[DCRM-L] Invocations

[Deborah J. Leslie]

Dear Tony,

Thanks for your comments (and nice to hear from you)!

Several aspects of DCRM(B) regarding "pious invocations" have increasingly puzzled me, and may be worth further exploration, especially now that the DCRM/RDA group has started its work


*         DCRM(B) 1A2.2  is captioned "Omission of pious invocations, etc.," and proceeds to instruct the cataloger to "Omit, without using the mark of omission, information found on the title page that constitutes neither title information nor a statement of responsibility. Such information may include pious invocations, quotations, devices, announcements, epigrams, mottoes, prices, etc." (This instruction is carried over from earlier rules, probably BDRB but I can't verify at the moment)

*         The title page headed "Iesus Maria" is the first pious invocation I've ever knowingly encountered

*         A medium-thorough skim of Examples to Accompany DCRM(B)<http://www.loc.gov/cds/desktop/documents/DCRMBex/> for examples to 1A2.2 revealed quotations, devices, announcements, epigrams, mottoes, prices aplenty, but no examples of "pious invocations"

*         I'm not completely certain that the "Iesus Maria" at the head of the title really is a pious invocation, although I don't know what else it would be, and can't imagine what a pious invocation might be if not this

*         Why is "Pious invocations" given such prominence in the rules? In my experience, quotations are far and away the most common non-title information, followed by privilege statements and prices. Wouldn't the caption more logically be "Omission of quotations, etc."?

Regarding Tony's query:

*         Surely all pious invocations should be given the same treatment in transcription, regardless of who or what is being invoked

*         Do we really know what we mean by "pious invocations"?

From: dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu [mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu] On Behalf Of Tony Curwen
Sent: Saturday, 23 November, 2013 16:49
To: dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu
Subject: [DCRM-L] Invocations

A week ago Deborah Leslie showed us an interesting pious invocation. Alas, this hasn't proved one of those Friday or Saturday afternoon diversions which elicit comments, questions and further examples.

A question, then: Do the relevant rules apply equally to non-Christian invocations? Once, when hunting for works which illustrated a variety of cataloguing problems, I found a Muslim book entitled Prophet Yunus (Alaihissalam). It is neither old nor rare, but its title shows the pious invocation commonly used after the name of the Prophet Mohammed and also others revered in Islam. I didn't pursue this line of enquiry at the time, so have no idea whether Muslim cataloguers invariably keep these invocations when recording titles and statements of responsibility or sometimes omit them.

[For those requiring a reference, this was example no.2 in my little magnum opus (magnum opus parvum?), ISBD manual : a guide... Paris : Unesco, 1990. The odd copy may still be gathering dust somewhere, long since overtaken by developments].

Have List users other examples of invocations, both Christian and Muslim and perhaps also from other faiths and persuasions?

Tony Curwen
Aberystwyth

Consultant, CERL (retired)
Lecturer, College of Librarianship Wales (even longer retired)


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