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Aashrita Indurti
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INTRODUCTION Most of us use these Symbols of typography in our everyday lives. The intriguing yet fascinating fact is that these symbols and glyphs have been celebrated in todays world, leaving unnoticed the rich history they evolve from. This book ‘The Quest’ unfolds the evolution of various symbols, their origin and their relevance in todays era. 5
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Ampersand 8
^ Caret Mark 34
* Asterisk 18
†
Dagger 42
@ At Sign 26
“
&
Ditto Mark 50
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AMPERSAND
8
Evolution of the Roman Italics Ligature, 1 to 3, a ligature of E and T.
&
The ampersand is a logogram of the conjunction ‘and ‘used to represent the word symbolically. Traditionally it has been seen as a short form of the phrase ‘per say and’ and is counted as one of the major characters following the twenty six alphabets. The history of the Ampersand dates back to the first century AD to the aspects of the old Roman cursive style where the ampersand symbol is seen as a ligature of the letters E and T. With reference to typography, the ampersand symbol went through a series of variations owing to the different eras that had its influence on typography. 9
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i
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Evolution of the Ampersand symbol
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The new Roman Style saw the ampersand in a more flowy character while the Renaissance saw the introduction of the modern italic type ampersand. The advent of the Carolingian minuscule witnessed the ampersand symbol in a more stylized and bold manner. The Ampersand while writing, is also represented using a lowercase Epsilon with a vertical line imposed on it. Epsilon is the fifth letter of the Greek alphabet, phonetically sounding as ‘He’.
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Marcus Tullius Tiro, an Italian Freedman of Marcus Tullius Cicero invented the ampersand symbol. Also known as the father of Roman shorthand, he is known to have used his own system of abbreviations called Tironian notes in order to speed up writing. The current day Ampersand symbol evolved due to its ease of writing which could be produced in three movements while drawing while the ligature of E and T requires six movements to draw.
The Roman Italic Ampersand
8c Another representation of the and using a ligature of the characters 8 and c.
Use of the Ampersand Symbol in Poetry and Literature 11
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Marcus Tullius Tiro, the Italian Freedman drafting the Tironian Notes 13
A representation of a plump Ampersand walking away from the inn.
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the plump, open armed ‘&’ waving goodbye from the end of the old-world alphabet like an innkeeper framed in doorway candlelight, farewells swelled with hopes of come again. And so the curious character lives on & on - Poet John Reibetanz 15
In Different Typefaces
&
Serif Typeface Adobe Caslon
& &
San Serif Typeface Helvetica
In the Epsilon Form Bradley Hand ITC
16
&
Handwritten Typeface Daniel
&
Archaic Typeface Old English Text
&
In the Ligature form Typo Round Light
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* ASTERISKS 18
Type is Branding* Use of the Asterisk symbol pointing to the explanation below.
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An Asterisk is a typographical symbol used commonly as a pointer to a footnote or an annotation. The word Asterisk has been derived from the Greek word ‘ Asteriskos’ which means little star. Resembling a star, this glyph is represented as a five pointed star in a san serif typeface while a serif typeface shows a six pointed star. The Asterisk initially when introduced was a seven armed glyph with each arm shaped like a teardrop rising from the centre. This was used as a symbol to indicate date of births back in the eras.
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More designers should understand what an opportunity that is. A quote by Elizabeth Carey Smith, Typographer
Use of the Asterisk to explain the quote 19
The origin of the Asterisk symbol dates back to the era of the Sumerian civilization, where the glyph has been evolved from the character ‘ dingir’. The dingir is a star shaped ideogram that symbolised god or heaven. Origen Adamantius, a greek writer and an early Christian theologian first began to use the Asterisks to mark missing Hebrew lines in his Hexapla. He also began using a number of other symbols in his writings
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The Six Pointed Serif Asterisk
The Five Pointed San Serif Asterisk
The Seven Pointed Asterisk
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The Dingir Glyph of the Sumerian civilization and its evolution into eight pointed the Asterisk, top to bottom.
