[DCRM-L] Weird use of a ? in a French atlas statement of responsibility

[Erin Blake]

Dear Amanda,

The "?" looks like it's trying to evoke the abbreviations that originated in manuscript culture (and carried over into early printing from moveable type). In this interpretation, the "?" would be a mark of suspension indicating that a truncation occurred: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scribal_abbreviation#Suspension

For others who are curious, here's a scan of the title page: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b550137444/f5.item and here's another example, https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-232145227/view

Erin


From: DCRM-L <dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu> On Behalf Of Attig, John C via DCRM-L
Sent: Thursday, February 29, 2024 8:04 PM
To: DCRM Users' Group <dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu>
Cc: Attig, John C <jxa16 at psu.edu>
Subject: Re: [DCRM-L] Weird use of a ? in a French atlas statement of responsibility

Amanda:

My suspicion is that the letters displayed as a ? were actually superscript letters on the title page – and were recorded as such in the MARC record.  OCLC uses a question mark for characters that it doesn’t know how to display (i.e., characters not in the MARC character set).  This is just one of the joys that occur when a cataloger pastes data into an OCLC record without checking whether all the characters are in fact validly encoded.

John Attig
Penn State, retired.

From: DCRM-L <dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu<mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu>> On Behalf Of Sprochi, Amanda K. via DCRM-L
Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2024 2:47 PM
To: dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu<mailto:dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu>
Cc: Sprochi, Amanda K. <sprochia at missouri.edu<mailto:sprochia at missouri.edu>>
Subject: [DCRM-L] Weird use of a ? in a French atlas statement of responsibility

Hi folks:

Came across a weird thing when cataloging an atlas published in France in 1784.  It's Nouvel atlas portatif : destiné principalement pour l'instruction de la jeunesse, d'après la géographie moderne de feu l'abbé Delacroix / par le S. Robert de Vaugondy, géographe ord? du roi, de S.M. Polonoise, Duc de Lorraine et de Bar, et de la Société Royale des Sciences et Celles Lettres de Nancy, et Censeur Royal.

If you look, yes, you can see the weird random ? after ord, which is an abbreviation of ord[inaire]. At first I couldn't figure out what the heck it was doing there. The title page is engraved so it's not a typesetting error. Then I noticed that other SORs on individual maps in the atlas use the ? as a wildcard for the ends of various words, such as "Geog? ordinaire du Roy &c."  or "Par le S. Robert de Vaugondy Geog? ord? du Roi, de S.M. Pol? Duc de Lorr? et de Bar &c." So it seems it's just a generic symbol for "whatever the end of this word is."

Has anyone seen this before or can steer me towards some literature on the subject? It's not mission critical to cataloging the piece but as a long time French student/speaker I've never seen this before and now I'm curious. Thanks!
aks


Amanda K. Sprochi
Librarian IV/Cataloger
60 Ellis Library

The University of Missouri

Columbia, MO  65211
(573) 882-0461
sprochia at missouri.edu<mailto:sprochia at missouri.edu>

she/her/hers



The University of Missouri occupies the

traditional land of the Osage, Kiikaapoi,

Peoria, and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ peoples.




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