The Ornaments in Swedenborg's Theological First Editions: Line Ornaments

Line Ornaments

Line ornaments create a break in the text by repeating a decorative unit from one margin to the other. As you will see below some of the repeated units are quite simple, some complex and ornate. Thirty-four different line ornaments occur a total of two hundred eighty-two times, each with a variety of frequencies. Nine different line ornaments occur just one time each, while other line ornaments are repeated many times, the maximum being forty-one occurrences (Line Ornament 16). Twenty of Swedenborg's thirty-four line ornaments are roughly one line high; the rest take the space of two lines or more. At times a line ornament is doubled; that is, an ornament that is used elsewhere as a single line ornament will appear twice, one right on top of the other, usually upside down from each other.

Sometimes there are anomalies among them. The first time Line Ornament 03 appears (Arcana Coelestia vol. 1, p. 23) it looks as it does in the scan given below. The same ornament appears another eight times in that same volume, but every subsequent time it appears an individual unit of Line Ornament 01 is inserted between the eleventh and twelfth unit from the left. The same line ornament also occurs fifteen times in later volumes but never with this foreign unit somewhat to the left of center. The spurious unit may have been used to solve a line-width problem. In later volumes parentheses or colons are inserted in the same line ornament, presumably to make the line justify.

The line ornaments mark minor breaks in the text. In Arcana Coelestia a line ornament will appear at the end of the italicized section that begins each chapter (commonly called the "interchapter" material), another after the verses from Genesis or Exodus and the brief statement of their contents, and another before the italicized section that ends each chapter. Elsewhere they appear between a page's main text and its footnotes or dividing a headpiece and a centered title from the beginning of the text itself.

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Line Ornament 01: London

Occurs nine times.
AC1.2,26,150,367,414,502,588; AC6.66,165.

Line Ornament 02: London

Occurs twelve times.
AC1.5,52,541; AC2/I.9; AC6.33,72; AC8.105,244,501,601,674; EU.6.

Line Ornament 03: London

Occurs twenty-four times.
AC1.23,64,84,168,201,249,306,492,543; AC2/II.4,57,/V.5,/VI.8; AC3.350,416; AC6.28,70,167; AC7.52; AC8.595,652, 670,694; EU.51.

Line Ornament 04: London

Occurs twenty-four times.
AC1.28,53,76,120,143,193,376,422,460; AC2/I.39,/III.10,/V.7,/VI.6,62; AC3.72,126,215,273,336,418; AC6.5,106; AC7.5,57.

Line Ornament 05: London

Occurs thirteen times.
AC1.41,126,198,247,303,374,420,458,500,581,624; AC2/I.8,/III.69.

Line Ornament 06: London

Occurs eighteen times.
AC1.49,87,151,237; AC2/II.7,/III.7,/IV.5; AC3.10,84,130,206,286,347; AC6.35,112; AC8.133,375,668.

Line Ornament 07: London

Occurs twice.
AC1.90,128.

Line Ornament 08: London

Occurs four times.
AC1.292,451,530,586.

Line Ornament 09: London

Occurs twelve times.
AC2/IV.8; AC3.12,82,118,213,283,401; AC6.6,115,160; AC7.7,56.

Line Ornament 10: London

Occurs twice.
AC2/IV.76,/V.53.

Line Ornament 11: London

Occurs nine times.
AC3.475,484,556; AC8.100,248,474,555,663,691.

Line Ornament 12: London

Occurs twice.
AC3.486,574.

Line Ornament 13: London

Occurs once.
AC3.571.

Line Ornament 14: London

Occurs three times.
AC3.636; AC7.298,374.

Line Ornament 15: London

Occurs twenty-seven times.
AC4.7,80,146,183,235,288,303,381,443,491; AC5.145,202,241,292,324,372,415; AC6.198,217,261,296,337,374,396,454,
487; AC7.300.

Line Ornament 16: London

Occurs forty-one times.
AC4.10,82,147,185,237,291,306,383,445,493; AC5.7,154,212,251,302,331,426,485,525; AC6.191,196,221,224,253,289,
335,367,386,481,485,524,529,577; AC7.118,124,160,162,293,368,453,459.

Line Ornament 17: London