Editing Quotation marks in English (section)

== History ==
In the first centuries of [[typesetting]], quotations were distinguished merely by indicating the speaker, and this can still be seen in some editions of the [[Bible|Christian Bible]]. During the [[Renaissance]], quotations were distinguished by setting in a [[typeface]] contrasting with the main body text (often [[italic type]] with [[Roman type|roman]], or the other way around). Long quotations were also set this way, at full size and full measure.<ref name=typehist>{{cite book |last=Bringhurst |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Bringhurst |date=2002 |title=[[The Elements of Typographic Style]] |version=ver. 2.5 |location=Point Roberts, Washington |publisher=Hartley & Marks |isbn=978-0-88179-132-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780881791327/page/86 86] }}</ref>

Quotation marks were first cut in metal type during the middle of the sixteenth century, and were used copiously by some printers by the seventeenth. In some [[Baroque]] and [[Romantic-period]] books, they would be repeated at the beginning of every line of a long quotation. When this practice was abandoned, the empty margin remained, leaving the modern form of indented [[block quotation]].<ref name="typehist" />

In [[Early Modern English]], quotation marks were used to denote pithy comments. They were used to quote direct speech as early as the late sixteenth century, and this practice became more common over time.<ref>{{cite book |last=Higgins |first=John |title=The Mirror for Magistrates |date=1587}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Truss |first=Lynne |title=Eats, Shoots & Leaves |date=2003 |page=151 |isbn=1-59240-087-6}}</ref>