You
will find many examples of roman numerals in libraries:
-
some books have roman numerals on their spines to denote volumes
-
some books have their chapters numbered with roman numerals.
-
some plays have their scenes & acts numbered with roman numerals
e.g. Shakespeare's plays Act iii, Scene iv
-
fantasy genre books like to use roman numerals
-
many books have information in the front and these pages are often
marked with lower case roman numerals e.g. i,
ii, iii, iv, x
NB
it is thought that this is a purely practical thing from the days
before computers. The 'forward' to a book is mostly written after
the book is complete. If you use a different numbering system
to number these pages you don't have to renumber any of the book's
pages before it goes to the printer.
Some
people believe that authors use roman numerals in their books
as they wish for the book to appear important. Other authors may
want to create a 'classical' mood and still others wish to create
an 'other worldliness'.
Task
- Find some books in your library that use roman numerals and
decide why you think the author chose to use this numbering system.
NB
It is very rare that modern writers use roman numerals to number
chapters.
