![asterix symbol asterix symbol](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/3a/f3/3e/3af33e023e651c662372c36d5b0475ae--teenager-fashion-uber.jpg)
It could be time to switch to numbered footnotes, numbered from 1 to n for the whole chapter rather than starting at 1 on each page. A heavily-footnoted page could work through the following:īut by now you’re probably using too many footnotes on a single page. If you run out of symbols, you might have to start doubling up on them. The pointing hand or manicule* is also seen in the margins of manuscripts, and adds some human interest to the dullest of scriptural documents.
![asterix symbol asterix symbol](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_2pp596wRrQY/SkI856uS7wI/AAAAAAAAAUE/_vwIFeMRZ0A/w1200-h630-p-k-no-nu/asterix1.jpg)
Medieval scribes, and readers who enjoy writing in the margins of books, can get carried away with the possibilities. If you’re writing a book, you can re-use these two indicators on every page, but if you want more than two footnotes on the same page, you have to reach into some of the less rarely seen marks, such as the double dagger (a ‘diesis’) the triple dagger the section sign the pilcrow the ‘parallel to’ and the asterism. Marginal notes were often replaced by footnotes, and the asterisk and dagger were the primary two symbols used for indicating these.Īnother name for the dagger was the obelisk, hence the comic book characters Asterix and Obelix (which are probably familiar to you if you grew up in Europe). Medieval scribes and scholars used a range of symbols to indicate their marginal annotations, and these continued as the printing revolution superseded hand-written manuscripts. This use of the asterisk and related marks has continued right up to the present day. * Perhaps this was a refinement of the asterisk, or perhaps it came first.