In the Wiktionary entry about philematology, there is a reference to this book. The title is copied (AFAIK, but I can't load the picture in the previous link so…) as in the cover, that is:
[Jacobus Herrenschmidius] (1659) Speculum φιληματολογίας [philēmatologías]. cùm Sacræ tùm profanæ: Per quæstiones aliquot ex variis multorum monumentis non minus ad voluptatem quam utilitatem S.S. Theologiæ & Philologiæ Studiosorum concinnatum operâ & studio.
My reaction:
- That circumflex for vowel length (that's an ablative singular) is weird: why not use the standard macron for that?
- Why on earth should we keep the &, which is just a scribal abbreviation, and not expand it to
et
? - What in the world is that grave accent for?
So here comes my question:
When digitalizing the title of a book containing scribal abbreviations and/or diacritics, should one keep them as they appear in the book cover, or expand the abbreviations and switch to the standard diacritics? (And also, what are those grave accents for? I mean, the only thing I can think of is vowel length, but that would be either a circumflex or an acute, why a grave? And besides, are those vowel even long?)
Another example of such a title can be found at carol, and is:
Piæ cantiones ecclesiasticæ et scholasticæ vetervm episcoporum, in inclyto regno Sueciæ passim vsurpatæ, nuper studio viri cuiusdam reuerendiss: de ecclesia Dei & schola Aboënsi in Finlandia optimè meriti accuratè à mendis correctæ, & nunc typis commissæ, opera Theodorici Petri Nylandensis. His adiecti sunt aliquot ex psalmis recentioribus [Pious Ecclesiastical and School Songs of the Ancient Bishops, Used throughout the Glorious Kingdom of Sweden, […]] (1582)