Paragraphus mark

It marks a boundary or new unit in a historical text. The surrounding passage determines the exact reading.

A related ancient Greek sign, the paragraphos, guided reading through continuous text. In Greek inscriptions it could mark list entries, clause divisions, or boundaries between documents; it appears on durable inscriptions by the late Archaic period.

In medieval European manuscript traditions, related paragraphus forms marked paragraphs, sections, stanzas, and propositions. They helped readers find divisions in dense writing, with conventions that depended on the source.

How is ⹍ different from the pilcrow?

They share a boundary-marking job but belong to distinct traditions.

The paragraphus mark ⹍ and the pilcrow ¶ both mark divisions, but the pilcrow is the familiar sign for ordinary modern paragraphs. It is not a substitute for ⹍ when transcribing a historical source.

Medieval forms varied: manuscripts show one bar, two bars, or none, and scribes sometimes mixed single- and double-barred forms in one manuscript. A neighboring paraph could signal hierarchy or merely distinguish the shapes. In modern writing, ⹍ signals historical transcription or editorial work.