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Deborah is of course correct. The beginning of the chief title does
not necessarily coincide with the beginning of the title proper and can
be significant for purposes such as added entries. In my little
equation I was focusing on the end rather than the beginning of the chief
title. In defining "chief title" a primary motivation of
BDRB's editors must have been the ability to chop off the alternative
title in situations of very lengthy title propers (like covered in BDRB
1B8/DCRB 1B7). The earlier standard, from Paul S. Dunkin's 1951
<i>How To Catalog a Rare Book, </i>was somewhat lacking in its specific
guidance:<i> </i>"Only when you have a title which would occupy more
than two typed cards should you consider abbreviating it."
<br><br>
Joe Springer, Curator<br>
Mennonite Historical Library.<br><br>
At 11:30 AM 1/31/2005 -0500, Deborah J. Leslie wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite><font color="#000080">Thanks, Joe,
this is good to have on record. </font><br>
<br>
<font color="#000080">I would like to dispute slightly, however, the
assertion that the chief title is essentially the title proper minus the
alternative title. In fact, instead of deriving the definition of chief
title from title proper (regardless of its history; I'm speaking now of
how best to understand and apply these concepts), it works better to
derive the definition of title proper from chief title. Viz., title
proper is the chief title plus any title information or anything
grammatically inseparable that precedes it, plus alternative titles. I
think the example I gave on this list several weeks ago illustrates this
perfectly:</font><br>
<br>
<font face="verdana" color="#000080">Here foloweth a notable treatyse and
full necessary to an crysten men for to nowe and it is named the
Ordynarye of crystyanyte or of crysten men</font><br>
<br>
<font color="#000080">This whole phrase is the title proper, but only
</font><font face="verdana" color="#000080">Ordynarye of crysyanyte or of
crysten men</font> is the chief title. <br><br>
________________________<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><br><br>
Deborah J. Leslie<br>
Folger Library<br>
<a href="mailto:djleslie@folger.edu">djleslie@folger.edu</a><br>
<br>
<dl></blockquote>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
</dl>Joe Springer<br>
joeas@goshen.edu/574-535-7421<br>
fax 574-535-7438</body>
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