The Rarest Signature

[@TREYtheExplainer]

*slight correction, when I talk about “the Rijksmuseum” of the Netherlands, I’m specifically referring to the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in the city of Leiden. Please ignore the “Amsterdam” part, that’s a different Rijksmuseum. I got my geography a little confused but hopefully it’s not too distracting.

[@osmosisjones4912]

Preserve someones mind

[@rodrigopazin]

I, Rodrigo, enjoyed the video. Thank you for the content.

[@VRSVLVS]

Your pronunciation of the word "Rijksmuseum" is quite good though. So as a Dutch viewer, I hereby declare that that fact nullified your egregious mistake of suggesting that Leiden is in Amsterdam.

[@Iwatch2019cartoonsobsessively]

I, IWatch2019CartoonsObsessively, declare that this comment is very informal

[@c.r.blankenship9040]

Leiden?? As in Violet Evergarden???

[@VatanKomurcu]

"Do it." -Cleopatra

[@fadillangston9797]

66th like lol. Someone make it 69

[@herusolares5320]

"Make it so."

[@fariesz6786]

i think you'll find it's dw.yt xD

[@Oscar_the_fascist_slayer]

"So it is written so it shall be done"

[@feltfrog]

“execute order 66”

[@hucklebucklin]

The devaluing signatures reminds me of John Green who gave him signing his name for a while today. He has autographed 780k copies of his books in the last 14 years or so. His signature now devalues his books, unsigned copies of certain books are worth more. He had to stop signing the books as he has injured his signing hand for singing too much

[@ffc1a28c7]

that's insane lol

[@JamEngulfer]

I see you too watched his recent video!

[@lucky_clover_4]

Yes I thought it was quite funny that this video was below one of John’s signing livestreams in my subscription page

[@LISHAI94]

31:33 - for a moment I thought he was about to say: "I got a chance to email Cleopatra"

[@Trivial-Dot]

Trey's sources, as always, are immaculate. Got confirmation from the lady herself

[@juanp7021]

She's got the out of office auto response

[@PenguinProvincial-c2v]

[e-mail]

[@skrgrnd]

"As per my last papyrus scroll"

[@comlitbeta7532]

13:14 "...doodle of school childrens..." *The grown ass man trying his best to make a portrait of his wife* ☹

[@gothicfan52]

Better than I can do

[@Livin_Fossil]

I find it funny that if you call Charles "Charlemagne the great" it would technically mean "Charles the Great the Great" as Charlemagne comes from french "Charles le magne" meaning "Charles the Great".

[@UnbreakableTaco]

All things considered, Big Karl was, well, a big enough deal historically speaking to get a redundant title without it being too silly!

[@rateeightx]

Charles "Charlemagne" The Great.

[@justanotherdeerposter]

@@UnbreakableTaco he has a big rock and will take your pcp (sorry if this is absolutely illegible)

[@timothymclean]

Charleduplexmagne the Double-Great

[@juanjuri6127]

I heard Charlemagne the Great once had to walk through the entire Sahara desert with no cash money in his pockets because there were no ATM machines on the way, smh my head

[@someone_stole_my_handle]

1:17 Incredibly funny that this video that probably took months to produce was released only a few days after President Jimmy Carter died, amazing timing on that one. Rip Jimmy, I guess this makes his signature a bit rarer now.

[@KenLieck]

He was a prolific author who was always going on book-signing tours. My girlfriend went to one and had him sign a book and chat because her dad was his close friend, and shortly after that I found another one of his signed books in a thrift store for a dollar...

[@shqip_sumejja]

I'm European but I have family who met him as well and have his signature 😅

[@eighteenfiftynine]

Former former president Jimmy Carter.

[@KenLieck]

@@eighteenfiftynine And former farmer.

[@zhuyu9268]

Incredibly funny that a half hour video that mentions a guy in passing comes out several days after he dies? Thats INCREDIBLY funny? Are you sure? Id call it 'debateably noticeable', not 'incredibly funny'.

[@AlternateHistoryHub]

Messi's signature is literally messy. Simulation writers went wild on that one

[@jesusbrito5165]

As an Argentine I can tell you is an argentinian thing, we try to make unreadable. That's why official forms have the "clarification" space next to the one for your signature.

