Originally posted by lesmore49 Exactly.
I've always been fascinated by history and very old books. Back in 1970 I was a first year university student. The university library at that time was about 100 years old (not old in European terms, but getting on in age in North America) and I spent quite a bit of time doing research in this musty, old library.
I came across some rather old books, that I was frankly surprised that they were in circulation and not put away carefully in a locked reference area. One tome in particular was book that indicated on one of the first few pages, that it had been printed during the reign of Queen Anne in the year 1709 A.D.
To me that alone spiked my curiosity to go through it, and when I did, I noticed a liberal use of the letter 'F' in place of where I felt the letter 'S' should be. This was over half a century ago, so the details are a bit fuzzy and I quite probably have my letters a bit mixed up.
Other things noted were archaic spellings of words still in common use in the English language.....also words used that would be considered well out of use nowadays , so much so that these words were difficult to understand their meaning... because they have long fallen out of fashion....from a time where memory is so distant that their meaning is difficult to ascertain in these modern days.
A book that I picked up awhile and I'm currently reading, does touch on some of these issues. The Oxford History Of English, by Lynda Mugglestone.
That was the old calligraphy of S, hence the integral symbol in maths, which was an S for sum, not to be confused with the sigmoid symbol used in discrete maths.
Books older than 1800 are held in a special place in the Bodleian, you need special permission to use them. Newer books are in either open stacks or offsite stacks where you request delivery. Sometimes you ask for one that is fragile. Those are sent to a counter where you need to ask for them, not put into a shelf for self collect.