« The true extent of the Japanese tsunami has been vastly underreported | Main | Confucius Say »

April 2, 2011

The Pilcrow, part 3

apilcrow-gazette.jpg

pilcrow_normal.jpg

Taking pride of place at the head of every new paragraph, the pilcrow had carved out a literal niche for itself at the heart of late medieval writing. Boldly inked by the rubricator, pilcrows grew ever more elaborate and time-consuming to add. Unfortunately the deadline is not a modern invention; occasionally, time would run out before the rubricator could complete his work and the white space carefully reserved for the pilcrow went undecorated. With the advent of the printing press, the volume of printed documents to be rubricated grew exponentially and it became increasingly difficult to attend to them all. The pilcrow became a ghost, and the indented paragraph was born in its stead. -- From the splendid new page, Shady Characters .

pilcrow_normal.jpg

Highly recommended.

Posted by Vanderleun at April 2, 2011 1:29 PM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

Your Say

Post a comment




Remember Me?

(you may use HTML tags for style)