Nota bene

This article is about the Latin phrase. For the suite of applications for scholars, see Nota Bene (word processor).
"N.b." redirects here. For other uses, see NB (disambiguation).
Nota bene editorial remarks: The monographic “Verses on the Futility of Unread Books” is a NB presented to the reader for deeper discussion of the subject. (Handwriting Hs. I 300, City Library of Mainz.)

Nota bene (/ˈnoʊtə ˈbɛneɪ/, /ˈnoʊtə ˈbɛni/ or /ˈnoʊtə ˈbiːni/; plural: notate bene) is the Latin phrase meaning note well.[1] In manuscripts, nota bene is abbreviated in upper-case as NB and N.B., and in lower-case as n.b. and nb; the editorial usages of nota bene and notate bene first appeared in the English style of writing around the year 1711.[2][3][4] In Modern English, since the 14th century, the editorial usage of NB is common to the legal style of writing of documents to direct the reader's attention to a thematically relevant aspect of the subject that qualifies the matter being litigated,[5] whereas in academic writing, the editorial abbreviation n.b. is a casual synonym for footnote.

Nota bene editorial usage: In 1801, the author of the “Wife-Wanted” newspaper advert used the uppercase N.B. editorial abbreviation to stipulate that only moral women need apply to marry him.

In medieval manuscripts, the editorial marks used to draw the reader's attention to a supporting text also are called nota bene marks; however, the catalogue of medieval editorial marks does not include the NB abbreviation. The medieval equivalents to the n.b.-mark are anagrams derived from the four letters of the Latin word nota, thus the abbreviation DM for dignum memoria ("worth remembering") and the typographic index symbol of the manicule (☞), the little hand that indicates the start of the relevant supporting text.[6]

  1. ^ "nota bene". Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 11th Edition. CollinsDictionary.com. Retrieved 2012-10-22.
  2. ^ Addison, Joseph (1891). The Works of Joseph Addison. W. W. Gibbings. p. 283.
  3. ^ Addison, Joseph (2004). "No. 102 Wednesday, June 27, 1711". Project Gutenberg.
  4. ^ Harper, Douglas. "nota bene". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 2016-03-02.
  5. ^ "nota bene". HM Courts & Tribunals Service – Glossary of terms – Latin. Her Majesty's Courts Service, United Kingdom. Archived from the original on 2012-10-03. Retrieved 2012-09-28.
  6. ^ Raymond Clemens and Timothy Graham, Introduction to Manuscript Studies (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2007), p. 44.