History of Ampersand: from ‘Et’ to &
Ampersand is a sign used instead of “and”.
Logogram of the reproduced Latin word “et” and has many forms.
Etymology of &
The source of the name was someone’s name — “Ampera and”. According to one version, the name of a seventeenth-century typesetter was Manfred Johann Ampère. According to another version, it was stated that André-Marie Ampère.
Ancient time
Pompeii is considered the hometown of the ampersand, where an unknown artist painted this symbol on the walls in the first century A.D.
Also the origin of the sign is associated with Marcus Tullius Tiro, who, at first was an enslaved person and then worked for Cicero by 63 BC. e. and in travel notes while writing fast he invented the method of abbreviated writing. Thus the ampersand became the ligature of “ et” — “and” in Latin.
(examples were not saved)
Then this ligature spreaded out in Europe and became used in each book.
Middle Age
7th-15th century: First books
With the development of writing, book business, calligraphy appeared and quick writing (cursive writing) already shows different spellings of the ampersand:
Uncial script VI-IX centuries:
That time ampersand was written separately and it’s was a conjunction, which meant ‘and’.
By the 9th century, various ligatures of the sign already appeared. And already by that time, the modern form of the ampersand ‘&’ appeared.
Carolingian minuscule 9th century:
Calligraphy skills were improved and calligraphers were searching for new scripts to write faster. Book culture became a great art. Depending on the location, the angle of inclination of script was constantly changing, so several types of ampersand we can see in the perceived books.
15–16th century: Machine time first printing press
At the end of 15th century with the development of the book business in Italy, humanistic italic script (minuscule) appeared, where the slope of the letters increased.
In the 1440s, Johann Gutenberg created a method of printing with movable type, which had a huge impact not only on European culture, but also on world history.
So first typographers started creating new scripts for type machines. He modernized humanistic italic script for printing. So in the first printing books ampersand was ligature of “et” with separate letters.
And when italic font was already developed for typography, when it was already used in the office, “et” had already turned into a ligature:
Also at the same time calligraphy was improved too. In 1522, Ludovico Arrighi published an entire textbook of cursive writing. In 1524, in Venice, Giovanni Antonio Tallente also published a calligraphic textbook, where the influence of the Carolingian minuscule was visible and the ampersand ligature “et” was again written with a capital letter E:
16th century: First typeface: Caramond
The second half of the 16th century was memorable because of the creation of the Garamond type by the French puncher and printer man Claude Garamond. In this typeface there were two main types of ampersand at once: this was the Et ligature, starting with a capital letter, and the usual form &
Fun fact: in the future typefaces there will be a tendency to use & sign in default version, and the Et ligature sign in its italic style, as a memory of calligraphy writing style.
18th century: Transitional Serifs (Antiqua) and Baskerville typeface.
John Baskerville improved paper, the printing press and he needed a new ink for his type machine, blacker and faster drying. Therefore, the old fonts were not suitable for all innovations, because they looked rough. And Baskerville around 1762 transformed to the type. Therefore, at this time, the ampersand underwent a transformation into a more elegant form: ITC New Baskerville.
Slab serifs: 19th century, England
At the same time with the incredible success of the grotesques, at the end of the 1820s, another direction was developing.
Differences of the ampersand at this time:
- serifs become bars and their size increases.
- stroke contrast.
What else is typical for this time:
Ampersand has one-side serif, because of low contrast to save sign readable type builders removed half of serif from one side.
Sans Serifs: the late 19th century
In Sans Serifs only one kind of ampersand left , the most familiar to us -&,
Contrast, serifs and decorative elements disappeared. The popularity of the ampersand was also falling in solid texts, now the sign was used mostly in headings and titles. And ampersand was removed from solid texts too.
20th century: Geometric Sans Serif: Futura
Futura ( founder, Paul Renner) came a long way from the first concept to the final version, where the types of the ampersand also changed:
Present time
Now you can’t see & in continuous texts, because there is more information, more text, the text isn’t long for art, it’s just for getting information that needs to be read quickly. Therefore, this time ampersand is used for display and as a decorative element in posters, headlines, logos, calligraphic works.
Branding with &
The ampersand itself is a very expressive element, so designers use only this sign to create the whole design system:
Resources:
1. JAN TSCHICHOLD ‘’Formeiawandlungen der &-Zeichen’’
2. https://www.artlebedev.com/bibliotekus/
3. Каллиграфия Богдеско И. 2005, Агат
4. Великие шрифты. Шесть из тридцати. Кн. 1. Истоки Ефимов В.2006, ПараТайп
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