Latin Place Names
found in the imprints
of books printed before 1801
and their vernacular equivalents in AACR2 (Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules)
form
Sponsored by the Harold B. Lee Library,
Brigham Young University
and
The Bibliographic Standards Committee,
Rare Books and Manuscripts
Section,
Association of College and Research
Libraries
Created by Robert L. Maxwell with the assistance of Karen Larson.
A note on orthography: This database was compiled from the imprint information
in cataloging records of several Anglo-American research libraries. Because
these records were created over a long period of time and under different
standards and rules of transcription, the orthography of the place names
with respect to I/J and U/V/W does not necessarily reflect what was found
in the original. Therefore, the orthography is standardized in this database.
I/J will always be transcribed "I"; U/V will be transcribed "V" for upper
case, and "u" for lower case; "VV", "uu", "Vu", etc., will be transcribed
"W."
It is currently only possible to enter ASCII characters in HTML files. This
limits the availability of diacritical marks to the most common. Therefore,
some AACR2 forms, especially those for Eastern European cities, are missing
their diacritics. These entries should be checked against the National Authority
File for the exact form.
Main entry points for names are given in the locative case, as they generally
appear in the books. Other forms, if they appear in early printed books,
are given as cross references.
Places whose jurisdictions have changed over time may have more than one
valid AACR2 form. Second and subsequent valid forms will be preceded by an
equals sign (=). In the case of identical Latin forms that refer to
different modern locations, the various AACR2 forms are presented
without connecting equals signs.
Main entries accompanied by asterisk (*) have a note giving the documentation
for the place name. The main sources are R.A. Peddie, Place names in imprints
: an index to the Latin and other forms used on title pages (1968) [cited
as: Peddie], and J.G.T. Graesse, F. Benedict, and H. Plechl, Orbis Latinus
: Lexikon lateinischer geographischer Namen des Mittelalters und der
Neuzeit (1972) [cited as: Graesse]. For a translation of many of the
abbreviations and German words found in Graesse, click
here.
For an electronic version of the 1909 edition of Graesse at Columbia University,
click
here.
For a glossary of Latin terms other than place names found in early imprints,
click
here.
For the Cathedral Libraries Catalogue Names of Printing Towns site, click
here.
Suggested citation form: RBMS/BSC Latin Place Names File.
Questions, additions, corrections, or comments? Please contact
Robert L. Maxwell, rare books cataloger, Harold
B. Lee Library.
Last updated: 8 August 1997.