Capitalization in Latin

MusicBrainz Style
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Mention should be made in SG on this exceptional use, for users to bridge over the gap between typesetting non-latinists, -theologicians and MB cometians.

Rule: Christian trinity is capitalized when directly referred to.

‘Deus’ always capitalized in christian use when referring to the christian god, thus ‘Gloria in excelsis Deo’ but also ‘Credo in unum Deum’. (In very rare cases referring to other gods (e.g. Old Testament), that word for them would be considered thus spelled lowercase.) All reference to Christian trinity and its parts is capitalized, be it direct or by inference: ‘Sanctus’ (Holy [One]), ‘Altissimus’ (Highest [One]) and loanwords with such singular reference (‘[Sanctus Dominus Deus] Sabaoth’, ‘[Christe eleison,] Kyrie [eleison]’); e.g. from Credo: ‘Domine Deus, Rex coelestis, Deus Pater omnipotens. Domine Fili unigenite, Jesu Christe. Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius Patris.’. (N.b. lowercase omnipotens, unigenite, both of which could be argued for by inference.)

Exception is direct address, and I am not sure on this term in English but in ‘I am directly addressing you, God.’, ’you’ be lowercase; e.g. ‘Quoniam tu solus Sanctus, tu solus Dominus, tu solus Altissimus’

‘Pater’ & ‘Agnus’ are capitalized as parts of Trinity, but ‘mater’ (= Maria) is not part, even as ‘Dei mater’ (e.g. ‘Intemerata Dei mater’). Maria however is The special case: ‘virgine’ and ‘mater’ may be capitalized for her, but need not. A special case of this special case is the formal address Beata Maria Virgine (often abbreviated ‘[Missa de] BMV’) and whether this address is qualified by conception, annunciation, 9th hour of crucifixion, ascension, or beatification, I leave for believers.

In short:
Filius Patris
Pater Filii
Agnus Dei
but
Dei mater

Thoughts, objections?

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From what I see of a very quick search of Recording titles, you have made explicit how the majority of Latin titles are already capitalised.

I think this deserves to be in the SG. I like explicit guidance in documentation. I feel more secure.

(I’m wondering if the current latin Christian titles are correct because the cover art had them correct or for some other reason. Idle curiosity.)

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I did not understand why mother has no uppercase like son and father. :thinking:

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Mater is considered not part of Trinity; a blessed vessel but not goddess.

@mmirG I see your point. Will answer when not on phone. Formatting here is cumbersome.

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Bringing back to live an old thread for an equally old edit of mine: Edit #53866520 - MusicBrainz

Really not sure about this one. It’s Latin on one hand, but it follows the acronym on the other.

So how would you capitalise this? Every word or sentence case? I will edit both medium and recording accordingly. FYI, Cuyo is a Spanish speaking artist and uses multiple languages on his releases.

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FWIW, in French we would write “Vous devez remplir le formulaire de demande d’assistance (FDA) avant de procéder à la remise en main propre (RMP).”
I mean it’s not because there is an acronym that necessarily you have to capitalise.
It’s like “You can use any web service (WS) to get some information”.

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In Spanish there isn’t acronym for FYI, so something like “PSI” (Para su información) doesn’t exist, so is more common use PD in some cases or just “Para su información”

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Then screw that trinity, whoever invented that, forget about it, stop losing time with that crap.
Mother is often more important than father.

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