[@tahamikhan4768]

Yk, trey and you should totally Collab on a What if

[@xlicer]

@@jesusbrito5165was going to comment the same. Is totally an Argentine thing. My mom signature is as equally unreadable

[@cesarmadero05]

There's a dude with the same last name: has his own tomb over with that name in Egypt. There's a tomb with the last name Messi in the Pyramids. Discovered a month later after Lionel Messi won the World Cup

[@neoAREAXIS]

"Fraudsters" ya mean

[@CharlieHustle1687]

I can only assume that there are lots of undiscovered signatures in the Vatican vaults

[@goofoffchannel]

Dont forget those UFO scrolls! 🛸

[@rhov-anion]

As a writer, one thing I was warned repeatedly is to NEVER use my real signature when signing books. This is for security. You have a "personal signature" that you use for banks and government documents, and a "business signature" you use for your readers. Every time I have a book signing, I have to go back and remind myself what my "business signature" is.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

The fun thing is, your signature can be basically anything. It's a confirmation that you agree to the contract, so what you write isn't as important as that it is you who writes it.

[@EspeonMistress00]

I think that's common?

[@ПаніПончик]

I have a stack of documents signed by Stalin. My husband's grandpa was severely injured in WW2, but he survived and lived until the late 80s. My husband inherited a few items when he grew up. My husband is Ukrainian, so Stalin isn't exactly loved by him, but it is still interesting to have those papers signed by the other WW2 guy with a funny mustache.

[@PeachysMom]

I’m jealous, I love history so much. But I’m poor so I would auction those off since I wouldn’t want anything of that evil man in my home either. I bet there are people who would pay a lot for documents like that! I could retire finally lol

[@Volorai]

​@@PeachysMomNot really. Documents signed personally by Stalin especially, and other contemporary heads of state (except Hitler, who was very choosey about his signature because he was a megalomaniac) were and kind of are quite common.

[@nicholascharles9625]

​@@PeachysMomstalin was not evil he stopped an evil though

[@NUCLEARxREDACTED]

@@nicholascharles9625 Tell that to the 800,000 of his own people that he had executed.

[@ahG7na4]

so does he like the other guy? what a disappointment for gramps. the fishing for sympathy while admitting you're nkvd or in any case some kind of insider doesn't make sense and is gross. "I'm Belgian so don't exactly like Leopold"

[@sequoia7837]

Last time Ive been this early to a Trey's video Jimmy Carter was alive and well

[@keinname2481]

I bet someone else already pointed it out but the text at 10:18 below in broken german lettering states that Charles just drew the diamond in the middle with the little thing on top and the rest of the monogram was written by the same person that wrote the rest of the text around it

[@keinname2481]

"Karls Unterschrift von einer Urkunde, gegeben zu Kufstein am 31.August 790 Die Unterschrift Karls, bezw. die Vollziehung der Urkunde besteht lediglich in der eigenhändig gemalten Raute mit dem Winkel zwischen den Buchstaben des königlichen Monogramms, welch letzteres neben den Worten links und rechts vom Schreiber vorgeschrieben wurde."

[@keinname2481]

Charls Signature from a document, given in Kufstein on the 31st of August 790 The signature of Charles, or the execution of the document consists just in the rhombus with the angle drawn by his own hand between the letters of the royal monogram, which was prewritten by a scribe alongside the Words left and right.

[@PeachysMom]

It’s a strange little design lol.

[@JordanMSeverns]

@@keinname2481 seems like a remarkably easy signature to forge. i wonder why he didnt do the letters himself. even an illiterate person could do it with not much practice...

[@ironhead2008]

@@JordanMSeverns I've read that its thought he learned to read fairly late in life and writing for him was difficult due to both difficulty picking up the movements themselves and serious wear and tear on his hands (arthritis, scarring, etc.)

[@ArguablyAStableRambler]

I love it when Trey the Explainer said "Its explainin time" and explained all over the place

[@AyubuKK]

😂

[@staypuft6753]

Should’ve left these comments in 2024

[@86Fallowcp]

@@staypuft6753 older than 2024

[@staypuft6753]

@@86Fallowcp that has nothing to do with what I said

[@haiperbus]

the inquisitive explooner

[@quintessences]

0:15 Wikipedia is a great aggregate of sources and citations for a subject. That’s where I always start is at the citations

[@AbsolXGuardian]

Compared purely to an encyclopedia, Wikipedia is significantly better (on average. Articles vary in quality and you should let an article use the reputation of another). You get more information on each subject and links to lead you to more sources.

[@ffc1a28c7]

For some subjects, it's actually quite good. I'm a mathematician and a long-time (well over 10 years) Wikipedia editor and administrator. Much of the content on mathematics is well-written and quite detailed (unfortunately, there are maybe 20 people actively making math content, so articles are somewhat sparsely updated).

