Correct Composition/Chapter 5

by Theodore Low De Vinne

V

ITALIC

NE line drawn underneath any written word is understood as a direction to put that word in italic. This underscoring should be done by the writer wherever italic is really needed. A general direction to put in italic a class of words not so marked may not be understood when copy so neglected has to be set by many compositors.

In the sixteenth century italic was an approved letter for book texts; it is now seldom selected for that purpose, although frequently used for subheadings, running titles, important texts or paragraphs, and sometimes for prefaces. Authors of the eighteenth century made free use of italic not only as an emphasizing letter, but to enforce nice and needless distinctions between different kinds of subject-matter, as may be noticed in the following extract from Hansard's Typographia (page 373), in which book that author literally quotes this passage from Nelson's Fasts and Festivals.

Q. What was the form of St. Andrew's Cross?

A. The Instrument of his Martyrdom is commonly said to have been something peculiar in the Form of the letter X, being a Cross decussate, two Pieces of Timber crossing each other in the Middle: And hence known by the Name of St. Andrew's Cross.

 

It will be seen that there has been no want of method in this arrangement. 1. The Questions to be Italic the answers Roman; but the Q. and the A. to be reversed, viz. the Q. to be Roman for the Italic, and the A. to be Italic for the Roman. 2. All substantives to be capitaled; all noun-substantives to be Italic in the Roman part, and Roman in the Italic part, this not to extend to the sign of the genitive case, as the letter s is to be the reverse. Also particular words to be distinguished contrarywise.—The labour to a compositor, and also the reader, on such a work as this, will be little short of that required upon a work of which he understands not a single word, and the book, when printed, exhibits a motley appearance of Roman and Italic, capitals and lower-case, till those who are not sufficient judges of typography to know the cause, wonder why the page is so confused and tiresome to the eye.

Since 1825 the reading world has outgrown this artificial method of using italic, but it still adheres to other methods that are as illogical.

ITALIC IN COPY NOT ALWAYS TO BE REPEATED

The free use, or even the moderate use, of italic for emphasis in a text is now regarded as an exhibition of bad taste on the part of the writer and a needless affront to the intelligence of the reader. For this reason the compositor should not servilely follow copy in its markings for italic. The undisciplined writer usually regrets profuse italicizings when he sees their effect in the proof. In case of doubt special instructions either to follow or to change overmarked italic should be obtained from the foreman or the proof-reader. If seven per cent, of the words in a manuscript is marked for italic, its composition cannot be done to advantage on the ordinary type-setting machine. When ten per cent, or more is italicized, the compositor by hand rightfully claims an extra price for the additional labor it imposes.

ITALIC NOT ALWAYS A MATE FOR ROMAN

Italic was made objectionable to critical readers by its frequent mismating with roman. When a thin italic of light face was made the emphasizing character for a text in a bold-faced roman, the incongruity of the unlike styles was apparent, and this led to a general dislike of all italics. Type-setting machines constructed without proper provision for the composition of italic have been more effectual than any other agency in curtailing its use. Italic is rarely seen in the text of the reading-matter of the ordinary daily newspaper, for experience has proved that it is not needed as much as was supposed for emphasis or distinctness of statement. Yet it is not out of fashion in book-work, being used for running titles and subheadings, and to some extent in the text to differentiate words or phrases that might be misunderstood; but it is not used so freely as it has been to mark the emphatic words and examples of educational books. It has been found that the profuse commingling of an upright and an inclined letter irritates the eye, confuses perception, and makes the page hard to read and understand. A light-faced antique of round or slightly compressed form has been found more acceptable than italic for distinctions in the text.

 

FOREIGN WORDS AND PHRASES

Words and phrases in foreign languages are not put in italic so frequently as they were a hundred years ago, but if the compositor finds italic clearly marked in the manuscript of a disciplined writer, he should obey this direction. Yet there are many good book-houses that forbid the use of italic for the short sentences of the following examples:

This inscription was on the tablet: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.

