PUNCTUATION.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 15 November 1924, Page 18

PUNCTUATION.

HOW MARKS WERE INVENTED

So*; accustomed are Ave to certain established features of the printed book, such as headlines, pagination, and punctuation, that it is someAvhat of an effort to visualise a .book without these aids to its ready use. “Good punctuation, ’ ’ it; is said, “is an , aid to ready - comprehension of subject matter, .and may be likened to phrasing in - music.” Yet, although _ printing with movable' types was “invented” as early as 1457—the year that Faust, and Sehoeffer printed their “Psalter” —it was inariy years later before consideration of convenience induced the early, typographers to _ adopt such obviously essential auxiliaries ,as punctuation marks (says Johii O’ London’s Weekly). THE FIRST PUNCTUATED BOOK. The “Lactantius,” pointed by Sweynheim and Pannartx at Subico, near Rome, in 1465—besides being the first book printed in Italy—has the distinction of containing the first points other than an oblique line and a period. Qf this book, W. A. Copinger, in-the “Transactions of the Bibliographical Society” (11., ii., 113), says: “As to punctuation the ‘Lactantius,’ printed at*Subiaco in 1465, has a full point, colon, and note of interrogation.”.

This was an interesting departure from the practice of the first printers,' who imitated not only the handwriting —including contractions, combined letters, etc.—hut also the .peculiarities in the M.S. they copied, even the uneven alignment; apparently it took them some time to realise that even lines looked much better. At first, they had the M.S. in mind when setting out to print a hook, and produced not something new and distinctive, hut something closely resembling a M.S.; a hbok, indeed, but oiie slavishly imitating the script of the original and the special features peculiar to hand-written work. As a result, an early-printed hook often looks like one written in formal bookhand. Caxton’s type, by the way, was based on the ordinary Flemish bookhand he saw in MSS. in Flanders, and is said to have been an attempt to reproduce bv means of type his own handwriting. ' A MODERN ART. By the beginning of the sixteenth century hook printing had almost established itself as an art distinct and separate frbm MS. writing. The printed book ceased to reproduce the peculiar features of the written hook, and began to mould a form in accordance with its own characteristics. The need of a standardised system of punctuation now became urgent. To satisfy the need. Aldus Manutius, a Venetian printer, introduced a system of points, based on the dots of the Greek grammarians, by means of which he broke up the continuous lines into words, and separated the words into sentences. \ This Aldine system, mainly due to the invention of printing in the fifteenth v century, l constitutes with some improvements by -subsequent typographers our modern scheme of punctuation.