1 March 2018
· Tempest-uous typographical trivia ·
There are times when I waxe noſtalgicke for the olde ſpellinges, but never do I miſſe the long or medial ſ, which I am happy to ſay I helped to kill. You may chooſe to believe it or not as you wiſh, but the ſtory of the ſucking bee is goſpel.
from The Gradual Disappearance
of the Long S in Typography
from The Tempest, Act 5, Scene 1, in the First Folio
Mathematicians since Leibniz have used the ∫ form for integrals. They can have it. And if you think I didn’t know what I was writing when I wrote it, you are on the wrong page. You want this one.
Sources/Additional Reading
- • Banner image: a very come-hithery Ariel [wikimedia.org]
- · from The Works of Shakspere, with notes by Charles Knight, 1873
- • The Gradual Disappearance of the Long S in Typography [historyofinformation.com]
- • Of the Long and Short S by Alice196498 [imgur.com]
- • The Bodleian First Folio [ox.ac.uk]
- • In my post of 01 October 2019, Proving My Pudding, I include another example of ambiguous medial ſ typography, from a 1675 cookery book. This one would fry John Bell’s eyeballs.
VERO NIHIL VERIUS