Caesar wrote: Veni, vidi, vici.

Qui vit sans folie n'est pas si sage qu'il croit. Most true, you spiteful critic.

 

Sentences like these do not need italic or quotation-marks. The selection of the colon, the change from English to a foreign language, the beginning of the quotation with a capital letter, the context, and the occasional but improper use of quotation-marks, are enough to make it apparent that the foreign words are quotations. To set an entire paragraph of the quoted matter of a foreign language in italic, or even to select it too freely for phrases, practically nullifies its value as a display letter for the subheadings or for any other part of the book in which distinction is really needed.

Words and short phrases quoted from Greek or German are usually set in roman between quotation-marks; but if the quoted word or phrase is made the text or subject of fine verbal criticism, it should be put in the proper character of its own language. To the critical German author italic is offensive as it appears in this sentence:

 

The connection with potamos and with posis is equivocal and insufficient.

The connection with ποταμός and with πόσις is equivocal and insufficient.

 

Greek characters, as they are shown in the second example, should be preferred to those of italic.

When an entire paragraph or a long sentence in a foreign language is quoted in full, the quotation-marks are sufficient to show that the quoted matter is not a part of the text. Italic is not needed, but bibliographers who habitually select italic for the citations of books prefer that character for all quotations, whether they do or do not make an entire paragraph. The verse that follows is in the style preferred by Pollard^[1] in his reprint of the colophon of an edition of Bartolus de Saxoferrato on the Digests of Justinian, printed by Windelin of Speyer:

Si correcta voles digesta evolvere legum,
Hec erne, quae nulla carpere parte potes.
Perlege: non parvo sunt emendata labore.
Nil nisi correctum vendere Spira jubet.

One revival of an old fashion in typography is the selection of italic in modern books for bits of verse between paragraphs in the text of roman, but it is not a fashion to be commended.

An unusual word or a short phrase in a foreign language, even when it is accompanied by a translation, is sometimes required to be set in italic, as in

It was a simple chaise, a due posti, neither new nor neat.

The métayer system is not beneficial to the farmer.

We had our déjeuner à la fourchette as early as eleven o'clock in the morning.

Why these words should be set in italic, why a due posti would not be equally clear in quotation-marks or in parentheses, why métayer should not be in quotation-marks, are questions not to be answered satisfactorily, but when it is the plain order of the author to set phrases or words like these in italic, that direction must be obeyed. There are foreign words, used for the first time, that need some distinction, and there are others that have no proper equivalents in English. Here follows a sentence in which the use of italic seems to be regarded by the writer as not only admissible but commendable:

He was told that she was very unhappy, pour lui et par lui, and that his attentions had been compromettant to her prospects as well as destructive to her peace.

Pour lui et par lui and compromettant have satisfactory equivalents in English, but these equivalents do not convey the alliteration and the play on words intended by the writer.

There is increasing resistance to the excessive use of italic. The foreign words and phrases that have been practically incorporated in the English language are now preferably put in roman, as in

• aide-de-camp
• addenda
• ad valorem
• alias
• alibi
• alma mater
• anno domini
• ante-bellum
• à propos
• beau idéal
• billet-doux
• bona fide
• bon-ton
• bravos
• café
• cantos
• carte blanche
• chapeau
• chaperon
• chargé d'affaires
• chiaroscuro
• cicerone
• contra
• corrigenda
• data
• débris
• début
• dépôt
• diarrhoea
• dictum
• dilettante
• dramatis personae
• ennui
• entrepôt
• erratum
• et cetera
• facsimile
• fête
• finis
• gratis
• imprimatur
• innuendo
• literati
• mandamus
• manœuvre
• mignonette
• naïve
• olla podrida
• onus
• paterfamilias
• patois
• per annum
• per capita
• per cent.
• per centum
• per se
• post-mortem
• pro rata
• prote'gé
• quondam
• régime
• rendezvous
• rôle
• savants
• seraglio
• sobriquet
• ultimatum
• verbatim
• vice
• vice versa
• viva voce

This list could be largely extended. Any word of foreign origin which appears as an English word in an approved English dictionary, by that adoption ceases to be foreign, and should not be set in italic unless it is so ordered by the author.

