Rules for compositors and readers at the University Press, Oxford · Oxford University Press
WORKS IN THE FRENCH LANGUAGE
The English compositor called upon to set works in the French language will do well, first of all, to make a careful examination of some examples from the best French printing-offices. He will find that French printers act on rules differing in many points from the rules to which the English compositor is accustomed; and he will not be able to escape from his difficulties by the simple expedient of ‘following copy’. For works in the French language, such as classical text-books for use in schools, the English compositor generally gets reprint copy for text and manuscript for notes. It is, as a rule, safe for him to follow the reprint copy; but there is this difficulty, that when the work forms part of a series it does not always happen that the reprint copy for one book corresponds in typographical style with reprint copy for other works in the same series. Hence he should apply himself diligently to understand the following rules; and should hunt out examples of their application, so that they may remain in his memory.[76] 1. _Capital and lower-case letters._—In the names of authors of the seventeenth century, which are preceded by an article, the latter should commence with a capital letter: La Fontaine, La Bruyère.[77] Exceptions are names taken from the Italian, thus: le Tasse, le Dante, le Corrège.[78] As to names of persons, the usage of the individuals themselves should be adopted: de la Bruyère (his signature at the end of a letter), De la Fontaine (end of fable ‘Le Lièvre et la Tortue’), Lamartine, Le Verrier, Maxime Du Camp. In names of places the article should be small: le Mans, le Havre, which the Académie adopts; la Ferté, with no hyphen after the article, but connected by a hyphen with different names of places, as la Ferté-sous-Jouarre.
Volumes, books, titles, acts of plays, the years of the Republican Calendar, are put in large capitals: An IV, acte V, tome VI; also numerals belonging to proper names: Louis XII; and the numbers of the arrondissements of Paris: le XV^e arrondissement. Scenes of plays, if there are no acts, are also put in large caps.: _Les Précieuses ridicules_, sc. V; also chapters, if they form the principal division: _Joseph_, ch. VI. If, however, scenes of plays and chapters are secondary divisions, they are put in small capitals: _Le Cid_, a. I, sc. II; _Histoire de France_, liv. VI, ch. VII. The numbers of centuries are generally put in small capitals: au XIX^e (or XIX^{ème}) siècle. The first word of a title always takes a capital letter: J’ai vu jouer _Les Femmes savantes_; on lit dans _Le Radical_. If a substantive in a title immediately follows _Le_, _La_, _Les_, _Un_, _Une_, it is also given a capital letter, thus: _Les Précieuses ridicules_. If the substantive is preceded by an adjective, this also receives a capital letter: _La Folle Journée_; if, however, the adjective follows, it is in lower-case: _L’Âge ingrat_. If the title commences with any other word than le, la, les, un, une, or an adjective, the words following are all in lower-case: _De la terre à la lune_; _Sur la piste_.
In titles of fables or of dramatic works the names of the characters are put with capital initials: Le Renard et les Raisins; Le Lion et le Rat; Marceau, ou les Enfants de la République. In catalogues or indexes having the first word or words in parentheses after the substantive commencing the line, the first word thus transposed has a capital letter: Homme (Faiblesse de l’); Honneur (L’); Niagara (Les Chutes du). If the words in parentheses are part of the title of a work, the same rule is followed as to capitals as above given: Héloïse (La Nouvelle); Mort (La Vie ou la). The words saint, sainte, when referring to the saints themselves, have, except when commencing a sentence, always lower-case initials: saint Louis, saint Paul, sainte Cécile. But when referring to names of places, feast-days, &c., capital letters and hyphens are used: Saint-Domingue, la Saint-Jean. (See also, as to abbreviations of Saint, Sainte, p. 82.)
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