[DCRM-L] Diacritics on Latin title pages: to transcribe or not to transcribe?

[Jennifer K. Nelson]

I have a question regarding diacritical marks on Latin title pages. I 
apologize in advance for not being able to typographically reproduce the 
diacritical mark in this email; I will be representing the diacritical 
mark by an apostrophe which is standing in for either a grave or acute 
accent and explaining in parentheses what the apostrophe is standing 
for.  Here are some examples:

1. Latine' reddita a' R.P. Ludovico Ianino (grave over the "e" in Latine 
and over the "a")
2. maxime' Francorum (grave over the "e" in maxime)
3. tituli quae & rubricae vulgo' nuncupantur (grave of the "o" in vulgo)
4. iure tam civili qua'm pontificio occurrentes, nunc primu'm 
integritati suae restitutus (grave over the "a" in quam, "u" in primum)
5. denuo' maximo labore vigilantia'que recognita (grave over the "o" in 
denuo, acute over the "a" in recognita

Since Latin doesn't actually have diacritics, the diacritics in these 
title pages were added to distinguish perhaps a long from a short vowel 
(#1, although not consistently over every long vowel, just some of 
them), or maybe to give pronunciation guidance for non native speakers 
as to where to put the stress in the word (the accent on the "a" in 
vigilantiaque is an indication of both a long vowel but also a flag for 
a change in pronunciation of the word necessitated by the "que"), or for 
a reason I can't quite put my finger on ("quam" for example, is a one 
syllable word and the "a" is a short vowel. so I'm not sure why that 
grave is there).

In any case, the rule in DCRM(B) regarding diacritics is:

0G1.1. Letters and diacritics. In general, transcribe letters as they 
appear. Do not add accents and other diacritical marks not present in 
the source. Convert earlier forms of letters and diacritical marks to 
their modern form (see Appendix G2). In most languages, including Latin, 
transcribe a ligature by giving its component letters separately. Do 
not, however, separate the component letters of ae in Anglo-Saxon; oe in 
French; or ae and oe in ancient or modern Scandinavian languages. If 
there is any doubt as to the correct conversion of letters and 
diacritical marks to modern form, transcribe them from the source as 
exactly as possible.

My question is regarding this last sentence. Does this mean that it is 
correct either to transcribe these diacritics or not to transcribe them, 
depending on how much doubt that you have that they should or should not 
be there? In other words, if you know that the word "denuo" doesn't 
actually have a grave accent on it, can you take it off, but if you 
don't know that, you should transcribe it?

I hope that my question is clear.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Jenny

-- 
Jennifer K. Nelson
Reference Librarian
The Robbins Collection
UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall)
Berkeley, CA 94720
Tel: 510.643.9709
Fax: 510.642.8325
jnelson at law.berkeley.edu
www.law.berkeley.edu/library/robbins/