Some samples of early printing in Greek.

English printers were less enthusiastic about ligatures than Continental ones, fortunately.

A. Bibliography

• Vernon Eugen Kooy, "The three-dimensional character of early printed Greek." An enlightening discussion of how to view the brevigraphs of early printed Greek, accompanying a custom font designed to allow you to print (many of) them.
• Dr. Kooy's font: "Greek with ligatures, version 2." See the code charts in the pdf, or download the font itself: http://schmidhauser.us/tools/rgl/
• van Groningen, B. A. Short Manual of Greek Paleography (Leiden, 1963), pp. 43-7.
• Ingram, William H. "The Ligatures of Early Printed Greek." Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 7:4 (Winter 1966), pp. 371ff. (That's Bill Ingram, University of Michigan). His list of ligatures is collated from:
  • De literis Graecis. Venice: Aldus, 1501 (B.M. G.7581)
  • Alphabetum Hebraicum et Graecum. Paris: Gourmont, 1508? (B.M. 621.g.40(1))
  • De literis Graecis. Tübingen: Thomas Anshelmus, 1512 (B.M. 12923.b.2)
  • Alphabetum Hebraicum et Graecum. Paris: Gourmont, 1516? (B.M. 624.c.7(1))
  • Ex Aldo Manutio de literis Graecis. Cologne: Eucharius Cervicornus, 1517. (B.M. T.2236(2))
  • Theodori Gazae de linguae Graecae. Louvain: Theodoricus Martinus, 1518. (B.M. 624.c.7(5))
  • Alphabetum Graecum. Paris: Christian Wechel, 1530. (B.M. 1476.a.32(2))
  • Alphabetum Graecum. Paris: Robertus Stephanus, 1539. (B.M. 58.a.12)
  • Alphabetum Graecum. Lyon: Mathias Bonhomme, 1542. (B.M. 12923.bbb.39(1))
  • Alphabetum Graecum. Paris: Robertus Stephanus, 1548. (B.M. 236.g.38(1))
  • Alphabetum Graecum. Paris: Robert Stephanus, 1550. (B.M. 617.c.29)
  • Alphabetum Graecum. Cologne: haeredes Arnoldi Birckmanni, 1553. (B.M.843.c.21(1))
  • Alphabetum Graecum. Paris: Robertus Stephanus, 1554. (B.M. 622.c.38) available in Google Books
  • Elementa Graecae Linguae in usum puerorum collecta. Nuremberg: Gabriel Hayn, 1556. (B.M. 12924.cc.35)
  • Alphabetum Graecum. Paris: Guillaume Morel, 1560. (B.M. 236.g.38(3))
  • Alphabetum Graecum. Paris: Thomas Richardus, 1560. (B.M. 624.c.21(1))
  • Alphabetum Graecum. Antwerp: Christopher Plantin, 1566. (B.M. 12923.aa.4(1))
  available in Google Books
  • Alphabetum Graecum. Antwerp: Johannes Loeus, 1567. (B.M. 4516.a.32(3))
  • Alphabetum Graecum. Paris: Joannes Benenatus, 1569. (B.M. 236.g.38(2))
  • Alphabetum Graecum. Paris: Robertus Stephanus, 1580. (B.M. 622.d.35)
  • Alphabetum Graecum & Hebraicum. Paris: Paulus Stephanus, 1600. (B.M. 12904.b.11)
• Other Alphabeti Graeci, e.g.
  • Lyon, 1561
• Proctor, Robert. The Printing of Greek in the Fifteenth Century (Oxford, 1900). Available through HathiTrust
• Scholderer, Victor. Greek Printing Types, 1465-1927 (London, 1927).
• William Wallace, "An Index of Greek Ligatures and Contractions." Journal of Hellenic Studies 43 (1923): 183-193. Available via JSTOR. Collated from many unnamed sources, including Procter, above; but citing three earlier lists:
  • Aldus Manutius, 1494-95.
  • The Greek grammar of Ramus, appendix, 1605. [i.e., Petri Rami professoris regii Grammatica Graeca: praecipué quatenus á Latina differt, in libros quatuor digesta]
  • The Grand Police of Fournier le Jeune, Paris, 1764.

NOTE: This site seems no longer to be available: http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~wbarker/harvey/greek/greek.htm

B. [A few instances collected by pfs from EEBO books. Diacritics often ignored.]

BASIC CHARACTERS (lower case).	Ligatures
Standard As printed α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο π ρ σ ς ϲ τ υ φ, ϕ ψ χ ω	Standard As printed αλ αρ δὲ ἐν ἐστίν ευ γάρ ὑπ ὑπερ καὶ μη μεν ος ου ρι ται την του τον τρ ὑμῶν εξ γεν γω μαρ μεθ πρ πτ ρο ρω σω σθ στο τρο

C. Alphabet and ligature charts from elsewhere

C-1. Basic Greek alphabet

C-2. From C. Copley's edition of the Greek New Testament, ... Novum Testamentum ad exemplar Millianum cum emendationibus et lectionibus Griesbachi (Philadelphia: Bliss, [18-?]). Image taken from http://www.constitution.org/img/gr_ligature.jpg )

C-3. From Robert Estienne, Alphabetum graecum : Modus orandi, graece & latine, abbreviationes aliquot graecae ; Alphabetum hebraicum : Decalogus, hebraice & latine (Paris, 1528). Image taken from http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/CadresFenetre?O=NUMM-106138&I=6&M=pagination . Third and fifth unnumbered page.

2a. Alphabet

2b. Ligatures, etc.

or view PDF of the ligatures page.

C-4. From Elementa Graecae Linguae (Erfurt, 1745) [Google books]

C-5. From the appendix to Petrus Ramus' Greek Grammar (1605).

C-6. From Ingram and Wallace, opera cit.