[@bobSeigar]

Sources: 1. American Corporate Broadcasting Propaganda 2-55. Links that Cite Source 1. Wikipedia is less honest than Goebels, and is _far more_ ideologically radicalized. Plus, can anyone answer why the large majority (80+%) of "Contributors" have addresses in Virginia? 😂😂

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

@@bobSeigar Simple, one in 30 virginians really likes writing there. But what is more impressive is that about 1 in 653 virginians knows enough german to contribute on german wikipedia. And 1 in 873 with japanese and 1 in 1203 with russian. Unless of course it isn't 80% of contrbuters. Which is quite likely considering about 0.1% of the world's population live there.

[@zanderrose]

Especially as search engines become worse and worse, flooded with AI slop and SEO-bait, wikipedia is probably the best starting point for any online research. If I were a teacher assigning a research paper I would much rather my students go to wikipedia first and then read the sources referenced by a relevant wikipedia article than ask ChatGPT or even google.

[@JustWowNick]

1:18 damn, rip Jimmy Carter.

[@MrAwawe]

That autograph just went up in price...

[@overlookers]

rest big, Peanut

[@munrocoutu6854]

An Ea Nasir signature would arguably count as a he is a somewhat famous (or infamous) person by now

[@StefanMilo]

29:43 I literally had no idea we potentially had Cleopatra's handwriting. That's cocobananas

[@moreno909bruno8]

A kiwifigs situation, even

[@None-Trick_Pony]

On July 12th, 1973, in St. Louis, a fire broke out on the sixth floor of a building. While it didn't take long for firefighters to arrive, the easily combustible materials stored in the building and consistently low water pressure frustrated the firefighters' attempts to save the building. It took forty-two districts four and a half days in order to quench the fires. Fortunately, despite the difficulties, the fire was contained within the sixth floor. Once the smoke cleared, 16-18 million documents were permanently damaged or completely lost due to the fire or the water used to save them. The documents in question? They were the war records of veterans. 75% of all Navy personnel discharged between 1947 and 1960 and whose names are after James E. Hubbard alphabetically were lost. The army was not so lucky. 80% of all army personnel discharged from 1912 to 1960 were lost. There were no backups ever made. Among those army records were my late maternal grandfather's. The cause of the fire is unknown, but it is believed to have been a careless smoker. Even in the modern era, it only takes a few mistakes for vast amounts of records to be lost forever. Backup everything you can-paper decays, hard drives die, and everything burns.

[@mildly_miffed_man1414]

Stone tablets don’t burn, therefore I shall inscribe all further important texts onto large rocks I find in the woods.

[@CollinBuckman]

28:50 Can't believe everyone is making Star Wars jokes when "make it so" was literally the catchphrase of Jean-Luc Picard smh my head

[@LimeyLassen]

Same!

[@ToadAppreciator]

Not everyone's cool enough to be a Star Trek enjoyer. Gotta have something to entertain the kiddies as well.

[@CourtneyCoulson]

I just came to make the same comment. There was already a pop culture reference right there but he instead stretched to shove an unrelated one in there. Lmao.

[@SeanGyte-g9h]

He's the death star guy though right? Just asking as I'm not a fan of Harry Potter 😂

[@NoobsDeSroobs]

shaking my head my head?

[@TheAlexSchmidt]

It's not quite an autograph since it wasn't on a document or done with a pen or pencil, but in the workshop of the Greek sculptor Phidias a cup marked Φειδίου εἰμί (usually translated as "I belong to Phidias") was found, it could've been that someone else labeled it for him but I imagine because of that there's a pretty good chance we have a surviving example of a clearly notable historical figure from ancient times writing his own name.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Now I imagine people continuously taking his cup and he gets one with his name on it :D

[@kuitaranheatmorus9932]

TREY the Explainer in 2025, easily is the best New Years gift I could get; you're such an icon and am glad you're still making videos like these cause they're so very well informed and very awesome.

[@fiveplussixequals]

EVERYONE STOP WHAT YOURE DOING !! TREY DROPPED !!!!

[@lmzaadi]

Sounds like he’s about to have a baby

[@DeanGilberryCrunch]

Me when I drop my food in the cafeteria

[@Graveyard_Vibes]

Exactly

[@carlospinheirotorres9499]

quiet child and let us consume unperturbed 🤫

[@iankelley9704]

Ikr? I never see his stuff

[@marvelfannumber1]

Surprised that the so-called 'Ashtiname of Muhammad' wasn't mentioned here. It's a document held in St. Catherine's Monastery in Egypt, and while the current copy dates to the 16th Century, it purports to date to the 7th Century, and include the signature of the Prophet Muhammad, in the form of a handprint. Its authenticity has been disputed, but it's still cited in many modern legal cases in the Islamic World with regard to the rights of Christians.

