The History of Four-footed Beasts and Serpents.

[Nevilledog]

https://archive.org/details/historyoffourfoo00tops/page/n3/mode/1up


Prepare to lose a couple hours.....

[Trueblue1968]

1. i didn't see how old this book is .... HOW OLD IS IT?

[hatrack]

2. 1658 (at the bottom of the frontispiece)

[Nevilledog]

3. This was published in 1658.

[Ponietz]

4. Looks like it was printed in MDCLVIII

[Ilsa]

5. MDCLXIII 1658

I frequently forget that D is 500, and sometimes 4s and 9s throw me because they are the number minus 1.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

6. I'm totally stumped as to what the 'rules' are for deciding which of the two forms of the letter S

is used.

[Nevilledog]

7. Simple.....f is s unless it's an f. Eafy!

[dalton99a]

8. In general, the "tall" s (that looks like f) is used at the beginning and in the middle

of a word, while the "short" s (that looks like s) is used at the end and after the "tall" f. But ff for ss is also common.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

9. Really not seeing any such simple rules in play here in this example ... just sayin

Other than the regular s form if it's at the end of a word, creating a plural, that's consistent.

[dalton99a]

11. They had a system:

[Hugh_Lebowski]

12. Look at the first image, and the very top of the second image ...

The form of S is not even done the same in the SAME FREAKING WORD ... 'beasts'.

This is why I was saying I'm totally stumped, I saw the general patterns, but this particular disconnect made me throw up my hands and go 'there is no f***ing system here!'

[dalton99a]

14. The st is a ligature

where two letters are conjoined - like fi, fl, st, ff, etc

Typesetters and manuscripts generally followed the 'system' but eventually everyone decided to standardize to the modern s (the ligatures are still used)

[Hugh_Lebowski]

15. Just saying the same exact word in two places where the s/f is done differently

Is what made me give up trying to figure out the fyftem in play here.

[Celerity]

10. Long s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_s

The long s, ſ, is an archaic form of the lower case letter s. It replaced the single s, or one or both of the letters 's' in a 'double s' sequence (e.g. "ſinfulneſs" for "sinfulness" and "poſſeſs" or "poſseſs" for "possess"—but never "poſſeſſ" ). The long s is the basis of the first half of the grapheme of the German alphabet ligature letter ß, which is known as the Eszett. The modern letterform is known as the 'short', 'terminal', or 'round' s.

Rules

This list of rules for the long s is not exhaustive, and it applies only to books printed during the 17th and 18th centuries in England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and other English-speaking countries. Similar rules exist for other European languages.

A round s is always used at the end of a word ending in s: "his", "complains", "succeſs"
However, long s is maintained in abbreviations such as "ſ." for "ſubſtantive" (substantive), and "Geneſ." for "Geneſis" (Genesis)
Before an apostrophe (indicating an omitted letter) a 'round s' is used: "us'd" and "clos'd"
Before and after an f, a 'round s' is used: "offset", "ſatisfaction."
Before a breaking hyphen at the end of the line, a long s must be used: "Shaftſ-
bury". (When hyphenation was not required, the word was spelled Shaftsbury, with a round s.)
In the 17th century the 'round s' was used before k and b: "ask", "husband"; in the 18th century: "aſk" and "huſband".
Otherwise long s is used: "ſong", "ſubſtitute".

In handwriting these rules do not apply—the long s is usually confined to preceding a 'round s', either in the middle or at the end of a word—for example "aſsure", "Bleſsings".

[Hekate]

13. Marvellous. How did you come upon this?

[Nevilledog]

16. A tweet.....lol

Link to tweet