4.0609 17th C. Typography -- Apostrophes (1/13)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Thu, 18 Oct 90 20:03:53 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0609. Thursday, 18 Oct 1990.
Date: Thursday, 18 Oct 1990 07:38:49 EDT
From: "Patrick W. Conner" <U47C2@WVNVM>
Subject: 4.0599 R: 17th C. Typography -- Possessives (1/32)
Although I studied this sort of thing in a textual criticism course
at the University of Maryland twenty years ago and have forgotten
much, and although I have not instances of the type faces to look at,
I wonder whether the apostrophes used in the italic font are not
inverted commas. If so, then the answer may be that the Roman
commas didn't look right when inverted, and since the convention
of noting possession by apostrophe had not yet become the standard
(is that so?) the compositor could do both. You need more examples
from the same shop and other shops at the same time to determine
whether the practice was ubiquitous, shop-style, or due to a
compositor's ideosyncrasy.
--Pat Conner