Talk:Alberto Fortis

Abbot

Alberto Fortis first published his famous book in Italian under the name Viaggio in Dalmazia dell' Abate Alberto Fortis Several of the Wikipedia pages translated this as

• 'Travels in Dalmatia' of Abbot Alberto Fortis (Ivan Lovrić and Hasanaginica)

I think that this is a mistranslation, for two reasons the first is that according to translate.google.com Abate Alberto Fortis, Abate can be either "Abbe", "Abbot" or "The Abbot" The source (Name Origin Research staff (2011), Last name: Abate, Internet Surname Database, retrieved September 2011 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); External link in |publisher= (help)) explains that the name can also have other translations.

The second reason I think it may be a mistake is because some old sources from around 1790s first made the mistranslation. Google Books returns 2 before 1800 and 50 before 2011.

If reliable sources such as the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography translated his name as Abbot Alberto (or Albert) Fortis, then of course we should use it, but for their entry for John Strange (1732–1799): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/26636 they use "Abbé Fortis" and many other reliable sources use "Abbe Alberto Fortis" Google books returns (about 780 results) so I do not think we should perpetuate the confusion which using "Abbot" instead of "Abbe" is likely to cause. -- PBS (talk) 05:14, 26 September 2011 (UTC)

Titles of Works

Please note that works published in Great Britain should use the correct British English spelling.JimmyMcWilliams (talk) 15:31, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

It is not that simple because the spelling of words varies over time. In this case the catalogue to which the source is linked spelt in one way, but I checked it against a facsimile of the original which was spelt the same way a modern British English. -- PBS (talk) 15:52, 23 January 2013 (UTC)