[DCRM-L] Transcription question: why is our small "s" always an "s" but our small "i" is sometimes a "j"?

[Erin Blake]

Does anyone know why the DCRM transcription rules about early modern
letterforms treat a lowercase "s" different from a lowercase "i"?

An early modern "s" at the front or in the middle of a word has a different
shape than an "s" at the end of the word, but it's still an "s" and we
transcribe it as an "s" (despite long-s being a unicode character).

An early modern "i" at the front or in the middle of a word has a different
shape than an "i" at the end of the word, but we transcribe them
*differently*, using the letter "j" for a terminal "i" (even though it's
not a "j", it's a j-shaped "i").

It struck me particularly when looking at the date on one of Hogenberg's
"Geschichtsblätter" (https://luna.folger.edu/luna/servlet/s/3bm5h6), which
I've attached here. (It's the date of the event depicted in the engraving,
not the imprint, so it's not as weird as it looks).

[image: image.png]
Thanks,

Erin.


______________________
Erin Blake, Ph.D.  |  Senior Cataloger  |  Folger Shakespeare Library  |
201 E. Capitol St. SE, Washington, DC, 20003  |  eblake at folger.edu  |
www.folger.edu
<https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/-t5RCjRgpBtArRXC7R7_2?domain=urldefense.com>
  |  Pronouns: she/her/hers
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