Vom Stangen-ſ zum Schlangen-s

Vielleicht haben Sie sich ein wenig mit Fraktur befasst, oder mit Sonderzeichen. Da wird Ihnen das lange S, das ſ, aufgefallen sein. Wo kommt das denn her, werden Sie sich fragen.
   In seinem Buch »typographie« bringt otl aicher (1922 – 1991) (er hats leider gern ohne Großbuchſtaben) die geſchichte der Schrift. Und trotz monumentaler Inſchriften iſt das eigentlich eine Story der Handſchrift. Ausgehend von der Schrift auf einer griechiſchen Dipylon-Kanne im archäologischen Muſeum in Athen (»Wer nun von allen Tänzern am munterſten tanzt, der ſoll dies erhalten«) zeigt Aicher die Schriftentwicklung:

The ſ used to look like a ſtick ...

Have you ever thought about old writings, about “broken” letters perhaps, the German “Fraktur”ſ Then you might have noticed the small, long s sign. What’s that?
   In his classic book “typographie” (written in German and English, set in his Rotis) Otl Aicher (1922—1991) shows the history of writing. And that’s—despite monumental texts chiseled in marble—the story of handwriting.
   He starts with the writing on a Greek Dipylon pitcher: “Whoever dances most zestfully shall receive this.” Let’s watch especially the second character, the s:

The uppermost line is the Greek original, dating back to the eighths century before Christ, just turned around to make it readable from left to right. The Greek unzial right below only rounds the characters a bit for easier writing but retains the s.
   Frankly, I had to look up the word “unzial” myself: “Writing that came from rounding Roman capital letters, used in books as early as the second century and standard until the eighths century”, says my Brockhaus dictionary.
   Even in the third and fourth example, the Roman and the semi unzial, the S still looks like the capital S, rounded and serpent-like. As to my knowledge the long s, the ſ, was in use since the early fifties after Christ. Let’s try it: It juſt takes leſs ſpace, ſaves time and room on paper. In writing the s just got longer and ſlimmer, towards the ſ. (I type it here into Microſoft’s word by first chooſing it from the ſpecial charcters, then placing it under Alt-s as keyboard macro. For more ſpecial characters ſee my “Sonderzeichen”-page.
   The laſt two old types before the modern final line are intereſting: In the Carolingian (ca. 800) and the “humanistic” minuscule (1444) the ſ-ſign is long. These minuscules are the “prototypes of our modern ‘lower-case alphabets’”, writes Aicher.

Now here is an example of a printing by Simone de Colines of 1545, “probably a Garamond Roman style”, according to Aicher. And here you find the modern way of ſetting the ſ, ſtill used in Fraktur typeſetting, for example in “munus ſtatim”. Baſically you uſe the long ſ within a word or at its beginning, and the fine, pompous s at word’s end.
   What a pity that we don’t uſe the ſ any more in normal writing. Unicode offers it, and good types have it, at leaſt on ſcreen, if not when printing.

Dipylon, gr. Doppeltor. Das Haupttor des alten Athen. In einer nahe gelegenen Begräbnisstätte wurden bis zu 2 m hohe Tongefäße mit ornamentaler und figürlicher Bemalung geometrischen Stils gefunden. (Brockhaus)
Garamond, Claude, franz. Stempelschneider und Schriftgießer (1480 – 1561); nach Garamond ist der Schriftgrad Garamond oder Korpus benannt, 10 »Didot«-Punkt (nach DIN 16507) = 3,76065 mm Versalhöhe.
   Heute ist Garamond eine Schrift (wie hier in diesem Absatz über Garamond).

Dipylon, gr. double gate. The main entrance to ancient Athens. In a nearby tomb up to 2 m (6½ ') high ceramic vases have been found, with ornamental and figurative paintings of geometric style. (Brockhaus, my humble translation)
Garamond, Claude, French stamp and type cutter (1480—1561). In former times Garamond or Long Primer denoted text sized 10 “Didot” points or 3.76 mm = 10/72 " (in Europe 1 point = .376065 mm, in the US 1 point = 1/12 Pica = 1/72 " = .351 mm). Today Garamond is the name of a font, as used in this paragraph.