Timothy Bright (Shorthand Part 4)

Summary:
Dr. Timothy Bright (1550 - 1615) was an M.D. who abandoned the medical profession, took holy orders, and later became the rector of Methley and Berwick-in-Elmet in West Yorkshire.

Dr. Timothy Bright published “Characterie: An Arte of Shorte, Swifte and Secrete Writing by Character” in 1588. The only known copy is in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. The book contains about five hundred symbols each representing a word.

The system consisted of an alphabet of 18 geometric letterforms for a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i/j/y, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, x/v/w. The letters k and q were represented by c.

From "History of Shorthand" by I. Pitman

To the end (bottom) of each alphabetic letterform, twelve additional geometric marks could be added. Each letterform was assigned to an arbitrary word starting with the alphabet letter.

From "History of Shorthand" by I. Pitman

Each of the twelve symbols could be laid on its side (left or right) or inverted to obtain more symbols. Therefore, each symbol of the twelve symbols could be drawn in four different positions to represent up to 48 words from each alphabet letter.

While the Bright’s system was original, it was extremely cumbersome to the student’s and practitioner’s memory. Shorthand experts estimate the top writing speed is about 80 words per minute.


Resources:
1. The Dictionary of National Biography (1908, Vol. II, pgs. 1245-47)
2. History of Shorthand by Isaac Pitman (1891)
3. “History of Shorthand” by Mattais Levy. Shorthand and Typing (1896)
4. The Bibliography of Shorthand by by John Westby-Gibson (1887)
5. The Story of British Shorthand by Edward H. Butler (1951)