See Olaf Pluta, “Abbreviationes™: A Database of Medieval Latin Abbreviations,” in: Klaus van Eickels, Ruth Weichselbaumer, and Ingrid Bennewitz (eds.), Mediaevistik und Neue Medien, Stuttgart: Jan Thorbecke, 2004, 183-189.
Abbreviationes™ Online, the first Web database of medieval Latin abbreviations (available since 2002). Abbreviationes™ Online was designed with mobile devices in mind. As a consequence, the database can be used easily on smartphones such as Apple’s iPhone or Google’s Pixel.
“Annually updated and enhanced, the database is not only the ideal resource tool for any researcher, scholar, student and librarian of medieval and Renaissance written culture, but also the perfect teaching aid for the palaeographical preparation of scholars and researchers of the future.” (University of Cambridge: ejournals@cambridge, November 22, 2013)
Abbreviationes™ Professional, released on the occasion of 50 years of Ruhr-Universität Bochum, provides a standardized representation of medieval Latin abbreviations by using a Unicode-compliant font (Junicode, created by Peter S. Baker, University of Virginia) which follows the character recommendations of MUFI (Medieval Unicode Font Initiative).
The new version of Abbreviationes™ Online has been optimized for high-resolution displays. In the future, we may use our smartwatch to look up some medieval Latin abbreviations. However, until smartwatches (and smartglasses) become a commodity, using the smartphone serves as the next best thing.
