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Primary Source Collection : 6,376 authors / 109,659 titles / 148,535 vols.
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Editorial Guidelines
  1. Title
  2. Except in cases where this becomes overly cumbersome, complete title should be entered in this field. For the use of capitals in non-English book titles, the following rules apply:

    • Dutch, Latin – only the first word, and proper nouns and adjectives are capitalized.
    • French, Italian and Spanish – only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized.

    For the proper formatting of titles, editors should also note the following:

    • genitival forms of the author’s Latinized names should be omitted if it precedes the actual title of the book (e.g. Pauli Testardi Blaesensis ecclesiae reformatae Blaesensium pastoris Eirenikon seu synopsis doctrinae de natura et gratia = Eirenikon seu synopsis doctrinae de natura et gratia).
    • definite/indefinite articles may be included in the title, since PRDL automatically recognizes them as articles and alphabetizes the titles accordingly.
      • current list of articles ignored: The, An, A, La, L’, Les, Le, De (not Latin or French), Das, Die, Dje, Der, Ein, Eyn, Eynn, Ain.
    • given the unstable nature of the use/non-use of accents, ligatures, etc., in the Early Modern era, PRDL’s search function has been programmed to recognize the following as equivalents:
      • y|ij --> y|ij
      • y|w|Uy|W --> uy|w|Uy|W
      • u|ù --> v|u|ü|ù
      • a|ä|â|à|á --> a|ä|â|à|á
      • o|ö|ô --> o|ö|ô
      • e|ë|é|è --> e|ë|é|è
      • c|ç --> c|ç
      • æ|ae --> æ|ae
      • ju|iu --> ju|iu
      • io|jo --> io|jo
      • ia|ja --> ia|ja
      • Io|Jo --> Io|Jo
      • ß|ss --> ß|ss

  3. Publisher Information (Publisher, Place, Date)
  4. Editors are free to leave the publisher or place name as it appears on the title page (e.g. publisher: “ex officiana Elzeviriana” for Elzevier; place: “Trajecti ad Rhenum” for Utrecht). At a later stage, PRDL will be programmed to recognize the equivalents as such for the purposes of searching.

    • NB: “e sumptibus ____” does not identify the publisher but rather the person who financed the printing costs; in some cases, however, it may be the publisher him- or herself who finances the printing.

  5. Notes
  6. These notes will show up as brackets [ ] after the title entry. Such comments normally include:

    1. Missing pages
    2. Contents for volumes with multiple titles (e.g. Opera omnia)

  7. Related Authors
  8. Adding a Related Author causes the title to appear on that author’s page under the heading “Related Primary Sources.” PRDL editors should use this option:

    1. for a work written specifically against that particular author as noted in the title, or in order to defend the views of that author when the latter is specifically identified in the title.
      • e.g. Calvin and Beza for Claude de Sainctes, Declaration d’aucuns atheismes de la doctrine de Calvin et Beze;
      • e.g. Calvin for Moïse Amyraut, Brief traité de la predestination: avec l’Eschantillon de la doctrine de Calvin sur le mesme suiet…
    2. for the lives of authors written by their contemporaries (e.g. Theodore Beza’s Life of Calvin)
    3. for disputation theses. A distinction must be drawn between professorial and student authorship:
      1. in cases of professorial authorship, the name of the respondens when identified may be added as a Related Author if the latter is a historical figure of note (e.g. Theses de vetustate doctrinae papisticae, written by J. J. Grynaeus, defended by J. Arminius). This applies only to the loose pamphlets printed for the occasion of the public disputation; for collected theses such as the Syntagma thesium theologicarum in academia Salmuriensi disputaturum the addition of the names of all the student respondents is, of course, an entire project in itself and should not be done for the purposes of PRDL.
      2. in cases of student authorship, the name of the presiding professor may be added as Related Author
        • e.g. Adam Rechenberg for De Theodosio M. Imperatore excommunicato, dissertatio historica quam moderatore L. Adamo Rechenberg P.P. in academia Lipsiensi vii. Iul. M.Dc.Lxxxiii. P.P. Joh. Jacob Engelbrecht Augustanus, autor & respondens.

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