[@JohannesSkolaude]

Interesting.

[@ikk_ikk]

This video mostly focuses on the west and texts found in Latin/Greek script. The Arabs have a much bigger lexical corpus, and several authors penned entire books from over a millennium ago. over the last millennium the collection of Arabic manuscripts when compared on word-per-word basis in Western Museums alone, when they are compared with the collected Greek and Latin manuscripts combined, the latter does not constitute 1 percent of the former as per Yale professor Frank Griffel.

[@ColasTeam]

I wish he had gone into east Asian stuff as well... Also, if the current document is from the 16th century, wouldn't it mean that the signature is a copy as well? I think he was only talking about documents that were physically touched by the person who made the signature.

[@calebsone1630]

​​@@ikk_ikkthe Muslim world doesn't go back that far you're talking about things in the same time period how long ago do you think the religion was founded? Cuz he did bring up Babylon which is in the Arab world.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

@@ColasTeam Yeah I was pretty much waiting for him to move to mesopotamia and china, both would have lots of surviving texts.

[@paulywrath]

David Tennant: "What did I do to deserve this?"

[@janapruskova3620]

To be fair, he's very generous with his signature.. but poor DT :D

[@GameCrafters11]

Signatures are something I love to stare at when I'm at archives investigating. I was very excited when I was working on my thesis and found signatures from Lucas Alamán (Mexican historian from the XIX century), Guadalupe Victoria (first Mexican president) and John Quincy Adams (American president)

[@YOSSARIAN313]

My friend has a handwritten letter from Stalin because his grandfather wrote a letter to Stalin about how his factory boss was an incompetent loser and Stalin wrote back lmao. A collector verified it and offered 30k for it.

[@timothymclean]

What did Stalin say?

[@YOSSARIAN313]

​@timothymclean basically "be patient im looking into it. I appreciate your concern".his boss was demoted two months later. Stalin was kind of a huge nerd about industry and loved hearing input from workers on the topic.

[@jasonbelstone3427]

@@YOSSARIAN313 ... Uh, Demoted, or, "Demoted"? Like, disgruntled, or, no longer visible in photos?

[@YOSSARIAN313]

@@jasonbelstone3427 as far as I know they just made him a regular worker

[@orestiskal4827]

I have been watching your videos since I was a little kid. Since the first time I watched one of your videos till now, as an adult, I will always be fascinated not only but the subjects you choose to talk about but also by the way you choose to talk about them. Please never stop making those videos and doing what you love.

[@Ed_man_talking9]

TREY's no longer a dino? I'm somewhat sad but I'm sure I'll grow to like whatever avatar this is.

[@Vladokaza]

It's a stylised portrait of Trey himself

[@overlookers]

*Locus wearing Giorno's drip

[@y8knsnsnzmzz]

It looks awesome, great art style full of personality. The new face of Trey the Great

[@Austin-gj7zj]

If this is news to you, he also did a face reveal a little bit ago that you may be interested in

[@anthonyhayes1267]

Favorite signature of mine: I ordered a vinyl record from Haroula Rose's bandcamp one year and she took the time to write a thank you note (she has lovely handwriting btw). I was genuinely shocked. Sure, it's not like some fabulously famous musician took the time to personalize an order, but it means something to have someone I idolize do that.

[@bd8622]

You did theodosius II so dirty omg, one of the most iconic monuments in the biggest city in Europe bears his name! He reigned for over 40 years and was very important to the history of Europe even if he wasn’t necessarily that great at being emperor - Maybe the average person doesn’t know him but I bet a lot of casual Rome fans would, and anyone who has looked into late antiquity in Europe. Great vid though, very interesting!

[@cherryfirefly97]

yoooooo the once in a while trey video dropped!!!

[@Paleo_Curious]

Hey there

[@Aaaaaaarrrpirate]

“D’une belle écriture” is more like saying “nice handwriting” or “good handwriting” than beautiful. 23:31

[@Snakie747]

I love this channel. Just has a way to get me engaged in topics I never thought I'd want to know more about.

[@thatgalfromheck6032]

It was driving me nuts I couldn't remember what he had before the face reveal!

[@darkvioletcloud]

The rarest signatures are actually from the kids who come into my work using their parent's credit cards and tell me "I don't have a signature, they didn't teach me cursive in school." and are baffled when I tell them to just scribble down their names.

