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

From: MexicoDoug_at_aol.com <MexicoDoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun Dec 5 12:33:18 2004
Message-ID: <71D7E650.116059FA.0BFED528_at_aol.com>

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 12:33:08 PM PST