Book on the origin of typographic symbols
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 ?












































10.Nov.2005 10.56am
“Pause and Effect” by M B Parkes has a lot of that stuff (ITO origins if not usage).
hhp
10.Nov.2005 11.04am
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).
10.Nov.2005 12.21pm
There’s a section in Bringhurst that talks about them all as well.