[@AbsolXGuardian]

I was going to say I think the average person signs fewer things now then they did 20 years ago, due to a lot of it being replaced by implicit digital signatures (pressing a purchase button and the like).

[@SimonClark]

Another banger, Trey

[@thrillshow]

Andy Warhol sent his autograph to the moon. I love that fact.

[@lawrencecalablaster568]

& it was a weird little phallic drawing at that. What a prankster.

[@mildly_miffed_man1414]

Rip andy warhol His lazy ass would’ve loved ai

[@raccoonchild]

Can't stand people who send trash to space no matter how small

[@imdartt]

i find it facinating how the people who signed these had no idea that their signatures would be preserved and studied by historians

[@WintedTindows-x7p]

I never realized this until now, but I give you props for never doing a sponsor ad. Youv'e had over 1 million subs for a while now, yet (to my knowledge) you never tried to make money off of your audience. That's impressive level of restraint & discipline.

[@WILD__THINGS]

I was so enthralled in the video that I didn't even notice that. Great point

[@stefanfranke5651]

Perhaps because his channel is not his main source of income? Other creators do it as their jobs, they have to eat, buy clothes, pay an editor etc.. I find it highly selfish and entitled when viewers tell the creators they watch to not earn money.

[@WintedTindows-x7p]

@@stefanfranke5651 I totally understand and am sympathetic to that. However it's always disheartening to hear a KZbinr you admire say, "And as we all know, our health is important. That's why I eat Athletic Greens every day blah, blah, blah." Because they're lying. They never actually use the sponsor's product. That's the only reason sponsor ads rub me the wrong way. (And bc sponsors have a history of being scams.) But like I said, I understand they do it for the paycheck because they want to continue doing KZbin as their job.

[@anton-purin]

It is actually really sad that Trey does not have a Patreon or any merchandise, so there is no way to support his videos.

[@WintedTindows-x7p]

@@anton-purin I agree. I would buy a trey hoodie or shirt or something lol

[@shironarwhal6145]

When you talked how easily paper disintegrates over a millennium, I looked around at my stash of sketch books and manga collection and had a mini extensional crisis.

[@figlet6427]

I lied. Put your clothes back on. We are watching the new TREY the Explainer banger🗣‼️

[@MattNeufy]

Aww man, I was already nekkid eating cheese balls… *sigh zips up pants…

[@ajzeg01]

That Jimmy Carter signature just shot up in value

[@barbedbeggar5520]

This is one for the ages Trey. Thank you so much, and have a wonderful day.

[@carmelosaurus7480]

You know it’s a good day when there’s a new Trey the Explainer is uploaded.

[@capnmnemo]

There are no more good days. But it softens the hurt.

[@BlackReaper0]

The idea that silent reading is a modern-ish thing is kinda crazy.

[@AlexanderWeixelbaumer]

And the fact that everybody with a computer stops writing by hand makes it even more unique. Imagine in a 1000 years....

[@NawDawgTheRazor]

Signatures are more than scribbles; writing is a defining trait of humanity, and we impart our personality, worldview, and essence into our signatures. It’s why handwritten letters are so much more meaningful than a typed one. In some ways, we feel a connection to a person, a time, a memory through an autograph. Even if they are gone, because they used their own hand, it feels as if their essence lingers in the script. In this, I feel handwritten scripts and signatures from loved ones are equally as precious as from our idols. The Cleopatra and Crazy Horse ones are insane though. Excellent video.

[@Bob-fh4ht]

a east timoran child haunts that jimmy carter signature, trey.

[@berkeleyisonline160]

it's "timorese." 🤓

[@GuyNamedSean]

What could ever be more important than the mundane details of life from a mundane person hundreds or thousands of years after every other detail of their world has decayed and been lost? Our lives are dominated by mundane things. They're what matters most. To know that a man living in a village with a forgotten name some three thousand years ago had the same mundane feelings and mundane struggles that we share today makes them more alive than any boastful legend of conquests and gods ever could.

[@OxoceroTwo]

21:24 Leiden is a different city than Amsterdam! The Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (National Museum of Antiquities) there is, somewhat confusingly, an entirely separate institution from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, which to my knowledge only deals with the arts. (The former has an entire Near Eastern temple on display that they just kind of… took??? Somehow???)

[@perfectallycromulent]

Dutch Wikipedia says the temple was given as a gift by Egypt. It was in a location that was flooded by building the Nasser Dam, so it had to be moved or it would be drowned, along with a bunch of other buildings. The Dutch got it as a gift for paying for some of the expenses of moving those buildings.

