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).