Long f as S western Europe

[Sile]

Anyone know the rules of the Long S which looks like an F

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_s

I have need of the rules of how it worked ..............especailly need the Italian rules

I am trying to decifer my surname in the 17th century and have sometimes a long s and sometimes not. Also have some scribes confuse it with a T

 

[Segia2]

Ese larga (ſ) Véase también: S larga El símbolo ſ es conocido como "ese alta" y fue una representación común para el mismo sonido hasta entrado el siglo XIX. La existencia de dos grafías diferentes para la misma letra proviene del griego clásico, en el que la ese griega (minúscula), la letra sigma, tiene dos grafías: σ y ς, que se utilizan de forma parecida a como se empleaban la ese alta y baja. Se usa en minúscula a principio de palabra o dentro de ésta, reservando la ese baja para final de palabra. Segundo Tomo del ingenioſo Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha, que contiene ſu Tercera Salida: i es la Quinta Parte de ſus Aventuras, compueſto por el Licenciado Alonſo Fernandez de Avellaneda, natural de la Villa de Tordeſillas.2 Debido a que la grafía de ſ y de f son parecidas, suelen ocurrir confusiones con la f en la lectura de documentos antiguos.

I think in castilian worked in the same way. The rules: -Long s (in spanish high s) at the beggining or in the middle of words. -Short s (in spanish low s) at the end. This seemed to be inspired by greek use of ortographic sigma, σ and ς. Nota bene: Περικλῆς, Perikles Σοφοκλής, Sophokles Περσεύς, Perseus

 

[Sile]

I think in castilian worked in the same way. The rules: -Long s (in spanish high s) at the beggining or in the middle of words. -Short s (in spanish low s) at the end. This seemed to be inspired by greek use of ortographic sigma, σ and ς. Nota bene: Περικλῆς, Perikles Σοφοκλής, Sophokles Περσεύς, Perseus

thanks

Can the long_s appear in the middle of a word ( surname) before a vowel?

 

[Segia2]

Yes, of course. In the quoted part of my previous post there's a text of "Don Quixote" where you can check this. In fact, short "s" is only used at the ending of a word.

I'm gonna look for a text in XVI c. italian.

 

[Segia2]

Contained in "don Quixote":

Tordeſillas
Alonſo
ingenioſo

 

[Segia2]

Nuovissime, postille, Christophoro, impressa, etc. Dante's Divine Comedy

 

[Sile]

I have also seen many texts where the long s had a dash in it making it look like a long f

it means more work for me........maybe a good thing in the long run