. by th'extention.  
For t, it is converted to the Literal or Liturall punct.( the Center that all things tend unto) and attends most the tail of Consonants, to dissolve and blot out vowels of implication.  
In other places, tis implicable like other Consonants.   

CAP. 5. Of the nullifying or making voided the Implication of Vowels.  
THe Implication of Vowels by coniunction of Consonants is sometimes drowned in the Incorporation, but most remarkably by punct or Letter found in the first or last parallel( over or under the point of connection) transferring the vowell to the puncture.  
Also a double touch in the Line annihilates all coniunctiues of applying e. i. o. yet g. d. joining thus( o) through three Regions, stands soly on the sole and base to intimate and spell the immensurable Basis of all bliss and goodness God soly good and infinite. For pendent Incorporations they are not within compass of angular touch and are therefore sounded sans Vowels, save those of prolation( a point not now touched though of much use) as fr. lp. tr. But the greatest scruple is when Consonants angularly joined are yet sounded without vowell, as the double Consonants rd. rm. nc. ng. ns. rs. which are as usually so taken, as for their spellings read. rem. nec. neg. nes. res. nor is the reforming of this variation of Lexion very necessary in this Art, which aims more at speedy dispatch in writing than in reading, yet may the nullity be noted with any peculiar mark.  
The joining of Vowels and Consonants implies onely themselves; yet a Vowell set apart from a Consonant goes not without implication of vowellage, as in dian Ca. 4. f. 7.  
So much for the literal part. The verbal ensues.   

CAP. 6. Of the Contracting of writings.  
THe best Enginere in deriving navigable Passages from vnpassable Currents confines not himself either to cut a thorow-new Fosse or to rectify the old Channel for his convoy, but pursues th'one and follows th'other as Art and the Medium shall demonstrate. In like manner having hitherto run the unveil of a new Tract in this my invention, here will I pitch a Lock and fall into the Current of ancient abbreuiations already sounded for good Tracts to piece-vp a portable convoy for my Post-writ.  
The Contracting of Writings is the penning of a part for the whole, and is either of single words or of Sentences.  
The Contracting of words is the leaving out of some letters comprised in the full composition and prolation of the same; and this is either Medial or Final.  
Medial Contraction is the penning of the beginning and termination of the Word with a dash over the same to note the defect; so anima is contracted to aia, apostumate made apate, melancholia mlia, miserecordia mia, spiritus Spus, honourable hoble: yet some intermedial Letters of eminence may be vsefully inserted, as adstron administration, anqtie antiquity, temtus tempestuous: but the dash is superfluous in Characterie.  
To this Place may be referred the writing of words after the vulgar sound; as for beauty, carique, dew, goodness, myrrh, neighbour, righteous, tongue; writ buti, caric, du, gudnes, mir, nibor, ritus, tongue: so xlent, dilog, ruly, surgin, vement, for excellent, dialogue, ruthfully, chirurgeon, vehement.  
Also the Contracting of two or more words into one, as nostin? for nouistine? lilo for licentiam interloquendi: Vinum Cos for Vinum colore, odour, sapore insignitum. So the seven deadly sins are intimated by one word in this verse: Si mortem vites semper Saligia vites.  
So Ile for I will; wele dut, wee will do it; those, the use; th'our, the hour.  
The syllable con, serves well for tion, sion, tion in terminations.  
Numeral words haue native abbreuiation by letters or figures.  
final Contraction pens onely the first part of the word with a punct at the fracture to intimate the supplement, as in our Recipes, thus; ℞. pill. coch. ℈. ij. pill. pol. ℈ j. diag. et troch. alh. an. gr. jss. ol. mac. g. ij. ol. zz. g. j. cum aq. nra cephal. q. s. f. p. 7. deaur.  
But the first syllable, with a leading Letter to an other, may supersede the puncture, as in comb combine, hims himself, iniq iniquity, notw notwithstanding.  
The Contracting of Sentences is the penning of a competent beginning of an habitual or known Lexion with &c. at the break-off, to imply the sequence. But in quotable Writs, quote onely the Author and Place, and supply by Reuise.  
And here may I conclude literal Brachigraphy for the complete Art, with this caution, that when you use it not for close nor for secret, but for speedy writing onely, tis then not amiss to take more liberty both for distance of Place and fullness of Letters, the better to distinguish Implications.  
Of the verbal part, thus much in a word, though a few more will suffice at large.   
FINIS.