Re: [Emacs-diffs] master 9ce1d38: Use curved quotes in core elisp diagnostics

[Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu>]

Richard Stallman wrote:

>    > https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:I_littera_in_manuscripto.jpg
>
> Where could I find an explanation of those symbols?
> (I even can't see what they are, in that image.)

That fragment is old Roman cursive.  Most (but not all) those symbols are Latin 
letters expressible in ASCII.  Here's a text transliteration:

   uobis · ujdetur · p · c · decernám
   prólátis · rebus ijs · júdicibus · n
   imponátur quj · jntrá rerum
   jncoháta · judicia · non · per
   defuturas · ignoro · fraudes · m
   multas · aduersus · quas · exc

The "·" is an interpunct; it separates words, and some would write "·" rather 
than " · " when transcribing.  The accent over some vowels is an apex, and 
indicates that the vowel is long.  The transliteration uses Unicode acute 
accents for apices, which is standard practice nowadays, as the Unicode doesn't 
have apices and the acute accent is the modern descendant of the apex.

You can find a longer discussion of this topic here:

http://avitus.alcuinus.net/schola_latina/litterae_en.php