Another theory suggests that Aristarchus of Samothrace, a scholar first began using this glyph while proofreading Homeric poetry to mark lines that were repetitive. The glyph has vital significance in Computer Science, Mathematics, Music, Economics, History and Linguistics. 21
The Sumerians sighting the Dingir, an early representation the Asterisk 22
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In Different Typefaces
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Serif Typeface Adobe Caslon
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San Serif Typeface Helvetica
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In the Epsilon Form Bradley Hand ITC
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Handwritten Typeface Daniel
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Archaic Typeface Old English Text
*
In the Ligature form Typo Round Light
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@ AT SIGN
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@
xyz@nift.ac.in Use of the At Sign in defining an email address.
@
The At Sign today is most commonly the one that we use to define an email address. The initial use saw the At Sign being used in accounting and Commerce.
The origin of the At Sign traces back to the era of 1345, where it appears in a Bulgarian translation of a Greek chronicle by Manasses. The glyph was used in place of the capital letter Alpha A to form the word ‘Amen’.
The At symbol is known as Asperand, Ampersat and Strudel. Its unpopular usage of these names were coined from Spanish and Portugese term ‘Arroba’ or the French word‘ Arobase’ The At Symbol was used as an abbreviation of arroba which translated to a unit of weight in the sixteenth century. 27
e a
A ligature of characters a and e
Another theory suggests that the first At Sign was used outside a monastery and was used a deviation of the pen stroke of the Ă character which means at in Italian. The symbol has also been recorded in a letter penned by Lapi in 1536. Today, the glyph holds a pride of a place in social media posts and email addresses. 28
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A representation of a scene from the Bulgarian translation of Greek chronicle by Manasses, a written verse in Bulgarian language ending with a @.
“крȢмкнѧӡъоковаглавѫникифорцрѣ инапиватъӡдравицѫблгаромь”, “кръщеннеблъгаромъ”, “цртворѡороманалакапнна”, “баснлѥцрьраӡбисамоилацрѣблгарѿ послѣпнєхилїадъблъгарЪ”.
@ Folio №143
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In Different Typefaces
@
Serif Typeface Adobe Caslon
@
San Serif Typeface Helvetica
@
Handwritten form Architects Daughter
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@
Handwritten Typeface Gydiup Std
@
Archaic Typeface Old English Text
@ In the Ligature form Gotham
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CARET
34
r Ca et Mark
^
Representation of the Caret Mark to while proof reading.
^
A caret mark is an inverted V shaped grapheme commonly used as a proof reading mark to indicate where characters are missing and need to be added. Being a grapheme, it is defined as the smallest unit of writing characters. The word is derived from the Latin word Carere that means ‘it lacks’ or ‘to be separated from’. 35
^ ^
^
Representation of a Unicode Caret Mark
The Caret Mark at an inserion point (Representation)
A fullwidth circum flex accent of the Caret. (Representation)
The glyph is called a chevron or a wedge.The first trace of the glyph is evident in numerous Biblical texts and is predominantly seen in Wycliffe’s Bible. Today, the glyph has a versatile use in various fields of Mathematics, Computer Programming, Typography and Writing.
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The glyph derives its basic visual form from the chevron motif or a repetition of the Chevron which was prevalent and widely used in pottery during the Greek civilization. The Chevron Pattern
Decoding the Relevance of the Caret Mark
^
,
,
^ ^ ^ , ^
Depicts a missing comma
Depicts a missing apostrophe
Depicts a missing letter or a word
An alternate form to show a missing letter or word
An indication to show that the word needs to be changed
Depicts missing quotation marks
^
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The Greek civilization with the Chevron holding a considerable position in the depiction on a vase.
