Q. I am editing a series of essays (18th century to present) that have been translated from the French and, later in the series, from other languages. Naturally, word meanings have changed over time. Also, English words and French words, for example, might come from the same root but do not have the same meaning—even in the same century. The translator’s notes on language are copious. He has been numbering them as footnotes, but CMOS says they should be asterisks, not numbers. If there are more than three translator’s notes per page (a quick review shows 8 on some pages), the number of asterisks will be unwieldy. Please advise!
A. Use only one asterisk per page; subsequent translator’s notes should use other symbols, in the traditional sequence (* † ‡), doubling the symbols if there are more than four notes. Please see CMOS 14.25. There are several other ways to integrate translator’s notes into those of the original. Please see CMOS 14.51 for the other methods.