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The Long S

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21–30 of 83 posts

Re: The Long S

#22
post #18
post #3

Read the preface to the 1st edition of this thing, and prepare for your mind to be blown: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douay%E2%80%93Rheims_Bible Keep clicking "next" on this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1609_Doway_Old_Testament.... In summary, they (the authors of Douay-Rheims) based their bible translation on Jerome's 4th century Latin translation because they believed that the extant Greek and Hebrew versi…

Why do pages end on a line with a single word set flush right?

That's a preview of the first word of the next page. I guess it helps to switch between pages more smoothly.

Re: The Long S

#23
post #18
post #3

Read the preface to the 1st edition of this thing, and prepare for your mind to be blown: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douay%E2%80%93Rheims_Bible Keep clicking "next" on this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1609_Doway_Old_Testament.... In summary, they (the authors of Douay-Rheims) based their bible translation on Jerome's 4th century Latin translation because they believed that the extant Greek and Hebrew versi…

Why do pages end on a line with a single word set flush right?

That's the catchword, the first word of the next page. It helps with keeping the pages in the correct order when binding the book. It could also be an aid when reading aloud, to give the reader one word of "buffer" when turning the page.

Re: The Long S

#24
post #18
post #3

Read the preface to the 1st edition of this thing, and prepare for your mind to be blown: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douay%E2%80%93Rheims_Bible Keep clicking "next" on this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1609_Doway_Old_Testament.... In summary, they (the authors of Douay-Rheims) based their bible translation on Jerome's 4th century Latin translation because they believed that the extant Greek and Hebrew versi…

Why do pages end on a line with a single word set flush right?

I would guess it is to aid a speaker reading aloud so as not to have an awkward pause between pages.

Re: The Long S

#26

I bought a 1st edition KJV (1611 reproduction) that had these all throughout. I couldn't make it past the introduction by the 'tranflators'

It always reads as if they were liſping.

Re: The Long S

#27
The rules governing long ſ differ between languages, ſee German Wikipedia: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langes_s#Regeln_in_anderen_Spr...

The German rules are thus quite eaſy (contrary to the article):

- never long ſ at the end of a ſyllable (mid-word or end-word)

- everywhere elſe, uſe long ſ

On a German Linux ſystem it is conveniently mapped to Right-Alt+s

Re: The Long S

#28
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

W, v and j were still pretty novel letters at that point. j was typically used as a final form for i/j so you will see things like the roman numeral for 3 represented as iij. V tended to be used for U/V in capitals and u for u/v in lowercase. W was often not a letter that was part of a typefont and writing VV or vv was the only way to represent it in print. The sixteenth century was the point where u and i became the…

Yes, but there are 'w's in the text. Mixed in the same sentence in one case with a 'vv'. > ...we ſend you here...you receiued the New...therof shal not now... > ...impediments, which hitherto haue long hindered this vvorke...

I would guess it's to justify the text. People would also add/remove unnecessary vowels to fit a line better.

Re: The Long S

#29
My theory is typography killed the long s. It was much more visually distinct in handwriting, in type it just looks like an f without a line.

Re: The Long S

#30
post #20
post #7

I always wondered where the integral sign was coming from. This gives a very simple explanation: it's just the letter 's', the shorthand for sum!

It’s also smoother than the sigma, which visually incorporates the fundamental theorem of calculus. In general I’m glad we use Leibniz’s notation and not Newton’s, because my handwriting is messy. Though I did use dot and dot dot in physics long ago.

And the uppercase sigma (Σ) used for summation is basically the Greek 'S' (i.e. S for "Sum"). So it's just another S.

Also, the capital pi (Π) used for product notation, is basically the Greek 'P' (i.e. P for "Product").

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