Foreign words that are familiar to all intelligent readers do not need italic. The accents should be repeated when they are so marked in copy, but their omission in words like depot and role when set in roman is a common practice. The following words or phrases usually appear in italic, with their proper accents:

• ab ovo
• ancien régime
• béte noire
• comme il faut
• de quoi vivre
• de trop
• en passant
• fait accompli
• grand monde
• hors de combat
• inter alia
• jeu d' esprit
• locum tenens
• mise en scène
• noblesse oblige
• raison d'être
• sans cérémonie
• tour de force

The phrases prima facie and ex officio, when used to qualify the nouns that follow, are frequently put in roman; but when used as adverbs they may be set in italic. The compositor may need from the proof-reader special instruction for these cases.

Prima-facie evidence.
The evidence is, prima fade, convincing.
An ex-officio member of the committee.
The Speaker is, ex officio, the chairman.

Note also that these words may be connected with a hyphen when they are used as qualifiers. In works on bibliography the titles of all books specified in the text are usually put in italic, as:

Storia Critica de Nic. Jenson.
Lettres d'un Bibliographe.
Hints on Decorative Printing.

This method, approved by all bibliographers, is to be preferred to the commoner practice of setting titles in roman and inclosing them with quotation-marks. A different method is observed for footnotes, not only by bibliographers, but by modern historians: the name of the author, the title of the book, and the date and description are always set in roman lower-case, without the use of small capitals, italic, or quotation-marks.

• ¹ Sardini, Storia Critiea de Nic. Jenson, Lucca, 1796-98 (3 parts), 8vo, p. 19.
• ² Madden, Lettres d'un Bibliographe, Paris, 1886, 8vo, sixieme serie, p. 116.
• ³ Savage, Hints on Decorative Printing, London, 1882, 4to, chap. ii.

In the texts of magazines and journals, and in all ordinary book-work, the titles of cited books are frequently and needlessly put in roman lower-case between quotation-marks, as in

• "Introduction to the Classics," vol. ii, p. 555.
• "Gentleman's Magazine," 1793, p. 91.

The full names of magazines and newspapers were formerly always set in italic, but they often appear now in roman lower-case quoted.^[2] A recent practice is to select italic for the name (but not always the place) of the paper, as London Times or New York Herald.^[3] One old tradition is maintained: the paper or magazine that prints its own name in its text does so with small capitals.

Names of vessels, as the Kearsarge or the Alabama, are frequently put in italic. The intent of the italic is to differentiate the ships from the places.

Italic is often selected (too often unwisely) for the names of paintings and statues, and for characters in plays, apparently with intent to aid the reader to a better understanding of the subject. In the text of the ordinary book or periodical, Julius Caesar, the man of history, is always set in roman; but Julius Caesar as a personage in a play is usually set in italic. In these attempts to help, profuse italic defeats the purpose of the writer; it spots the text, disfigures the page, and irritates the reader.^[4]

PROPER USE OF ITALIC

Although italic often has been misused, it cannot be dispensed with. It can be made a help to good typography. It may be selected with propriety for running titles, for the headings of tables, for subheadings, and for a clearer marking of the words and phrases that really need distinction in the text. The signature of each contributor to a magazine is usually set in italic, but it is unwisely used for side-notes, for it has many kerned or projecting letters, which are liable to break and often do break off at the endings of lines in an exposed position.

Italic may be selected occasionally to distinguish the words or clauses that serve as verbal texts for an extended comment, but it should not be selected unless there is real need for making a distinction. Small capitals are sometimes used with good effect.