[@cheesecroissant8843]

true​@@perfectallycromulent

[@hans7856]

Studying in Leiden is worth a hundred times more than studying at any other Dutch university, since you get free access to the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (RMO). An absolute delight to visit. I strongly recommend it.

[@juancontrerasalvarado1788]

18:03 Signature litteracy is still common in underdeveloped countries. As a med student I've had to help patients fill out consent forms and sometimes old people can just barely write their names, initials or do a simple signature and sometimes they just stamp their fingerprints with ink in lieu of a signature.

[@joshualieberman2265]

Shoeless Joe Jackson is a famous baseball player who could not write and therefore we do not have many signatures by him. He wrote 5 because his girlfriend had to help him with every signature and it took an excruciating amount of time for him to write. His girlfriend signed all his legal documents because it literally took him 30 minutes to sign his name. So the argument for anyone in the last 100 years having hundreds of signatures is not true in his case.

[@MCKevin289]

@@joshualieberman2265 I immediately thought about this too.

[@mildly_miffed_man1414]

Every time I think of him I also think of that one book with the time traveling baseball cards

[@MCKevin289]

@ I loved those books growing up!

[@mznxbcv12345]

This video mostly focuses on the west and texts found in Latin/Greek script. The Arabs have much longer lexical heritage, and several authors penned entire books from over a millennium ago. over the last millennium the collection of Arabic manuscripts when compared on word-per-word basis in Western Museums alone, when they are compared with the collected Greek and Latin manuscripts combined, the latter does not constitute 1 percent of the former as per Yale professor Frank Griffel.

[@Tj-ho2fs]

*shrugs* there’s always going to be a previous culture

[@AlexanderMainzhausen]

Sauce?

[@gasun1274]

Be wary of exaggerated Orientalist claims that try to exotify a non-European culture

[@skeepodoop5197]

"Publius Canidius, we consider you worthy of being tax exempt." Publius Canidius: "Great!" Historians: "Oh... That one didn't age quite so well..."

[@nicklindberg90]

0:47 oh dang that kid's getting Colonel Sanders autograph?

[@sophli64l48]

2:41 Bookstore "Politeia" ain’t no way Trey just casually referenced the most legendary bookstore of Athens 😂

[@rcrawford42]

I'd say that Claudia Severa, who wrote on one of the Vindolanda tablets, is a famous person NOW because her handwriting survived from 100AD, and represents the oldest handwriting from a woman in Western Europe. While a scribe wrote most of the birthday invitation, she added her own words in her own handwriting.

[@BobPantsSpongeSquare97]

This reminds me when The Boulder and Xin Fu sent a signed letter to team avatar demanding the return of their sack of gold but Sokka is only excited that he got The Boulder's autograph

[@timothymclean]

Everything connects to Avatar eventually.

[@calebcook330]

Was so stoked to watch this! I work for an autograph authentication company, and I've held innumerable sports and celebrity autos, but my favorites are always the historical figures. All the presidents, Napoleon, Marie Curie, the Wright Brothers etc.. Most where on mundane documents like you mention, but so cool to see!

[@nooneofinterest234]

My absolute favorite monogram while on the subject is of an obscure king of an obscure kingdom of an obscure period: Mastigas, king of the Mauro-Roman kingdom if you guys are curious go to the wikipedia page of Mastigas and you'll see a very cool monogram. I like it mostly because he lived and ruled in a time just after the collapse of the western roman empire which in my opinion is an obscure part of history and generally overlooked, he ruled a portion of north africa in what is now Morocco so even more obscure since these areas of the empire were overlooked.

[@rusty_562]

Love the fact that Trey owns a signed copy of Small Car Big Wheels

[@ChristianJiang]

I feel like if we expanded the scope of this to ancient Chinese scrolls, we’d easily find manuscripts signed by important people older than 1k years

[@cockroach2]

Depends what you mean by "signed". Until recently, the normal protocol was to use seals ("hanko" in Japanese, I don't know what they're called in Chinese) rather than handwritten signatures

[@Eloraurora]

​@@cockroach2 Would there be a possible gap in documents involving foreigners, who might've had different customs/whose seals wouldn't have been known?

[@auterbug]

Hey Trey, i just wanted to say your videos came to me during Covid times and were a huge source of entertainment for me. I remember watching your entire catalog over the months and then waiting for more! Your videos are always wonderful and something i look forward to. Thanks for getting me through some tough times!

[@neva_nyx]

So we didnt count Enheduinanna? She was a priestess of mesopotamia. She personally wrote poetry about Inanna. We know her name because she wrote it down, perhaps a proper signature in cuneiform.

