They were the period, the semicolon, the comma, the "interrogative," and the parenthesis.
The systematization of punctuation is due mainly to the careful and scholarly Aldus Manutius, who had opened a printing office in Venice in 1494.

The great printers of the early day were great scholars as well.
For a very long time the chief concern of the printer was the opening of the treasures of ancient thought to the world.

They were therefore compelled to be the students, critics, and editors of the old manuscripts which served them as copy.

They naturally took their punctuation from the Greek grammarians, but sometimes with changed meanings.

The semicolon, for instance, is the Greek mark of interrogation.
The period took its name from the Greek word [Greek: periodos], periodos, meaning a division of a sentence or a thought, as we to-day speak of an orator's eloquent periods.
The colon comes from the Greek [Greek: kolon], kolon, meaning a limb.
The comma comes from the Greek [Greek: komma], komma, from [Greek: koptein], to cut.
The semicolon, of course, is the half colon.
The question mark was made by writing the first and last letters of the Latin word _questio_, a question, vertically, [Symbol: q over o] The exclamation point was made by writing the letters of the Latin word _Io_, joy, vertically, [Symbol: I over o] The punctuation marks now in use and treated of in this book are as follows: , comma ; semicolon : colon.