In the text of a book or pamphlet, use roman for the name of the writer, but italic for the title of the cited book. In a citation that makes a full paragraph, and in all foot-notes, it is the common practice to put the name of the author as well as of the book in roman lower-case. At the end of a paragraph or foot-note, specification of author and book may be roman for author and italic for book; book alone, italic.

Select roman, without quotation-marks, for the names of papers, magazines, and serials appearing in the body of the text or in a foot-note, but when put at the end of paragraphs as credits, use italic.

When an unfamiliar foreign word is used to convey precise description, put it in italic, but use roman for repetitions of that word.

LATINIZED NAMES OF SCIENCE

Names of diseases, as angina pectoris, cerebrospinal meningitis, and of remedies, as mix vomica, cannabis indica, are not set in italic, nor does the first word begin with a capital letter.

Ordinary names in geology, as quartz, hornblende, gneiss, do not take capitals or italic; but when they are derived from proper names, as Devonian, Jurassic, a capital is required for the first letter, but the word is set in roman.

In botany and zoölogy the first letter of a name composed of two words usually takes a capital, and each word is set in italic. The first word denotes the genus; the second, the species, the generic and specific names together constituting the scientific name of the animal or plant: as, Arvicola amphibius. When the second name is derived from that of a person or place, its first letter may be capitalized, as in Delphinus Sinensis or Darlingtonia Californica. When the name of a family or an order is mentioned, the first letter of the word is usually capitalized.

Of the Castoridae, or beaver family of Rodentia, we have three native species: the water-vole (Arvicola amphibius), the field -vole (Arvicola agrestis), and the bank-vole (Arvicola pratensis).

In this illustration the words Castoridae and Rodentia denote respectively the family and order, and the three species of Arvicola the particular kind of animal. When first used all the words should be in italic. The words Castoridae or Rodentia when re peated in the same article may be in roman, but the names of species should be in italic, however often repeated. The distinction prevents confusion.

Authorities in science differ as to the use of italic and capitals, but the rules here given are enough for the uniformity of negligently prepared copy. If the compositor finds another method in carefully prepared copy, he should observe that method. Italic is frequently used for the words of a running commentary bracketed in the text. The word [sic] is often selected to call attention to bad spelling or the improper use of a word. Comments set in roman and put in brackets should not need greater distinction.

Italic should be avoided in all lines (as in datelines and side-notes) in which upright figures are used. The contrast between straight roman and bent italic in the same word is unpleasing.

Quotations and extracts that make two or more lines, and really require a special paragraph, may be set in roman with quotation-marks if in the same type as the text, or without them if in smaller type with blank at top and bottom. This arrangement will be more pleasing than a paragraph of italic.

In book-work, italic parentheses should not be used for inclosing words in italic. Distinction is sought for the words, not for the points. In displayed job-work italic parentheses may be used.

1. Last Words on the History of the Title Page, etc., p. 11.
2. Some editors still adhere to the old usage, putting the name of the book or magazine in italic, and reserving quotation-marks for the heading of any article referred to in the publication. This is a nice distinction, but the specification of the article could be made equally clear by using roman lower-case for the name or title, and beginning each important word with a capital letter, as has been the custom for the specification of book titles.
3. The definite article the, which usually precedes the citation of a journal, need not be capitalized, italicized, or put in quotation-marks. "The New York Herald," "The Evening Journal," are obsolete fashions of citation. These papers are oftener cited without quotation-marks, as the New York Herald or the Evening Journal.
4. For an exhibit of a needless use of italic for words arbitra rily selected, see the extract on page 36, from Rowe Mores's Typographical Founders and Founderies. The Mechanick Exercises of Joseph Moxon, frequently cited in this book, is even more profuse in display. Excess of italic in print, like false emphasis in oratory and profuse underscorings in writing, does not help but hinders understanding.

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