The indecipherable code behind shorthand notes written by pastor/theologian Andrew Fuller in the 18th century, was cracked in January.
Though baffling academics for generations, Jonny Woods from St Andrew’s University worked out how to read shorthand notes of early sermons left by this leading Baptist thinker.
Fuller, born in 1754, founded the Baptist Missionary Society. Although having written a number of influential works, his early sermons and other documents survived only as shorthand notes.
Confession gives key
They remained inaccessible until Dr Steve Holmes, head of the School of Divinity at St Andrews University found one headed in longhand ‘Confessions of Faith, October 7th 1783’. He recognised this as the date of Fuller’s induction into the pastorate of a church in Kettering and knew that he would have been required to give a confession of faith as part of that service.
Dr Holmes then wondered if a copy of the confession printed in a biography might help him crack the code.
After just a few weeks of being recruited to work on the notes, Woods was able to translate the shorthand, using the longhand version in the same way that the Rosetta Stone was used as a crib to unlock the secret of Egyptian hieroglyphics. Dr Holmes said: ‘To be reading words that no-one had read since he preached them in 1782 – it’s one of those moments you live for as an academic.’ Two sermons have already been translated, and Jonny is working on more of Fuller’s early work.
