Editing Semicolon (section)

== History ==
[[File:De Aetna 1495.jpg|thumb|De Ætna. 1496 print by [[Aldine Press]].]]
In 1496,{{efn|Note: this is February 1495 by the [[Venetian calendar]], or MVD in [[Roman numerals]]. Several texts mention the earliest printing year as 1494 without any attested source. This may be due to a misunderstanding: the text ''De Aetna'' itself recalls a conversation from September 1494 ([[Gregorian calendar]]); the earliest attested printing occurred in February 1496 ([[Gregorian calendar]]).{{r|Kidwell}}<ref>{{cite web |last1=Nuvoloni |first1=Laura |title=Pietro Bembo and the University Library copy of the De Aetna of 1496 |url=https://inc-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=2143 |date=2012-08-09 |publisher=Cambridge University Library |access-date=2022-10-26 |archive-date=2022-10-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221026124035/https://inc-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=2143 |url-status=live }}</ref> See also the [[Colophon (publishing)|colophon]] at the end of the book: ''impressum venetiis in aedibus aldi romani mense februario anno M.V.D.'' ("printed in Venice at the [[Aldine Press|house of Aldo]] in February 1495 <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[more veneto|m.v.]]<nowiki></nowiki>]").<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mariano |first1=Bianca Maria |title=Il "de Aetna" Di P. Bembo E Le Varianti Dell'edizione 1530 |journal=Aevum |date=1991 |volume=65 |issue=3 |pages=441–452 |language=Italian |jstor=20858679}}</ref>}} the semicolon {{char|;}} is attested in [[Pietro Bembo]]'s book ''{{interlanguage link|De Aetna|it}}'' printed by [[Aldus Manutius|Aldo Manuzio]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bembo |first1=Pietro |title=De Aetna |date=1496 |language=Latin |location=Venice |publisher=Aldus Manutius |url=https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/view/bsb00048024?page=4,5 |access-date=2022-10-23 |archive-date=2022-10-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221023004153/https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/view/bsb00048024?page=4,5 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Kidwell>{{cite book|last1=Kidwell|first1=Carol|title=Pietro Bembo: Lover, Linguist, Cardinal|date=2004|publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press|location=Montreal|isbn=978-0-7735-7192-1|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=QW53CtsRG5gC&pg=PA12 12]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QW53CtsRG5gC|access-date=2021-02-25|archive-date=2021-03-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301100649/https://books.google.com/books?id=QW53CtsRG5gC|url-status=live}}</ref> The punctuation also appears in later writings of Bembo. Moreover, it is used in 1507 by [[Bartolomeo Sanvito]], who was close to Manuzio's circle.{{r |n=parkes |r={{cite book
 |last=Parkes |first=Malcolm Beckwith |author-link=Malcolm Parkes |year=1993 | title=Pause and Effect: An Introduction to the History of Punctuation in the West |publisher=University of California Press
 |isbn=0-520-07941-8}} |page=49}}

In 1561, Manuzio's grandson, also called [[Aldus Manutius the Younger|Aldo Manuzio]], explains the semicolon's use with several examples in ''Orthographiae ratio''. In particular, Manuzio motivates the need for punctuation (''[[wikt:interpungo#Latin|interpungō]]'') to divide (''[[wikt:distinguo#Latin|distinguō]]'') sentences and thereby make them understandable. The [[comma]], semicolon, [[Colon (punctuation)|colon]], and [[full stop|period]] are seen as steps, ascending from low to high; the semicolon thereby being an intermediate value between the comma {{char|,}} and colon {{char|:}}. Here are four examples used in the book to illustrate this:<ref name=manuzio>{{cite book |last1=Aldo |first1=Manuzio |author-link=Aldus Manutius the Younger |title=Orthographiae ratio |date=1561 |language=Latin |location=Venice |page=[https://lib.ugent.be/europeana/900000017204?pg=PA52 52] |url=https://lib.ugent.be/catalog/rug01:001753275 |access-date=2022-10-25 |archive-date=2022-10-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221025210425/https://lib.ugent.be/catalog/rug01:001753275 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{r|parkes|page=49}}

<blockquote>
''Publica, privata; sacra, profana; tua, aliena.''{{efn|Manuzio notes: using just commas here is not sufficient, and using a colon instead of a semicolon would slow down the sentence too much.{{r|manuzio}}}}<br />
Public, private; sacred, profane; [[wikt:thine|thine]], another's.<br />
<br />
''Ratio docet, si adversa fortuna sit, nimium dolendum non esse; si secunda, moderate laetandum.''{{efn|Manuzio notes: if there were a comma after ''non esse'', then the sentence would be as if rushed forward head-first; however, since the sentence is in two parts, it must stop for a little bit before continuing. Moreover, he says, we can't use a colon, since ''Ratio docet'' governs both parts of the sentence equally, not just the first.{{r|manuzio}}}}<br />
Reason teaches, if fortune is adverse, not to complain too much; if favorable, to rejoice in moderation.<br />
<br />
''Tu, quid divitiae valeant, libenter spectas; quid virtus, non item.''{{efn|Manuzio shows another example of where we need a semicolon instead of a colon; ''Tu'' and ''spectas'' govern both parts of the sentence equally.{{r|manuzio}}}}<br />
You, what riches are worth, gladly consider; what virtue (is worth), not so much.<br />
<br />
''Etsi ea perturbatio est omnium rerum, ut suae quemque fortunae maxime paeniteat; nemoque sit, quin ubivis, quam ibi, ubi est, esse malit: tamen mihi dubium non est, quin hoc tempore bono viro, Romae esse, miserrimum sit.''{{efn|Manuzio notes, this passage is taken from [[Cicero]]'s letter to Torquatus (see ''[[Epistulae ad Familiares]]''). He uses this example, he says, to show situations where both the semicolon and colon are needed for division.{{r|manuzio}}}}<br />
Although it is a universal confusion of affairs(,) such that everyone regrets their own fate above all others; and there is no one, who would not rather anywhere else in the world, than there, where he is, prefer to be: yet I have no doubt, at the present time for an honest man, to be in Rome, is the worst form of misery.
</blockquote>

