Sentence:  The art of deciphering ancient writing in manuscripts or diplomas. It is distinguished from epigraphy, which provides rules for reading carved inscriptions, and from diplomatics which studies the intrinsic character of written documents, while <WSD>palæography</WSD> concerns itself only with written characters and the classification of documents by their external characters. / ... <WSD>palæography</WSD> has become the basis of all study of historical, religious, or literary texts. There are as many branches of <WSD>palæography</WSD> as there are different kinds of writings, but the science of Oriental written characters is as yet hardly formed. / ... Kopp, in his “Palæographia Critica”, laid the foundations for Oriental <WSD>palæography</WSD>, while devoting himself exclusively to Semitic languages. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  (paleography) (study of ancient forms of writing).