124 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
S I obferve from a letter inferted in 
your valuable Magazine, that Mr. 
Tooke’s View of the Ruffian Empire has 
been perufed with critical attention; I 
fhall be obtiged if your correfpondent can 
inform me where Macieyovitch is fituated, 
which is meniioned in Mr. Tooke’s 
work. Z. Zs 
July 8, 1800. 
¢ —<E 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SiR, 
ROM the time of the appearance, in 
your Magazine fer June 1798, of 
fome facis oppoled to the account which 
the compilers of the ‘¢ Zacyclop. Britan- 
#ic@’” had given under the article Punce 
tuation, I have intended to tran{mit to 
you fome obfervations on the introduction 
and object of the varicus points, or pauies, 
ufed in writing and printing: but not 
having yet found letfure for the accurate 
Invelligation which I then propofed to 
make, and not feeing any likelihood that 
I foon fhall, I now fatisfy myfelf with 
pointing out a few facts, which may tend 
to throw fome light upon the antiquity 
and progyefs of this uleful art. 
That various points, for the guidance 
of readers ard orators, were made ufe of, 
in writing, by the ancients, long before the 
fixth century of the Chriftian era, is evi- 
dent from the following paffage of Ist- 
DORE of Spain, bifhop of Seville, on 
punctuation, which he calls pofitura, in 
his Origines five Etymologte; in which he 
Jays down the general rules and method 
of pointing, not as a new invention, but 
as a known and eftablithed practice. 
‘6 Poftura ef figura ad diftinguendos 
fenfus per cola & commata, © periodos: 
que, dum ordine fuo apponitur, fenfum 
nobis Icétionis oftendit. Dicie autem 
pofiture, vel quia punétis pofitis annotan- 
tur: vel quia ibi vox pro intervallo dif- 
tintionis deponitur. Has Greci Séceis 
vocant, Latini pofituras. Priva pofitura 
fubdifinGio dicitur, eadem & xoupa. Me- 
dia difingtio fequens eft: ipla 8 xw Aor. 
Ultima diftin&io que totam fententiam 
ciaudit, ipfa ef geciodog cujus, ut diximus, 
partes funt x0 Aoy & xouuce : quarum diver- 
fitas punéts diverlo joco pefitis demon- 
ftratur. Ubi enim in initio pronuncia- 
tionis necdum plena pars fenfus eft, & 
tamen refpirare oportet, fit comma, id eft 
particula fenfus pun@ulque ad imam* |i- 

* My copy has in both thefe places umawz; 
but, Lam perfuaded, erroneoufly. 
On Ancient Pun€iuation. 
[Sept. 1, 
teram ponitur, & vocatur fubdittin&io, 
ab eo quod punétum fubtus, id eft, ad 
imam* jiteram, accepit. Ubi autem in 
fequentibus jam fententia fenfam przitat, 
fed adhuc aliquid fupereit de fententiz ple- 
nitudine, fit colon, mediamque literam 
puncto notamus, & mediam diftin@icnem 
vocamus, quia puncium ad mediam lite- 
ram ponimus. Ubi vero jam per gradus 
pronunciando rlenam fententiz clau!ulam” 
facimus, fit periodus : punctumque ad ca- 
put literze ponimus ; & vocatur difinégtio, 
id eft disjun€tio, quia integram feparat 
fententiam.”’ 
From this paflage we learn, that the 
ancients only diftinguifhed three paufes, 
which they termed comma, colon, and pe- 
riod: andof courfe, that the fewicolon is 
only a modern invention: that the comma 
was the mark of a ftop, or paufe, tor 
breathing, where, theugh the fenfe was 
incomplete, it was proper to refpire; and 
was deno‘ed by a point placed under, or 
at the bottom of 2 letter, and was fer that 
reafon called fubdifiinétio «—that the colon 
diiinguifhed an entire, but not a finifhed, 
fenfe; was marked at the middle of a let. 
ter; and was there‘ore denominated media 
diffinétio :—that the period was marked at 
the top of a letter, aod diftinguithed a fie 
nifhed fenfe, and the clofe of a fentence. 
. Hence it appears, that the ancients afed 
finple points, or dots enly, as marks of 
paules in reading; and that they diftin- 
guifhed them into commas, colons, and pe« 
riods, merely by pofition. 
Ot the aétual flate of pun&tuation in the 
various manufcripts of the clafiic writers 
of antiquity, which have come down to 
us, I fay nothing, becaufe I have but 
little experience. 
A great variety of other marks were 
made ufe of, for very various purpofes, 
by the ancients, befides the points which 
regulated the paufes: but thefe being now 
obfolete, I fhail not particularly notice 
them; but refer fuch perfons as with for 
information to the tweniieth chapter of the 
fame work of IsipoRus. 
In a future letter, I fhail fend you fome 
fa&is and obfervations on the ftate of 
pointing in printed bocks, from the year 
1483, which is the date of the earlieft 
printed book in my poffeffion, till after the 
time of the invention and general ule of 
the femicolon; which, aftcr long palling 
as acontraCtion of we in que, as in ‘6 arwa 
virumg;, was mtroduced into printed 
books in its prefent charagter, as a fto 
or paufe, foon after tne middle of the fix- 
teenth century 3 but does not feem to have 
obtained a firm and univerfal eitablith- 
ment, 
