Overview

In this work the author provides a history of punctuation in the West, identifying some of the broader circumstances which have influenced its development. The first part identifies the graphic symbols, and deals with their history - of the antecedents of the repertory as well as of the ways in which it was refined and augmented with new symbols to meet changing requirements. The symbols themselves underwent modification both to remove graphic ambiguity and to improve characterization, in order to distinguish them from each other and from other marks on a page, which provide apparatus ancillary to interpretation - such as those to indicate deletion or correction, ""signes-de-renvoi"", construe marks, indexing symbols, or annotation signs. The second part of this book offers a brief general account of the principal influences which have contributed to the ways in which punctuation symbols have been applied in texts. Copies of ancient texts, produced at different times, reveal that criteria for analyzing disocourse already existed in Antiquity and the early Middle Ages; but as the number of different symbols increased, the refinement in the signals provided by punctuation made it possible for a reader to identify more easily the relationships between the elements of a sentence, and to determine the precise function of each of these structures in communicating the sense of a text. This book is based on three assumptions: that punctuation should be studied according to the ways it has been used rather than the ways some have thought it ought to have been used; that the best way to understand usage is to study it historically; and that a general introduction, however ambitious, is needed. By examining the usages of different periods, comparison helps to isolate those principles which underly the use of punctuation in all periods. The process of selecting the materials to illustrate this history begins with an examination of a series of copies of texts made over a period of several centuries; some of these are reproduced in the plates. In order to explain some features of their punctuation it is necessary to widen the range of selection to include contemporary copies of other texts. In this way principles emerge which could then be checked and modified by examining further copies of a much larger number of texts chosen more or less at random. This study fuses historical, linguistic, literary and bibliographic approaches to the transmission and interpretation of all written language.

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9780859677424

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Reviews

'It is learned, instructive, and thought-provoking at every turn.' The Library 'This is a beautifully produced book which offers readers a rich store of information and analysis...the book as a whole has much to offer a very wide range of interested readers...No reader...could reach the end of this book without fulfilling Dr Parkes's aim of an enormously enriched awareness of the importance of punctuation and of the subtlety of interpretative nuance which attention to the punctuation can bring to the reading of a text of any period.' Review of English Studies 'It will no doubt be the classic treatment for quite some time to come... this is a great book.' Quaerendo

Author Information

M.B. Parkes (1930 - 2103) was Professor Emeritus of Palaeography in the University of Oxford, and Fellow emeritus of Keble College. He was a Senior Fellow of the British Academy, a Corresponding Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America, and had been Visiting Professor at the University of Konstanz (1974 and 1980), James T. Hill Visiting Professor at the University of Minnesota (1991), and Visiting Professor of Latin at Harvard University (1997). He is the author of Their Hands Before Our Eyes: A Closer Look at Scribes and his previous publications include English Cursive Book Hands, both also published by Ashgate.

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