Re: VMs: d's (8s) and ampersands (&) was; Nick's Strokes etc

[elvogt@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Zitat von Barbara Barrett <barbarabarrett@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

> 
> ...
> My son, reading over my shoulder remarked the ampersand is a ligature of
> "et"?" 

Actually, IIRC in Carolingian MSs you can quite nicely see the development of 
the "et" to the current form.

> (what *did* they teach in school in his day?) and was quite surprised
> to learn that "?" and "!" came from ligatures of "quo" and "lo"
> respectively. No one has ever explained to me where the Hash (#) or the
> asterisk (*) come from 'though? Anyone know?   Maurizio?
> 

>From http://nwalsh.com/comp.fonts/FAQ/cf_32.htm:

"It was also noted that the # is a medieval abbreviation for Latin ``numerus'' -
 it is a cursive 'n' with a horizontal slash through it, much modified and 
abstracted."

(Footnote: Oddly enough, there is a German saying, "to know something from the 
FF" (for being very well versed in it). The "#" sign was used to enumerate 
paragraphs and articles in textbooks, and IIRC was re-interpreted as two 
overlapping capital "f" letters, when the origin "numerus" had been forgotten. 
Interesting "reverse engineering.")

The asterisk, of course, comes from the recipes section of the VM. ;-)

> Barbara
> 

Cheers,

   Elmar


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