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I have a bib entry with a typo at the end of its title. I indicate this with [sic!]. This prevents, however, a period from being printed after the title, cf. the MWE below. Without the exclamation point, a period appears after the title. I assume it has something to do with the exclamation point being interpreted as a symbol ending the title, as you normally wouldn't find the combination !. anywhere. But here the exclamation point is inside brackets, so it should be followed by a period. I've tried putting the exclamation point or the brackets inside curly braces, but with no effect.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[style = authoryear-comp]{biblatex}

\begin{filecontents}[overwrite]{\jobname.bib}
@MVBOOK{unger1877,
    TITLE = "Heilagra Manna S{\o}gur",
    YEAR = "1877",
    EDITOR = "C.R. Unger",
    LOCATION = "Christiania",
    PUBLISHER = "B.M. Bentzen",
    SUBTITLE = "Fort{\ae}llinger og Legender om hellige M{\ae}nd og Kvinder",
    TITLEADDON = "Efter gamle Haandsrifter [sic!]",
    VOLUMES = "2"}
@MVBOOK{unger1878,
    TITLE = "Heilagra Manna S{\o}gur",
    YEAR = "1878",
    EDITOR = "C.R. Unger",
    LOCATION = "Christiania",
    PUBLISHER = "B.M. Bentzen",
    SUBTITLE = "Fort{\ae}llinger og Legender om hellige M{\ae}nd og Kvinder",
    TITLEADDON = "Efter gamle Haandsrifter [sic]",
    VOLUMES = "2"}
\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\begin{document}

\nocite{unger1877}\nocite{unger1878}

\printbibliography
\end{document}

enter image description here

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
4

biblatex's punctuation tracker ignores brackets, so the [sic!] at the end is treated more or less like sic!, so the title ends with the exclamation mark, which means that biblatex avoids the double punctuation !. by dropping the ..

For a one-off, it's probably easiest to reset the punctuation tracker by inserting \@ after the ] (or the !)

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[style = authoryear-comp]{biblatex}

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@MVBOOK{unger1877,
    TITLE      = "Heilagra Manna S{\o}gur",
    YEAR       = "1877",
    EDITOR     = "C.R. Unger",
    LOCATION   = "Christiania",
    PUBLISHER  = "B.M. Bentzen",
    SUBTITLE   = "Fort{\ae}llinger og Legender om hellige M{\ae}nd og Kvinder",
    TITLEADDON = "Efter gamle Haandsrifter [sic!]\@",
    VOLUMES    = "2"}
\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\begin{document}

\nocite{unger1877}

\printbibliography
\end{document}

Unger, C.R., ed. (1877). Heilagra Manna Søgur. Fortællinger og Legender om hellige Mænd og Kvinder. Efter gamle Haandsrifter [sic!]. 2 vols. Christiania: B.M. Bentzen.

Or you can make biblatex no longer skip across brackets and treat them like normal letters. This is shown in How to enter an abbreviation dot in parenthesis for a particular database entry with biblatex?, BibLaTeX Punctuation after parentheses, How do I make biblatex to put a period after a closing parentheses?.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[style = authoryear-comp]{biblatex}

\makeatletter
\def\blx@setsfcodes{%
  \let\blx@setsfcodes\relax
  \let\frenchspacing\blx@setfrcodes
  \let\nonfrenchspacing\blx@setencodes
  \ifnum\sfcode`\.>2000
    \blx@setencodes
  \else
    \blx@setfrcodes
  \fi
  \@setquotesfcodes
  \sfcode`\(=\@m
  \sfcode`\)=\@m
  \sfcode`\[=\@m
  \sfcode`\]=\@m
  \sfcode`\<=\@m
  \sfcode`\>=\@m}
\makeatother

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@MVBOOK{unger1877,
    TITLE      = "Heilagra Manna S{\o}gur",
    YEAR       = "1877",
    EDITOR     = "C.R. Unger",
    LOCATION   = "Christiania",
    PUBLISHER  = "B.M. Bentzen",
    SUBTITLE   = "Fort{\ae}llinger og Legender om hellige M{\ae}nd og Kvinder",
    TITLEADDON = "Efter gamle Haandsrifter [sic!]",
    VOLUMES    = "2"}
\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\begin{document}

\nocite{unger1877}

\printbibliography
\end{document}
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2

I suggest you replace [sic!] with [sic\mbox{!}]. This lets you "smuggle" the exclamation mark past biber's parser. :-)

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}

\begin{filecontents}[overwrite]{\jobname.bib}
@MVBOOK{unger1877,
    TITLE = "Heilagra Manna S{\o}gur",
    YEAR = "1877",
    EDITOR = "C. R. Unger",
    LOCATION = "Christiania",
    PUBLISHER = "B.M. Bentzen",
    SUBTITLE = "Fort{\ae}llinger og Legender om hellige M{\ae}nd og Kvinder",
    TITLEADDON = "Efter gamle Haandsrifter [sic\mbox{!}]",
    VOLUMES = "2"}
@MVBOOK{unger1878,
    TITLE = "Heilagra Manna S{\o}gur",
    YEAR = "1878",
    EDITOR = "C. R. Unger",
    LOCATION = "Christiania",
    PUBLISHER = "B.M. Bentzen",
    SUBTITLE = "Fort{\ae}llinger og Legender om hellige M{\ae}nd og Kvinder",
    TITLEADDON = "Efter gamle Haandsrifter [sic]",
    VOLUMES = "2"}
\end{filecontents}

\usepackage[style = authoryear-comp]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\begin{document}
\nocite{*}
\printbibliography
\end{document}
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9
  • Thanks, but I went with the easier(?) \@ suggested by @moewe. I see, however, that you decided to "correct" my C.R. Unger to C. R. Unger with spaces. I'm just curious if the spaces are more in accord with English or German typographic conventions that you are aware of?
    – Sverre
    Commented Jul 1 at 11:49
  • @Sverre - You asked, "I'm just curious if the spaces are more in accord with English or German typographic conventions that you are aware of?" I'd say neither. Rather, by inserting a space, you guarantee that both initials will be shown. For depending on the formatting settings, "C.R." may get truncated to "C." -- probably not what's intended.
    – Mico
    Commented Jul 1 at 20:23
  • @Sverre - An additional thought: You may want to replace EDITOR = "C. R. Unger", (or EDITOR = "C.R. Unger",) with EDITOR = "Carl Rikard Unger", and leave it up to the biblatex style to determine whether to show full or truncated given names.
    – Mico
    Commented Jul 2 at 7:34
  • I was following the Norwegian typographic tradition, by which abbreviated initials are not separated by white space, hence C.R. My approach to bibliographies is to write the names exactly as they're written in the source, so I don't expand abbreviated names if the source only gives initials.
    – Sverre
    Commented Jul 2 at 10:33
  • @Sverre - I think we’re talking about two very different types of “sources”. You seem to be referring to a secondary source, who appears to have chosen to abbreviate the editor’s given names. I think of the editor of the publication in question as the primary “source”. If there’s any doubt, I’d always give more weight to the primary source. You may, of course, still decide to abbreviate the editor’s given names (by choosing a specific formatting style). I’d label it as a choice you make, rather than some passive deferment to some secondary source.
    – Mico
    Commented Jul 2 at 12:46

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