Book on the origin of typographic symbols

cedilla10 Nov 2005

I'm looking for a good reference book on almost forgotten and/or no longer used symbols (ex: ¤, §, †, ‡, etc.)

Not that I don't know anything about these, but I'm doing a bit of typographic education for non-typophile friends/collegues that want to know the origin and use of special symbols.

Any suggestions ?

hrant10 Nov 2005#

"Pause and Effect" by M B Parkes has a lot of that stuff (ITO origins if not usage).

hhp

Norbert Florendo10 Nov 2005#

I used to use the Chicago Manual of Style for teaching about proper usage of footnote symbols, section/double section marks, daggers, double daggers, &c.

You might want to try finding one the your local library, as I had a much older version and don't know if they deleted all the good 'ol stuff (I doubt they did).

bshaykin10 Nov 2005#

There's a section in Bringhurst that talks about them all as well.

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