The names of languages are not to be capitalized in the Romance languages, as “traduit de l’anglais,” “in francese.”
Titles of honor are not to be capitalized in the Romance languages, as _comte_, _conte_, _marchese_. But _Monsieur_, _Madame_, _Signor_, _Don_, _Donna_ always begin with capitals.
Use capitals (or, better, small capitals) for numbers after the names of kings (Charles III. or Henry IV.) and for single-letter abbreviations (A. D., B. C., H. M. S., F. R. S. E., etc., or A. D., F. R. S. E., etc.). But n. p. no place, n. t. p. no title-page, may be in lower-case letters or small capitals, and b. born, d. died, ms. manuscript, should be in lower case.
207. Let each entry consist of four (or five) sentences:
1. the heading, «Cicero», Marcus Tullius. 2. the title, including editors Brutus de claris oratoribus; erkl. and translators, von O. Jahn. 3. the edition, 2e Aufl. { 82} 4. the imprint, as given by the book, Berlin, 1856. 5. the part of the imprint added by the cataloguer, O.
Which, if not the first title under Cicero, would read:
— Brutus de Claris oratoribus; erkl. von O. Jahn. 2e Aufl. Berlin, 1856. O.
Separate by a ; the title proper from the phrase relating to the editor, translator, etc. This requires a minimum of capitals. It will occasionally happen that the title can not be thrown into one sentence, but that should always be done when possible. It is usual to separate 4 and 5. The French, however, make one sentence of them (Paris, 1864, in–12). This has the advantage of agreeing with the best form of quoting a title (“see his Memoirs, London, 1874, O. in which,” etc.). It is useless for one who abridges titles to make any attempt to follow the punctuation. The spelling should be retained, but it is hardly worth while for Short or Medium to imitate the old printers in their indiscriminate use of i and j, u and v.
A library may have a collection of books or a few volumes which from their rarity deserve to be catalogued with every bibliographical nicety, with the most exact copying of punctuation, spelling, and forms of letters, and even with marks to show where the lines of the title end. Such collections are the Prince and the Ticknor books in the Boston Public Library, such single books are fifteeners or the rarest Americana. Yet it may be questioned whether a library does well to redescribe books already fully described by Hain, Harrisse, Thiele, Trömmel, Stevens, or Sabin. A simple reference to these works will generally suffice (§ 261).