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Wycliffe drafting the Bible. 39
In Different Typefaces
^
San Serif Typeface Agency FB
^
Serif Typeface
^
Times New Roman
Handwritten Form Architects Daughter 40
^
Accented Form Gothic
^
Archaic Typeface Old English Text
Full Width Form GothicE 41
† DAGGER 42
‡
†A dagger or an obelisk is a symbol used to represent a footnote. The term obelisk has been derived from the Greek word obeliskos which refers to the phrase little obelus or roasting spit. The glyph was initially represented with a plain line with one or two dots to symbolise an iron roasting spit, dart or a javelin. It was used in order to represent cutting out unwanted dubious content.
dagger symbol traces its history to the period of the Homeric scholar Zenodotus, who first began using the dagger glyph as a symbol of editing. A student of Zenodotus, Aristophanes of Byzantine added his touch to the glyph and modified it visually representing it as an elongated T to increase the ease of comprehension. Aristarchus, a scholar finally modified this glyph and it came to be widely accepted as the Aristarchian Symbol.
The Obelisk glyph has a long history associated with it. Going through a series of changes with the eras imprinting their influence on it, the 43
The glyph was used to edit words which had an ambiguous meaning or an ambiguous origin. The Obelisk was used in combination with another symbol known as the metobelisk represented by two vertical dots or a mallet like symbol or a diagonal slash used to mark the end of a paragraph.
Current Division symbol, a variant of obelus
Current Percentage symbol, a variant of obelus
The bar with a single dot, a variant of the obelus
Current Subtraction symbol, a variant of obelus
Variants of the Obelus, evolution of which forms the modern day dagger.
† Dagger Usage
“The obelus is appended to words or phrases uselessly repeated, or else where the passage involves a false reading, so that, like the arrow, it lays low the superfluous and makes the errors disappear... The obelus accompanied by points is used when we do not know whether a passage should be suppressed or not.”
‡ Double Dagger Usage
A quote by Isidore of Seville, a scholar and the Archbishop of Seville 44
A quote on the usage of the dagger in the olden days and is explained in the footnote format with the dagger symbol used.
A dagger with two handles is known as diases and is used to represent the second footnote and a three handled dagger stands for the third footnote. Today, the glyph is used to represent footnotes, paragraph notes and is also used to indicate the date of birth and the death date of a person, when placed beside a name. It plays a major role as a symbol depicting a multitude of meanings in science, cricket, mathematics, typography and philology.
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‥
Single handled dagger
Two handled dagger
‥ Three handled dagger
Degrees of dagger symbol. 45
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Aristophanes of Byzantine (left) and Aristarchus adding value to the symbol.
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In Different Typefaces
† Serif Typeface Times New Roman
† San Serif Typeface Helvetica
† Cross Form Century751 BT 48
†
Handwritten Typeface Daniel
† Archaic Typeface Old English Text
† Stylized Cross Form Cambria 49
“ DITTO MARK 50
“ “ “ “
The degree of tilt to the right hand side
Ditto Symbols are used to represent a phrase or a words that repeats itself. Represented by a quotation mark pointing to the right side, the word ditto owes its origin to the Tuscan word Detto, a past participle of dire which means ‘said’. The word ditto can be split as di meaning two and too referring to ‘too’ thus putting together a word that says ‘it has happened’. 51
Use of ditto marks to record the names of family members Example Augustus Quintus Ambrose aaaaaaa Juvenil aaaaaaa
“ “
Ditto marks were first introduced in 1625 where the names of the family members would be recorded with the name of the head of the family written first followed by the names of the other members and the surname would be replaced by a ditto mark. 52
The ditto symbol is popularly used today in Computer Science, Typography, Mathematics and Literature.
The Neo Assyrian Verticle Lines used as ditto marks.
““
The visual form of the ditto glyph has been derived from the cuneiform of the Neo Assyrian Period where two vertical marks were used as a synonym of repetitive texts.
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, Use of Ditto marks to show repetition of the last line in the poem.
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″
″ ″ ″
″ ″
-Robert Frost 53
“ “ “
In Different Typefaces
Serif Typeface Adobe Caslon
San Serif Typeface Helvetica
Angled Form Cambria 54
“ “ “
Handwritten Form Daniel
Archaic Typeface Old English Text
Primitive Form Agency FB 55