From: Alex Martelli <aleaxit@...>
Date: 2003-09-17T01:11:47+09:00
Subject: Re: [OT] Aesthetics of @ and $; [Was: Re: performance and style advice requested]

Mark Wilson wrote:
   ...
> lol. Aesthetically, I prefer @ to $. One is circular, the other is
> serpentine. One represents the spiritual, the other lucre.

Surely you're jesting?  The fine $ symbol is the stylized personal
emblem of Sigismondo Malatesta, the Signore of Rimini (and many other
parts in Romagna, too).  It's an S, for Sigismondo, entwined with a
I, for Isabella, his life-long lover (I believe he did marry her on
her deathbed, actually, so she was his wife for a very short while).

When not totally stylzed, the I is generally depicted as a tree, and
the S a snake climbing the tree -- the tree of knowledge in the
garden of Eden, and the snake tempting man to reach for knowledge
of Good and Evil that apparently he was not meant to possess.

BTW, the best place to admire the $ symbol and reflect on its deep
symbolism and long history is of course the Tempio Malatestiano in
Rimini -- personally I classify it as the masterpiece of Leon Battista
Alberti, and among the true gems of the Italian Rinascimento revival
of architecture.  You'll see the tree-and-snake painted all over the
place, of course.

Nor do I have anything against serpentine symbolism, mind you (would
anyone expect me to, after all?).  I just prefer the $ not to abut
other symbols (such as letters and digits) too directly, whence the
preference for $_foo over $foo.


> Aesthetically, I like a little humor in the threads.

I did think of proposing some outrageous joke, such that the "$"
stood for "dollar", but given the obvious differences between a S
and a d nobody would of course fall for that.  You'd almost think
the symbol was chosen by a bunch of freemason freethinkers who
were aware of the Malatestas' mostly-hidden roles in freemasonry,
Rosicrucianism, and other anti-clerical movements through the
centuries, starting with the Renaissance's rediscovery of Pagan
classicism.  Nah, nobody would ever fall for THAT one, either.


Alex