sum . : history of capitalisation in english back in late january / early february i posted a query to linguist about sources on the history of capitalisation in english . several people responded asking me to post a summary to the list on any replies i might receive . my apologies for the delay , but i have been fighting three different winter " bugs " ( some viral , some bacterial ) since my original posting , and then had to rush to catch up on acadaemic commitments before the end of term ! anyway , here is the summary . . . . the most immediate " success " reply , so to speak , came from david denison at u . of manchester , u . k . : mrcepdd @ fsl . art . man . ac . uk . david suggested the following article : osselton , noel ( 1985 ) ' spelling - book rules and the capitalization of nouns in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries ' . in arn , mary - jo and hanneke wirtjes ( eds . ) . * * historical and editorial studies in medieval and modern english : for johan gerritsen . * * wolters - noordhoff , groningen , pp . 49-61 . to my delight , i found that " my " university library ( knight lib . at the u . of oregon ) had precisely this volume . the article ( chapter ) is only 6 pages long , but contains as well a list of spelling books and grammars , etc . to which osselton referred in the text . there is also a page of notes . this reference is the most useful i have yet seen , and i will be using it ( when i have the time ) as a foundation for finding more info . on this topic . a good place to start , i think . a reply from john e . koontz ( koontz @ bldr . nist . gov ) pointed me towards usenet lists which , i regret , i have not yet been able to try . john suggests comp . fonts , or hte repositories of past usenet postings ( he is not sure where they are ) , or the usenet faq collections . also , comp . text . larry rosenwald ( lrosenwald @ wellesley . edu ) suggested looking into the literature of printing history , as he reminded me that " in fact capitalization was often regularized by the printer . " henry rogers ( rogers @ epas . utoronto . ca ) wrote and remarked that " [ t ] he distinction between upper and lower case in the roman alphabet obviously developed in the writing of the middle ages . . . " i confess that my knowledge of the middle ages is not sufficient to know why this is " obvious " , and i have n't yet managed to contact henry to find out . do you have a moment to respond , please , henry ? eleanor olds batchelder ( eobgc @ cunyvm . cuny . edu ) suggested i might look at geoffrey nunberg 's writings , " esp . his history of punctuation " , but she noted that this is " just a hunch " , as she has not yet read the work . nor have i , yet ! a final response came from stavros macrakis ( macrakis @ osf . org ) with the following suggestions : " i note that there is a library of congress ( tn3270 locis . loc . gov ) heading capitalization , but most of the books there are prescriptive or educational . there is also a subheading capitalization under languages , but english language - - capitalization gives only workbooks . i found some books on german capitalization which may ( or may not ) be helpful . see below . harvard 's catalogue lists 15 books on english capitalization , all prescriptive . = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = materialien zur historischen entwicklung der gross - und kleinschreibungsregeln / wolfgang mentrup ( hg . ) . tuebingen : niemeyer , 1980 . 336 p . lc call # pf3147 . m34 subjects [ for mentrup ] : german language - - capitalization - - history . + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + moulin , claudine . der majuskelgebrauch in luthers deutschen briefen ( 1517-1546 ) . heidelberg : winter , 1990 . xxxiii , 462 pp . subjects : luther , martin german language - - capitalization german language - - orthography and spelling originally presented as author 's doctoral thesis , 1989 , in otto - friedrich - universitaet , bamberg . = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = that is all . i would like to thank everyone who replied , even if only to express an interest . it was heartening to know that other people find this a tantalizing question as well . to conclude , i would like to put forward some further questions that have occurred to me as a result of the responses i received . . . . 1 ) in connection to the point about the rise of the printing industry as an important influence in * * regularising * * the use of capitalisation , i still have questions about the way people capitalised before the printing press . for instance , in religious writings , such as the book of kells ( eire ) , we find capital letters , ornately decorated , at the start of portions of text / top of the page . why were capitals used ? i have n't seen copies of the work , but did adam bede do the same ? 2 ) building on ( 1 ) , i then ask , where / why did the idea of capitalisation arise in the first place ? in quite a number of other writing systems of the world , a method of marking " important " words with a larger , and slightly different version , of the " normal " sized letters is completely absent . thus , who / why / where did capitalisation come into being ? we take this so much for granted , i wonder if we can still re - / discover the reasoning behind this " distinctiveness " strategy . ( and as a final parting shot , so to speak , i would like to point out that in english writing we use a capital letter for the 1st . p . s . in all environments , but not for any other person ! why ? was this a printing influence too ( e . g . , to distinguish it from small " i " in roman numerals ? ) . ) from talking to a local professor , russian , for instance , ( if i remember correctly ) , does not have this distinction . how about other language writing systems , european or not ? and what effect does this english pattern have on us psychologically ? in the sense that " i " is more important than " you , them " etc . ? ) . once again , thank-you to all respondents . i look forward to discussion , if any , on my questions - - either post to list or to me directly . regards to all , anthea . * * " words do n't mean , people mean . . . . " * * ( have forgotten the author of this reminder ) . afb .