[DCRM-L] normalized transcription questions. Spanish San/Santa

[Noah Sheola]

A little update. I did find what the Real Academia Española
<https://www.rae.es/dpd/may%2525C3%2525BAsculas> has to say on the first
question https://www.rae.es/dpd/may%2525C3%2525BAsculas (scroll way down to
6.8). If Google translate is not failing me, the san/santa title should be
lowercase, except when, by traditional usage, the title is functioning as a
proper name. This ruling is, well, I think squishy is the technical term,
but I can go with it. I suppose the exception would apply to many (most?
all?) of the saints named on the title pages of books I typically catalog.

On Tue, Feb 15, 2022 at 2:08 PM Noah Sheola <sheola at bc.edu> wrote:

> Hello all,
> First question.
> For the purposes of normalized transcription in Spanish, is san/santa
> considered a title of honor and address? The rules say "Capitalize titles
> of honour and address only when they are abbreviated: señor, Sr.; doctor,
> Dr.; general, Gral". However, in most records, (mine included), the
> prevailing practice seems to be to capitalize San/Santa in Spanish. Are we
> doing it wrong? Or maybe san/santa is not a title of honor and address, but
> is ... something different.
>
> I know in French and Italian, an exception is specifically made for
> saint(e), santo/a, which are lowercase if referring to a person, uppercase
> if abbreviated or referring to a place or building. Is there no such
> exception for Spanish?
>
> Second question. In my work cataloging for a Jesuit Catholic institution,
> I constantly encounter statements of responsibility that read, in effect
> "por [name], de la Compañia de Jesus, y [other name] de la mesma
> Compañia". Would you capitalize the second occurrence of "Compañia"? It
> seems to me that only in the first occurrence is the word being used as a
> proper noun, while the second occurrence is just referring back to it. But
> capitalizing both occurrences is so widespread, I am struck by doubt every
> time I see it. The same formulation, and variations on it, seem to occur in
> most other languages I work with, of course. Very interested to hear your
> thoughts.
> Thank you,
> - Noah
>
> --
> Noah Sheola
> Senior Special Collections Cataloging Librarian
> John J. Burns Library
> Boston College
>


-- 
Noah Sheola
Senior Special Collections Cataloging Librarian
John J. Burns Library
Boston College
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