Page:The practice of typography; correct composition; a treatise on spelling, abbreviations, the compounding and division of words, the proper use of figures and nummerals by De Vinne, Theodore Low, 1828-1914.djvu/223



UOTATION-MARKS of commas only, put in the outer margin, were used by Morel of Paris before 1557. Menage's marks, made a century later, were of this form: « ». They were put in the centre of the type body, so that they could be reversed and printed in pairs for the beginning and the ending of a quotation. They were not common in books of the eighteenth century. When English printers did decide to mark quotations, they refused the French form, and made a very awkward substitute by inverting two commas for the beginning and using two apostrophes for the ending of the quotation. The quote-marks so substituted “ ” are what Moxon calls a makeshift device, for these signs, wrested from their first purpose, are not symmetrical mates: the apostrophe