[@speziell1575]

This was not about writing in general, but about the writing of famous people.

[@neva_nyx]

@speziell1575 in her time, she was as famous as any of the others. She was Sargon the Great's daughter. Today, famous as the only known woman scribe from earl to writing. She counts as not every person mentioned was famous then or now. 🤷‍♀️

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

@@speziell1575 and specifically focused on famous people from the western sphere.

[@jamesnackley5558]

Good to have you back! I really missed your videos. What a great topic!

[@iopvixens]

an extremely minor detail that almost no one here would notice but kinda drives me a bit: in 22:19 the text has te in the second line not the first

[@freshtea228]

A new Trey Video in the first week of a new year. Kinda makes this a good year allready. Love your videos Trey, been here since Mokele m'Bembe ❤

[@cthellis]

Immediate guess: some mark next to a cave painting that we have to assume is an artist’s signature

[@festeringfingerprintvicodin]

HAHAHA trey i have so much signed Garden merch thats so funny, didn’t think i’d see wyatt’s face in a Trey The Explainer video ever 😂❤

[@m1a181]

One of my favourite examples of an eccentric “signature” is Hunter S. Thompson. He was known to shoot copies of his books with one of his handguns for his fans.

[@timothymclean]

That's a lot harder for graphologists to verify. Fans can just shoot the book themselves.

[@natespurgat6245]

For Eisenhower’s signature, he was an army general and therefore probably signed thousands of things during his career, which probably explains his rushed and minimalist signature

[@JuanGomez-gy4nw]

Just hearing your voice is an instant smile 😊

[@theoutsider01]

This was a really nice, a rarely heard side of the history. Thank you so much for your effort in research and putting together the video.

[@etsprout]

Fresh Trey the Explainer?! Happy New Year!!!🎉

[@RRyleM]

From all you shared from this video, (chuckled at your Clone High references) what I liked was your intro on why we like autographs. My favourite type is the kind done by illustrators especially when they do a doodle as part of the autograph.

[@DepressedLemur9]

WOOOOOOOO my favorite youtuber just uploaded 38 minute videooo. Love you man!

[@justwaiting5744]

Trey! This is such a fascinating video! I love how you delve deep into topics many of us wouldn't't consider and the stories are so fascinating the way you tell them. I want to add something here: for many years in the past, a signed photograph from a loved one or even a friendly acquaintance was equally sought. I once read a Moon Mullins comic strip in which Moon's landlady disapproved of his signed photo from his girlfriend and she replaced it with a signed photo of herself. The Marilyn Monroe film 'The Prince and the Showgirl' also touches on this subject. (Interestingly, the picture of Marilyn in the top right corner at 4:26 shows her in a scene from this film.) I guess in the first few decades of photography, it was commonplace to get a signed photo from people you liked.

[@KrazyKaiser]

Extremely jelly of your Jet Jaguar signature, that's legendary.

[@tunguskalumberjack9987]

Same, and I’m surprised that it was just glossed over! My ex-wife and I used to have the Jet Jaguar song as our outgoing answering machine message. (I always find it funny when I have to explain “answering machines” to people who are younger and have no clue what I’m referring to 😆)

[@PeachysMom]

This is such a great channel. Always a topic I’ve never thought about that turns out to be much more interesting than I expected.

[@snarblox]

I literally just rewatched the bigfoot video yesterday, what great timing.

[@maxbeezley7777]

I loved the last section about Native American signatures! Trey, please do more videos on native culture. Your video about big foot as well as this one has opened my eyes to native culture and mythology. Please do more!❤❤❤

[@BiggestCorvid]

Im only at 12:32 but WHAT ABOUT SUMERIAN CLYLINDER SEALS?! Not handwriting but still an autograph of sorts.

[@BiggestCorvid]

Also, on the subject of people being expected to speak while reading ad writing is funny, because you retain less information while reading out loud.

[@CountGremlin]

Did not expect to see Small Car Big Wheels in a Trey video. That's awesome 😂

[@haksin2179]

I love it when the signature is completely unreadable

[@KenLieck]

Alice Walker (The Color Purple) signs all sorts of random ways. I had incredible trouble getting an autographed book of hers verified as authentic -- and it totally didn't help that she had dated the signature in the British way of day/month/year even though she's a Southern US person who apparently never spent any significant time in Europe!?!

[@connemalai8320]

Thank you for your great videos. They always give me such a sense of calm and coziness. Right now im laying in bed, quite sick and your upload was a godsend.

