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Show Ancient Writers Had Ide of Punctuation Oar present system of punctuation, which divides written Language Into sections by means of various signs and potato, may be ssld to hare grown j out of a astem developed by Aldus ; Unautlua, aa ' Italian scholar ' sad ' printer, who printed Greek classics oa hts press at Venice la the latter part of the Fifteenth century sad the bo-glaolflg bo-glaolflg of the Sixteenth. Msiiutlua was born In 150 and died tn 1M3. It should not be supposed, however, that Msnutlus wm ths sols Inventor of punctuation, although the nuln feature of the modern system are due chiefly to his Ingenuity and that; of the Greek scholars employed by lilin. Among the later Greeks various dots had been used for oratorical pur poses. Aristophanes, a Greek grammarian gram-marian of Alexandria who died about ISO or 183 B. C., is ssid to have devised de-vised a system of punctuation by means of dots. Prose punctuation of a crude type was probably used even before the time of Aristophanes. In the early part of the Ninth century these earlier systems were so completely forgotten ! that Charlemagne requested scholars to revive them. St. Jerome, who died 420 A. D knew nothing whatever about punctuation. I'athUnder Magazine. |