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

[Ted P Gemberling]

Jain,
Thanks for pointing me to G5. Somehow I missed reading that last week. I think it answers my question since it mentions that "W and w must have been scanty in cases of roman type," so compositors frequently used VV or vv. I believe in this case it makes sense to transcribe as vv unless the letter is clearly a w. See OCLC # 828116011 if you'd like to see what I did.

Thanks again, Ted Gemberling

From: dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu [mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu] On Behalf Of Fletcher, Jain
Sent: Monday, April 22, 2013 12:06 PM
To: DCRM Revision Group List (dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu)
Subject: Re: [DCRM-L] Typography question: vv vs. w

Hi, Ted,
   I'm not quite sure what you are asking here, but you might want to check DCRM Books, Appendix G (specifically G4 and G5) to see if they address the issue you are raising...
                                                                                                --Jain
Jain Fletcher
Principal Cataloger & Head, Cataloging Section
Collection Management Division
Library Special Collections
Young Research Library - UCLA Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575
v: (310) 794-4096
From: dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu<mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu> [mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu] On Behalf Of Ted P Gemberling
Sent: Monday, April 22, 2013 9:37 AM
To: DCRM Revision Group List (dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu<mailto:dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu>)
Subject: [DCRM-L] Typography question: vv vs. w

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

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