Proverb and "n éceflàires"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 2/4/2011 08:00 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>At 4:04 PM -0500 2/4/11, victor steinbok wrote:
>>...
>>>  On dit proverbialement, on ne fait point
>>>d'aumelette sans casser des ¦ufs, pour marquer
>>>qu'il y a certaines chôfes absolument
>>>néceflàires pour l'éxécution des affaires.
>...
>I like the long "f"-like s's, which we've
>discussed earlier in reference to English, that
>show up in French here ("chofes", "nécessaires").
>Can thst "l" be right in the latter word, though?
>I'd expect maybe "nécefsaires", without the grave
>accent on the "a".

Enlarging the page, the word is "néceffaires" --
two long s's, the second somewhat larger and
taller than the first.  The second f (that is,
long s) and its curvature have apparently been
interpreted by someone (the scanner? Victor?) to
make it an l and to place a grave accent over the
a.  (The long s's in this font have no apparent cross-bar.)

This looks like a ligature to me.  "casser" is
set similarly, as is "affaires" (the second f is larger and taller).

Joel

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