Italics and 08-Regular: LATIN SMALL LETTER Q LIGATED WITH FINAL ET

[Alexander-Wilms]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scribal_abbreviation#Marks_with_relative_meaning

https://mufi.info/m.php?p=mufichars&i=1&v=Q

https://mufi.info/m.php?p=muficharinfo&i=4310

Edit: Just discovered that it's already present in EBGaramond12-Regular:

[georgd]

Oh yes, I even put it in the right MUFI spot :D

My issue with the italic version was that I wasn‘t sure about its meaning—the attached supposed 'et' is below baseline and then there‘s the acute accent. Of course, the written word I’d read as 'operarumque' but I wasn‘t sure if I’d have to dissect the glyph further (leaving away the accent). Therefore I postponed it... @Alexander-Wilms do you have more insight there?

[georgd]

There’s one in EBG08 regular as well, displaying the semicolon shape and sitting in the wrong spot (E01C). There’s also the variant with acute accent in E00C. EBG08 Italic has the same but in reversed order (the accented variant in E01C and the unaccented in E00C).

[Alexander-Wilms]

Since the MUFI page doesn't show an accent, I'd leave it away. Maybe it's just another indicator for the omission of "que".
I don't have any further insight, since I'm not a historian or librarian. I just had Latin in school and the Google translation of "Ea in lineas arctior componitur operarumque magis patiens exiſtit." seems to make slightly more sense.

[georgd]

:D OK, being a librarian in most cases doesn’t help here. Even if the librarian loves ancient languages... I’ll investigate more.