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The punctuation should also be carefully considered. Everything in
bibliography is at present very much over punctuated, half, if not two
thirds, might be dispensed with to the lessening of the expense, and the
great advantage in the appearance.
Imagine you are copying a sentence instead of a title page, and
punctuate and put capitals accordingly. If writing that a work was by an
author, nobody would write By, neither need it have a capital for a copy
of a title.
Mr. Henry Stevens has advocated and adopted this method in his later
catalogues and notably in the:—“Bibliotheca geographica and historica or
a catalogue of a nine days sale of rare & valuable ... books ... et
cetera ... with an essay upon the Stevens system of photobibliography by
Henry Stevens GMB [_i.e._ gatherer of musty books] ... [with a
photograph of] Ptolemy’s World by Mercator 1578 Part I. to be dispersed
by auction by Messrs Puttick and Simpson ... London Henry Stevens at the
Nuggetory 4 Trafalgar square July 25 1872.”
The title, which I have abbreviated nearly one third, has upwards of two
hundred words in it without a single mark of punctuation, except after
“Part I.” where it seems to have got in by accident. Throughout his
titles, he uses stops very sparingly. Any word which is complete
requires no stop. Thus: “vols” requires no stop after it, because it is
a finished abbreviation, but vol. does[28].
Footnote 28:
Mr. Stevens’ work contains an essay on catalogues, teeming with useful
suggestions, as indeed might be expected from one who has had such
long and varied experience.
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