I puntini di sospensione nelle grammatiche italiane tra fine Settecento e inizio Novecento

This paper provides an overview of the treatment of the ellipsis 〈...〉 in the history
of Italian grammars, manuals of orthography and punctuation guides published
between the late 18th century and early 20th century. In these works, the ellipsis
is acknowledged with a certain regularity only from the 1820s. On the functional
side, most works approach the ellipsis through the use of mixed descriptive categories,
combining prosodic, rhetoric and pragmatic features. Between the late
19th and early 20th century, some more modern outlines of the ellipsis come to
light, where the focus is set on the functional flexibility of the mark. The paper
also considers some formal properties of the ellipsis, such as the terms used in
grammars to refer to the mark and the number of characters employed to represent
it.