8. Le Moyen Âge, la Révolution Française, Die französische Revolution.
The French, however, now generally print le moyen âge, la révolution
française. Capitals are to be avoided, because in the short sentences
of which a catalogue consists they confuse rather than help the eye.
For this reason it is better not to capitalize names in natural
history whether English or Latin (bee, rana pipiens, liliaceæ, etc.).
Several libraries following the lead of the Congress catalogue have
discarded capitals for German nouns. Grimm’s authority is alleged
in justification, but Grimm’s example is followed by a very small
minority even of German scholars, and the titles so printed still
have an awkward look to most readers. The Boston Public Library also
goes to an extreme in its avoidance of capitals, not using them for
such proper names as methodists, protestant episcopal church, royal
society, etc.
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.