Fists (currently in Provenance Evidence)
From: John Lancaster [mailto:jlancaster@amherst.edu]
Sent: Thursday, 02 July, 2009 09:29
To: nschneider@humnet.ucla.edu
Cc: Deborah J. Leslie
Subject: Fists (aka Pointing hands, Manicules)
I realise there's a moratorium on new terms (and I assume on any other changes to the thesauri), but perhaps you're keeping a file for the future.
If so, I'd urge that the term "Fists" be reviewed in light of the chapter on manicules (pointing hands) in William Sherman's book Used Books. There's a convincing case to be made that "fist" came into use only as a reference to the type-metal versions, so it's inappropriate when used for manuscript versions (as it must be when referring to it as provenance evidence). Whether Sherman's preferred "manicule" or the more descriptive "pointing hand" is used, is a separate question.
Leading on from this, I wonder if there isn't room in the type evidence section for a few more specific terms, such as "pilcrow" (and maybe even "fist").
Thanks.
DJL's reply, 20090702:
Actually, Bill Sherman expressed regret that he hadn’t known of the thesaurus term before he wrote his article. The question of “fist” vs. “pointing hand” &c. has come up before. A Yale cataloger in about 1997 did a full research of the options, (this was before Bill’s article), and confirmed that “fists” had the most warrant. I’m not sure she considered the issue of print vs. ms. Fists.
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.