{{Short description|Personal signature}} {{Distinguish|Signature|Audograph}} {{About|<!--autograph as manuscripts written by their authors and celebrity's signatures-->|autograph as manuscript written by its author|Autograph (manuscript)|collecting of autographs|Autograph collecting|other uses}} [[File:B-a-c-h Reger.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|"[[B-A-C-H]] is beginning and end of all music", signed autograph document by [[Max Reger]] (dated 7 May 1912)]]An '''autograph''' is a person's own [[handwriting]] or [[signature]]. The word ''autograph'' comes from [[Ancient Greek]] ({{lang|grc|[[wikt:αὐτός|αὐτός]]}}, ''autós'', "self" and {{lang|grc|[[wikt:γράφω|γράφω]]}}, ''gráphō'', "write"), and can mean more specifically:<ref name="EB1911">{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Autographs|first=Edward Maunde|last=Thompson|volume=3|pages=45–47}}</ref><ref name="Webster's">[[Philip Babcock Gove|Gove, Philip B.]] (ed.), 1981. ''[[Webster's Third New International Dictionary]]'', p. 147. {{ISBN|0-87779-206-2}}</ref> * a [[manuscript]] written by the author of its content.<ref name="EB1911" /><ref name="Webster's" /> In this meaning the term ''autograph'' can often be used interchangeably with [[holograph]].<ref name="EB1911" /><ref name="Tomita">{{cite book |last1=Tomita |first1=Yo |date=2016 |chapter=Autographs, Copies and Original Manuscripts |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SCklDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA52 |editor1-last=Leaver |editor1-first=Robin A. |title=The Routledge Research Companion to Johann Sebastian Bach |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SCklDwAAQBAJ |publisher=Taylor & Francis |pages=52–54 |isbn=9781315452807 }}</ref> * a celebrity's handwritten [[signature]].<ref name="Webster's" /> [[Autograph collecting]] is the activity of collecting such autographs.<ref name="EB1911" />
==History== [[File:Ego Ruderico 2.jpg|thumb|Autograph of El Cid]] {{expand section|date=December 2019}} The [[Schøyen Collection]] states that it holds the "world's oldest autograph signature", namely a clay tablet ({{Abbr|Ms.|Manuscript}} 2429/4) from about 3100 BC in archaic [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]], which includes the name of the scribe Gar.Ama.<ref>{{Cite web |title=MS 2429/4 |url=https://www.schoyencollection.com/scribes-collection/scribal-training/lexical-list-oldest-autograph-ms-2494-4 |access-date=2026-05-30 |website=[[Schøyen Collection]] |language=en-gb}}</ref>
Whether an autograph of a major figure of antiquity survives is disputed: Some scholars, especially the American [[Papyrology|papyrologist]] Peter van Minnen, are of the opinion that [[Papyrus Bingen 45]] (33 BC) contains a Greek word written by [[Cleopatra]]. The papyrus would thus contain the only surviving autograph of an important figure from antiquity.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Miles |first=Margaret Melanie |title=Cleopatra: A Sphinx Revisited |date=2011 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-24367-5 |editor-last=Miles |editor-first=Margaret Melanie |pages=1–20 |chapter=Cleopatra in Egypt, Europe, and New York: An Introduction |jstor=10.1525/j.ctt1pnvmm}}</ref>
More than a millennium later, an autograph of [[El Cid]] is known, dated 1098.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W-MIChVmZwQC&pg=PA101|title=The Quest for El Cid|first=Richard A.|last=Fletcher|date=1 January 1989|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780195069556|via=Google Books}}</ref>
==Autograph manuscript== {{main article|Autograph (manuscript)}} "Autograph" can refer to a [[document]] transcribed entirely in the handwriting of its [[author]], as opposed to a [[typesetting|typeset]] document or one written by an [[amanuensis]] or a [[copyist]]. This meaning overlaps that of "[[holograph]]".<ref name="Tomita" />
==Celebrity's signature== [[File:Franzl Lang.jpg|thumb|Picture of German yodeler [[Franzl Lang]], autograph (likely for a fan's collection) at bottom.]] {{main article|Autograph collecting}} [[Autograph collecting]] is the hobby of collecting autographs of famous persons.<ref name="EB1911" /> Some of the most popular categories of autograph subjects are [[president (government title)|president]]s, [[military]] [[soldier]]s, [[athlete]]s, [[movie star]]s, [[artist]]s, [[social]] and [[religious leader]]s, [[scientist]]s, [[astronaut]]s, and [[author]]s.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Collection: Autograph Collection {{!}} USF Libraries - Tampa Special Collections ArchivesSpace |url=https://archives.lib.usf.edu/repositories/2/resources/53 |access-date=2023-02-03 |website=archives.lib.usf.edu}}</ref>
==See also == * {{Annotated link |Asemic writing}} * {{Annotated link |Profiles in History}} * [[Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence]], stone blocks with depicted signatures * {{Annotated link |Autograph show}} * {{Annotated link |Law of agency#Allograph}}, specifically a signature made by an agent on behalf of a principal
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==Further reading== * ''Collecting Autographs and Manuscripts'' by Charles Hamilton, Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1961, 269 pages. * ''Autographs and Manuscripts: A Collector's Manual'' edited by Ed Berkeley, Charles Scribner's Sons Pub., 1978, 565 pages. *T.J. Brown's series on Autographs in [[The Book Collector]].
==External links== {{Commons category|Autographs}} * {{HathiTrust Catalog|008611000|The Autograph}} (early 20th-century periodical, full view)
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[[Category:Manuscripts]] [[Category:Signature]]