[@generalissima_4279]

so you could make a museum containing the signatures of clone high alumni

[@poughkeepsieblue]

I got a signed and numbered print from my favorite artis for christmas so this dropped just in time. Good show brother.

[@kiryu2659]

Babe wake up Trey posted a new video

[@Alevuss92]

7 years ago I saw a signature that rivals Crazy Horse's: the mark of Massasoit Ousamequin. Yes, the Wampanoag sachem whose actions determined whether the Pilgrims would survive their first Winter in the Americas. He signed 2 documents - a 1621 peace treaty and the 1649 Bridgewater Deed. The original Bridgewater Deed survives in the archives of a small historical society. I had the chance to see it while taking a class called "Working with Archives." The historical society was fundraising to preserve the deed when it was temporarily brought to my university's archives because two of my professors were advising the Society on how to preserve it and interpret its historical significance.

[@freshtea228]

"Crazy Horse" might be understood as "twisted Horse" meaning the Snake and Horse could be a methaphore for his Name. (very farfetched, I know)

[@TREYtheExplainer]

Tȟašúŋke Witkó translates more literally to “His-Horse-Is-Crazy” so it’s best understood as “Wild Horse” or “Senseless”. The crazy is more behavioral than “twisted” like a snake

[@davidpoole5595]

Example Crazy Horse would ride just out of gun range back and forth eyeing the calvary...getting closer every once and a while to make soldier take a shot at him..the soldiers only saw a crazy man on a horse He was distracting them as his soldiers crawled through the grass to get within range of the soldiers

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

@@davidpoole5595 Now that is a leader.

[@evanmaus4794]

I'm proud to own a copy of the book The Trials of life signed by sir David Attenborough

[@-mederick-5252]

Such a good video. Thank you for this! I never wondered about the signatures of long gone historical figures, but this makes it feel like they were just people who lived in the moment and nobody could have questioned their authority.

[@loke6664]

We Swedes have a couple of famous people signatures om stone. A guy named "Fot" was a runmaster and artist around year 1050 for instance, I think that would qualify him as a famous person. We have far older sign runestones that that but then we get into the scribe thing, they are only famous for writing runes and nothing else. I think artists qualify as a celebrity though and he made some impressive stuff. I am sure there are a bunch of famous signatures lying around in museums, and maybe a few in the Herculaneum scrolls as well. They are often very hard and sometimes impossible to identify though.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Don't forget that Halfdan carved his autograph wile deployed in Constantinople.

[@loke6664]

@@HappyBeezerStudios Halfdan and someone named Ári both made graffiti inside Hagia Sophia, yes (the later one wasn't found until the late 1970s and is well hidden). But we don't have a certain identification of who they were, they had both common names. So celebrities is kinda doubtful there and Swedish is slightly more likely then from any of the other viking countries since more Swedes joined but Harald Hårdråda for instance did service there too so it wasn't like people from Norway and Denmark wasn't there as well. It isn't like there are plenty of rune inscriptions saying who wrote the runes, it was very common even earlier then the vikings, but for it to be a celebrity, they also had to make something else besides just write down something, unless it was a poem or they created art with the text of course, as I said, I think artist qualifies as celebrities.

[@setlerking]

(14:49) the reason silent reading is rare in the middle ages is because there's no standard spelling. It's written phonetically (in europe) and thus requiring you to read it aloud to hear the words

[@MCKevin289]

I’m banned from editing on Wikipedia because I edited a non native English speaking mod’s grammar to make it flow better. It may have more to do with me vandalizing the God Complex page to say Kanye West under see also.

[@keinname2481]

Kanye rly should be referenced there tbh

[@MCKevin289]

@ I definitely agree with that lmao.

[@thraelen]

They probably aren’t from notable people, but I was surprised to find very fancy, clearly old signatures carved into the lower rocks at Giant’s Causeway (and even a reference to the Masons and their symbols).

[@grangling]

oh yea baby its trey time

[@PunkMaquiavel]

This was an amazing video, Trey. Using signatures as a window to peer into history was a beautiful construction. Thanks!!!

[@benjarsenault]

THIS VIDEO BELONGS IN A MUSEUM!

[@ozAqVvhhNue]

What a wonderful video :D To stretch the definition of signature as faaar as possible, you could perhaps also include the hand stencils on ancient cave drawings.

[@Alba_Longa]

Click on it solely because I recognise Charlemagne's seal/signature from the thumbnail. Calling Charlemagne "the great" is a bit redundant btw. Le magne part of the name already mean the great in French (Carolus magnus in Latin and Karl der Große in German)

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Doesn't he deserve to be declared king of kings by the department of redundancy department?