[B-Greek] strange looking pi?

David Hindley dhindley at compuserve.com
Tue Sep 26 14:22:30 EDT 2006


Jim,

I've also seen this in the older typeset editions. 

In typeset days, the various letters were stored in bins that the typesetter pulled out and set in the frame one by one. There would
also be additional bins for the final and medial sigma and accented letters. If fonts get mixed up accidentally in those bins, this
could cause differing fonts for the same letter showing up even in the same word. 

The typesetter probably noted the letter forms in the mss or book that was in front of him and knew which bin these correspond to,
and may not have even noticed or cared that he pulled the wrong font. They can work incredibly fast.

Respectfully,

Dave Hindley
Cleveland, Ohio USA

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Original message

Message: 3
Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2006 16:15:17 -0400
From: "Jim Darlack" <jdarlack at gcts.edu>
Subject: [B-Greek] strange looking pi?
To: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID:
	<D3AEC2AA3F97714AAFAE084A23FF22C90254D95B at ham-exchg-1.gordonconwell.edu>
	
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While looking at an old printed edition of the LXX, some friends and I came across a strange character that represents the letter
pi.
 
The character basically looks like a lowercase omega with a line across the top.
 
See the jpeg here: http://www.oldinthenew.org/images/pi.jpg (image of Cardo font glyph U+03D6).
 
As far as I can tell, there's no rhyme or reason why this character is used rather than the regular pi.
 
For instance, both the traditional pi, and this other pi are both used in this scan (http://www.oldinthenew.org/images/pitxt.jpg).
Compare v.
19 with the regular pi to vv. 26/27, 11 & 12 with the strange pi. The strange pi is only used when it begins a word, but the regular
pi is used to begin a word as well. In 26/27, both characters are used in the same word - PROSWPA.
 
Note also the strangely formed beta in the first line in FOBHQENTHS and the second gamma in ANAGGEILWSI.
 
Curious,
 
Jim

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