Painting by numbers: getting data right in art history books

For a creative subject, art history has a lot of numbers to get right. From dimensions to dates and sale prices, an error in the smallest detail can cast doubt on which version of an artwork is under discussion. Art history editors check these details to ensure everything is precisely as it should be.

Art history is one of my favourite topics to work on as a professional copyeditor. I edit all sorts of books in this field, covering specific themes, topics or artists. But I specialize in catalogues raisonnés. Commonly these cover the whole of an artist's oeuvre, like this catalogue of Thomas Girtin, a contemporary of J. M. W. Turner. Or they might cover all of an artist's work in a particular genre, like this sumptuous book containing every known charcoal portrait by the Anglo-American artist John Singer Sargent.

As the copyeditor of both of these works, my task was not just to ensure that the art terminology was correct and polish the prose but also to scrutinize every last detail of the data. This meant checking thousands upon thousands of dates, catalogue numbers, dimensions and more.

Let's take a look at seven of the main technical areas you may need to consider in an art history book: dates, catalogue numbers, figure numbers, inventory numbers, dimensions (and conversions), currencies, and numbers in bibliographies and citations.

If you're an author, you'll need to provide these details for your editor to check. And if you're an editor, you'll need to work your magic to ensure your author's carefully constructed arguments are supported by rigorous precision.

Dates

It's all in the second part of the name - art history books contain a lot of dates!

Questions to consider here include:

• Will you use UK-style dates (24 July 1860) or US-style dates (July 24, 1860)?
• Are there any dates that use systems other than the standard modern calendar (e.g. the Julian calendar pre-1753 in the UK)?
• Are there any dates that go back far enough to need era abbreviations? If so, which will you use ('BCE' and 'CE' or 'BC' and 'AD')?
• Will you include lifespan dates - for example, 'Frida Kahlo (1907-1954)'?
• And, if so, for whom - everyone or a subset of people?
• Will you condense the years (commonly called 'eliding') - for example, making Kahlo's dates '1907-54'?
• What will you do when dates are uncertain - for example, will you use 'c.' or 'about'?

An art history editor or proofreader can help you to ensure these principles are consistent from 10,000 BCE to 2025 CE (or whenever you're reading this!).

Catalogue numbers

Catalogue numbers can be internal (if your text numbers the works within it) or external (if your text refers to other art history books, sale catalogues or anything else that's numbered).

Of course, each catalogue number needs to be accurate, and any groups of numbers need to be presented in the appropriate order (either numerical or to fit the context).

But a less obvious point is to ensure that internal and external catalogue numbers are clearly distinguished. For example, you might use 'no.' for internal references and 'cat. no.' for external references.

Figure numbers

You might also have figure numbers (potentially in addition to catalogue numbers). The key principle here is that each figure must have a unique number and appear in order - not necessarily as easy as it sounds, especially when you're not sure which images you'll get permission to use, or when you're still making frantic trips to libraries trying to pin down which of two works a painter finished first.

An art history copyeditor or proofreader can handle the work of ordering the figures and dealing with last-minute changes. We're a bit strange in that way. Give us a list of 200 figures that have to be reordered, and we'll gleefully start creating Excel spreadsheets and checklists to get everything straight.

Inventory numbers

Inventory numbers (also called accession numbers, collection IDs, registration numbers, museum numbers, archive numbers and other names) are assigned by galleries, archives and other collections to keep track of the artworks they hold. These can be vitally important in identifying a work.

Inventory numbers also commonly feature in the copyright statements that accompany reproductions of artworks in publications. When copyright holders grant permission to feature their artworks in this way, they usually require the inventory number to be included. It's important to honour these requirements.

Dimensions (and conversions)

It's usual nowadays to list the height of an artwork before the width (e.g. 45.5 × 30.2 cm). But there are so many more questions to consider. For example:

• Will you use metric (like in my example above), imperial (17 × 11 in) or both?
• Will you put a full stop after 'in'? Or even use the prime symbols instead (this looks a bit like a straight apostrophe)?
• Have you used the multiplication symbol correctly? (The × in the examples above isn't the letter x!)
• What degree of accuracy will you use for metric measurements (e.g. nearest tenth of a centimetre or nearest half centimetre)?
• What degree of accuracy will you use for imperial measurements (e.g. nearest quarter inch or eighth of an inch)?
• How will you display inch fractions: as separate characters (e.g. 1/2) or as single characters (e.g. ½)?
• What will you do if any conversions provided to you don't match?

If you need to check a lot of metric-to-imperial or imperial-to-metric conversions, try my free conversions tool. Save time and improve your accuracy, with nine modes and customizable rounding options. Find out more.

Currencies

Art history researchers and editors spend a lot of time poring over currencies, thanks to the importance of sale prices. Especially when histories span multiple countries or periods, there can be a lot to decide and check.

For example:

• When will you use symbols (e.g. '£400') and when will you spell currency values out (e.g. 'forty dollars' or 'three shillings')?
• If there are old currencies (e.g. pre-decimalization guineas, pounds, shillings and pence in the UK prior to February 1971), how will you present them?
• Will you include conversions for different currencies?
• Will you give an approximation of the value of old currencies today?

It's important to decide on your principles early and stick to them, or you can easily end up with inconsistencies.

Bibliography and citations

Finally, we get to the bibliography and citations. Volume numbers, numbers of volumes (not the same thing!), issue numbers, issue dates, page numbers, folio numbers, note numbers, years of publication, edition numbers… it's vital to get these right to ensure your publication appears accurate and trustworthy, and so that interested readers can follow up on your sources.

There are numerous style guides, such as The Chicago Manual of Style, that give suggestions on formats you can use. A skilled art history editor can outline the various options and ensure they are used consistently.

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When I was younger, I never saw the point of art history, despite having an artist for a grandmother. History, yes. But art history? What did it matter who daubed what colour of paint on what bit of canvas in which year?

As I got older, of course, I came to realize that art history is history. It tells us about ourselves and helps us to learn about our culture and the cultures of others.

But for history to be useful, it needs to be accurate. Precisely presented data is the foundation of many art history books. Get in touch if you'd like editorial support with an art history project - and don't forget to try out my conversions tool if you need to convert between metric and imperial.