Around 1580, [[Henry Denham]] starts using the semicolon "with propriety" for English texts, and more widespread usage picks up in the next decades.{{r|parkes|p=52}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ames |first1=Joseph |last2=Herbert |first2=William |title=Typographical Antiquities: Or an Historical Account of the Origin and Progress of Printing in Great Britain and Ireland: Containing Memoirs of Our Ancient Printers, and a Register of Books Printed by Them, from the Year MCCCCLXXI to the Year MDC. |date=1786 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k-hWAAAAcAAJ |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=k-hWAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA942 942] |access-date=2022-10-23 |archive-date=2022-10-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221023004138/https://books.google.com/books?id=k-hWAAAAcAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Around 1640,{{efn|According to the [[British Library]], the book was "written in 1623 and lost in a fire, but rewritten and published after Jonson's death".<ref>{{cite web |title=Ben Jonson's The English Grammar |url=https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/ben-jonsons-the-english-grammar |website=British Library |access-date=2022-10-22 |archive-date=2022-10-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221023004139/https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/ben-jonsons-the-english-grammar |url-status=live }}</ref>}} in [[Ben Jonson]]'s book ''The English Grammar'', the character {{char|;}} is described as "somewhat a longer breath" compared to the [[comma]]. The aim of the breathing, according to Jonson, is to aid understanding.<ref name=jonson1692>{{cite book |last1=Jonson |first1=Ben |author-link=Ben Jonson |title=The Works of Ben Jonson, which were Formerly Printed in Two Volumes, are Now Reprinted in One. (3rd folio) |date=1692 |publisher=Printed by Thomas Hodgkin, for H[enry] Herringman, E. Brewster, T. Bassett, R[ichard] Chiswell, M. Wotton, G. Conyers |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/workesofbenjamin03jons/page/690 690] |url=https://archive.org/details/workesofbenjamin03jons}}</ref>{{efn|The 1640 version of the text calls the character {{char|;}} a ''sub-distinction'',<ref name="jonson 1640">{{cite book |last1=Jonson |first1=Ben |author-link=Ben Jonson |title=The English Grammar |date=1640 |page=83 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nVxRAAAAcAAJ}}</ref> the 1692 version names it a ''semicolon''.{{r|jonson1692}} Moreover, the order of the comma and semicolon seem to have been reversed by mistake in the 1640 version. Thus, the comma is mistakenly described as having a longer breathe than the semicolon.{{r|jonson 1640}}}}

In 1644, in Richard Hodges' ''The English Primrose'', it is written:<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hodges |first1=Richard |title=The English Primrose, 1644 |date=1969 |publisher=Menston, (Yorks.) Scolar P. |isbn=978-0-85417-116-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/englishprimrose100hodg/page/n109 N3] |url=https://archive.org/details/englishprimrose100hodg}}</ref>
<blockquote>
At a comma, stop a little;
[...]
At a semi-colon, somewhat more;
[...]
At a colon, a little more than the former;
[...]
At a period, make a full stop;
</blockquote>

In 1762, in [[Robert Lowth]]'s ''A Short Introduction to English Grammar'', a parallel is drawn between [[punctuation|punctuation marks]] and [[Rest (music)|rest in music]]:<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lowth |first1=Robert |title=A Short Introduction to English Grammar: with Critical Notes ... |date=1762 |publisher=J. Hughs |location=London |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=dJSangEACAAJ&pg=158 158] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dJSangEACAAJ&pg=158 |language=en |access-date=2022-10-24 |archive-date=2023-04-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230425204104/https://books.google.com/books?id=dJSangEACAAJ&pg=158 |url-status=live }}</ref>

<blockquote>
The [[full stop|Period]] is a pause in quantity or duration double of the [[Colon (punctuation)|Colon]]; the Colon is double of the Semicolon; and the Semicolon is double of the [[Comma]]. So that they are in the same proportion to one another as the [[Whole note|Sembrief]], the [[Half note|Minim]], the [[quarter note|Crotchet]], and the [[Eighth note|Quaver]], in Music.
</blockquote>

In 1798, in [[Lindley Murray]]'s ''English Grammar'', the semicolon is introduced as follows:<ref>{{cite book |last1=Murray |first1=Lindley |author-link=Lindley Murray |title=English Grammar, Adapted to Different Classes of Learners. With an Appendix, Containing Rules and Observations, For Assisting The More Advanced Students to Write With Perspicuity and Accuracy. |date=1798 |edition=4th |location=London |publisher=Wilson, Spence, and Mawman |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=yF1iAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA226 226–227] |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yF1iAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA226 |chapter=Part IV: Of Punctuation. Chapter II: Of the Semicolon |access-date=2022-10-24 |archive-date=2022-10-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221024165037/https://books.google.com/books?id=yF1iAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA226 |url-status=live }}</ref>

<blockquote>
The Semicolon is used for dividing a [[Compound sentences|compound sentence]] into two or more parts, not so closely connected as those which are separated by a comma, nor yet so little dependent on each other, as those which are distinguished by a colon.

The semicolon is sometimes used, when the preceding member of the sentence does not of itself give a complete sense, but depends on the following [[clause]]; and sometimes when the sense of that member would be complete without the concluding one; as in the following instances.
</blockquote>