[meteorite-list] "f" instead of "s" - 1770's style

From: Sterling K. Webb <kelly_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun Dec 5 19:41:39 2004
Message-ID: <41B3A4FB.F4A56DB8_at_bhil.com>

Hi, All,

    An Orthography thread on a Meteorite List: sort of the ultimate Off-Topic! But fascinating.
    Mark, if you are looking at originals, take a close look at those "f's" you've been seeing in the XVIIIth century press, you'll find that they are not quite regular "f's." They have only half a crossbar. That is, a short crossbar is to be found only on the left-hand side of the upright and not on both sides as would be the case with an "f."
    In English typography, the "stretched s" like a thin integral sign is found only in the Italic fonts where it originated. This letter form has the disadvantages of being harder to cast into type than most letters, of wearing out faster, of breaking more easily, of being harder to ink consistently, and of being less readable because it fills up both ascender and descender space. Printers never liked that letter.
    So, even by the early XVIIth century, it was replaced by the modified half-crossbar "f," which is a durable letter form and can even be easily made by cutting the right-hand crossbar off some extra "f's" with a penknife!
    We look at the half-crossbar "f" and don't even notice this tiny change because we do not expect to have to distinguish between two different letters, but an XVIIIth century reader "read" this distinction as effortlessly as we tell the difference between a plain dot and a dot with a tail (period and comma). Some typecasters emphasized the difference by making the right-hand crossbar on the true "f" longer than the left-hand one.
    As for consistency, Doug, besides being the hobgoblin of small minds, everyone spelt and lettered as the spirit took them within the broad framework of the language. Shakespeare spelled his own name seven different ways (including Jaxs Pere). Jefferson is writing right at the beginning of 30 year long transition that eliminated the half-crossbar "f" for "s" in print, so he wobbles between the "old" style and the "new" style, and as always, he was ahead of the curve. On the other hand, I have seen handwritten documents as late as the 1840's that preserve the "long s." Some folks just don't like to change.
    But English can do without a system in which the word "selfless" comes out looking a lot like "felfleff"!


Sterling K. Webb
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MexicoDoug_at_aol.com wrote:

> Hi again Martin (Bernard, Bernd, Mark and all others on this), and thanks again for all your last posts. That is a heck of an analysis. Let me complement it with a more humble one comparing how Handwriting got Typeset and why (IMHO) in the 1770's by English intellectuals residing in America. I'll take Englishman Thomas Jefferson, who changed nationality upon writing the document below. So by the 1780's Great Britain and the new US writers probably liked that style given the intellectual community established standards of typeset formality. I like this example as Jefferson has gotten a lot of flack for what I now understand were political comments never sustantiated anywhere firsthand in writing about the lying Yankee professors and Weston fall, so it is also insightful to understand his thought process on nature. He was considered a genious, by the way, IQ estimated at 172, and had quite a sense of humor right to his death on July 4, 1826.
>
> 1. Jefferson wrote a draft US declaration of independence in June 1776 using a semicursive style without any f-type ("integral sign" type) "s". His penmanship isn't much different to that of today regarding this, inclusive he uses the script "s" and the print "s" apparently without distinction I see, however it is easier for his hand while writing.
> 2. Jefferson did not capitalize nouns in his writing, but when it was typeset, all nouns are capitalized.
> 3. Capital "S" in Separation typed as modern capital "S" in the printed version released by General Congress and read by Washington to the troops in New York on July 9, 1776.
> 4. The noun "god" was not capitalized by Jefferson. This appears in the phrase "nature's god" he wrote. In the print version, it was capitalized, as all other nouns.
> 5. Lower case "s" beginning "should" from Jefferson typed as "f"
> 6. The "s" used at the end of words in the typeset release was the modern "s".
> 7. So it seem quite possible to me that a combination of German printing expertise and their use of the "f", and in order to sidestep the argument of whether to capitalize Jefferson's god, i.e., nature's god, led to the German style typeset used, rather than a progressive one reflecting the way the progressive intellectual community wrote at the time... Thus the "f" even at this time is a typeset artifact, just as the loops that connect the ct at the end of words in the typeset version, not evident in Jefferson's handwriting.
> 8. The f-type "Intergal sign" "s" has even been implicated in the formation of the dollar sign "$" pillar or pillars still in use today.
> 9. Not that this is more complicated than a simple character substitution for the purists as "s" had it's uses and was available as a character:) at the end of words. I recall reading the word: Congrefs for Congress.
>
> Saludos from a cold cloudy Mexico,
> Doug
> PS: Source documents:
> Images of the original documents and my transcription here for convenience:
>
> http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/decp1.jpg
>
> Jefferson's handwritten draft without before his own corrections:
>
> When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for a people to advance from that subordination in which they have hitherto remained, & to assume among the powers of the earth the equal & independent station to which the laws of nature and nature's god entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to change.
>
> We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equale & independent; ...
>
> Jefferson's handwritten self-corrected draft:
>
> When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate & equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's god entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
>
> We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equale; ...
>
> http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/uc06330.jpg
>
> When in the Courfe of human Events, it becomes neceffary for one People to diffolve the Poltiical Bands which have connected them with another, and to affume among the Powers of the Earth the feparate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a deccent Refpect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they fhould declare the caufes which impel them to the Separation.
>
> We hold thefe Truths to be felf-evident, that all Men are created equal, ...
>
> --------------------------------------------------------
Received on Sun 05 Dec 2004 07:16:59 PM PST