This volume inaugurates the new series LautSchriftSprache - ScriptandSound, grounded by Paola Cotticelli-Kurras (University of Verona, Italy) and Gaby Waxenberger (University of Munich, Germany). It deals with writing systems ranging chronologically from the cuneiform of the II millennium B.C. to present day alphabets, and geographically from the Middle-East and the Caucasus to the continental Europe and the Mediterranean Area. Graphemics is the inspiring research object of this new series and of this volume in particular as a multidisciplinary approach connecting philology, language history, language policies, epigraphy, semiotics, and the new emerging computational disciplines. While not an independent subject, graphemics deserves its own space among the many scientific approaches to language and culture. Historical graphemics is the special topic of the present volume, and describes both common and independent structures of writing systems, which represent cultural products, local knowledge stemming out from many traditions throughout time and space. LSS 1 topics include metalinguistic terminologies and concepts, and also the research issue of the language contact from the perspective of writing (systems) at all levels.