[DCRM-L] Typography question: vv vs. w

[Ted P Gemberling]

I initially tried sending this message to "dcrml-bounces" and it didn't seem to go through. Sorry if I am posting to the wrong address.

I am cataloging a book by Robert Boyle published in 1669. It was printed by Henry Hall in Oxford. I've had some difficulty discerning the typography of v and w in the work. This printer had a capital W in roman type, though in italic he put two capital v's together. The book is mostly in Roman. My first impression was that he had a lower-case w that just looked like two v's put together. But I'm finding other instances where there is a small distance between two v's for a lower-case w. So do you think I should interpret all lower-case w's that I transcribe as two v's: vv? Is that a common thing in books of that age, some variability in how w's were created?

Actually, I notice that even in Roman capitals on the title page, it is sometimes VV rather than W. The W seems to be used in "medium-size" type. If type is small or very large it's vv or VV.

The second volume of the work was printed by Miles Flesher, and he seemed to use w's in all positions, upper- or lower-case. These two volumes will have separate bibliographic records.

Ted P. Gemberling
Historical Collections Cataloger
UAB Lister Hill Library, rm. 234B
1720 Second Ave. South
Birmingham, Ala. 35294-0013
Phone: (205)934-2461
Fax: (205)934-3545

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserver.lib.byu.edu/pipermail/dcrm-l/attachments/20130422/d5c7717d/attachment.html>