At 19:50 +0200 2001-06-08, Marco Cimarosti wrote:
> > Is there a codepoint for MEDIEVAL AMPERSAND, which looks like modern
>> DIGIT SEVEN, so much so that in modern books DIGIT SEVEN is used to
>> transcribe it?
>
>Yeah! That's U+204A (TIRONIAN SIGN ET). I thought it was modern Irish; is it
>medieval?
No, it is Roman. It derives from the Tironian shorthand system. It
was used in medieval manuscripts, particularly in the insular
tradition of writing (Irish and Old English manuscripts). It has
never fallen out of use in Ireland, and, although typographically a
digit 7 (alas) is sometimes used for it, it's even appearing on "Pay
and Display" parking signs as "Íoc 7 Taispeáin".
-- Michael Everson
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