The instruction that when the definite article is a prefix, or part of a prefix, to a name it becomes the entry word must not be blindly followed in all cases, as there are exceptions. If it were the middle part (conjunction) of a double name, for example, it is not the entry-word. To name some instances of this Viollet-le-Duc is so entered, and not as Le Duc; Verdy du Vernois, and not Du Vernois; Leconte de Lisle, and not Lisle or De Lisle; and Puvis de Chavannes, not Chavannes or De Chavannes. Such names require to be treated with knowledge and discretion.
The inexperienced and the young cataloguer, they are not necessarily the same, need to exercise due care lest they blunder stupidly if unwittingly. Perhaps they have a book by, say, J.-H. Rosny le Jeune one day, and on another one by J.-H. Rosny Ainé, when it need hardly be said the entry-names are not Le Jeune or Ainé, or even Rosny le Jeune or Rosny Ainé, but
Rosny, J.-H., ainé.
Rosny, J.-H., le jeune.
and in this order. This note of warning is not unnecessary, as might be supposed.
Much the same principles govern Italian and Spanish names with prefixes. In German and Dutch "von" and "van" are not the entry-words, except in Anglicized names as already shown, or if clearly embodied in the surname. This latter remark applies to "van," as "von" is seldom, if ever, so found.
It is customary in entering books by the Greek and Latin classical authors to adopt the name contained in some modern standard dictionary, such as Smith's "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography." This is usually the Latin form, as Virgilius, Homerus, and while it is wise in the case of a college or other library to follow this, it is better for a public library to adopt the English style, as Homer, Horace, Ovid, Pliny, Virgil; at the same time taking care to adhere to the English forms throughout and to see that all the books are entered under that adopted, no matter what may be the languages of the various editions. The author's name as the entry-word must, of course, be turned into the nominative, and not left in the case in which it appears on the title-page, though this difficulty does not arise when the English renderings of the names are chosen.
The following examples are given to elucidate the matter as well as emphasise it. The title-pages of the four books selected for the purpose read:—
Q. Horati Flacci Opera Edited by T. E. Page,
M.A. London Macmillan & Co. 1895
Sophoclis Tragoediae Edited by Robert Yelverton
Tyrell. London Macmillan & Co. 1897
P. Vergili Maronis Bucolica Georgica Aeneis
Edited by T. E. Page, M.A. London Macmillan
& Co. 1895
M. Tullii Ciceronis De Finibus Bonorum et
Malorum Libri Quinque With Introduction
and Commentary by W. M. L. Hutchinson.
London Edward Arnold 1909
The first three books have on the preliminary title-pages "The Parnassus Library of Greek and Latin Texts." To revert to the style of the full form of entry, these would appear as