Capitalisation of nouns in English in the 17th and 18th centuries?

Question

It seems to have been common practice in the 17th and 18th centuries in Britain to capitalise the first letters of nouns in English, e.g. > At which Time he prov'd himself the Noah's Dove, that finding himself no Rest anywhere, was receiv'd again into his own Ark, and brought a peaceable Olive-Leaf in his mouth. Most original sources I can find on the net have used modern rules for capitalisation, so what I'd like to know is: - was the practice used for all nouns (note *mouth* in my quotation above isn't capitalised)? - when did this practice begin? - when did it end, and why?

Answer 1

Neither spelling nor grammar were standardized in the 17th and 18th century. You will find examples of various random capitalization throughout material written at the time. There was no hard and fast rule, though as in the example you gave, often particular words of importance might be highlighted with capitalization.

Answer 2

Good question. As a Germanic language where all nouns were capitalized, English held onto that tradition for quite a while. Perhaps it was German aggression from Prussia and the like that caused British English to become more Latinized. (Latin has few capitalized words. The Greek doesn't at all.) Maybe it had something to do with British colonization, too, which was worldwide. By the time of the American revolution, German troops, known as Hessians, were mercenaries, a full 30% of Britain's fighters, which would not have been probable if Germany was on the ascent at the time. The 17th and 18th centuries, the 1600s and 1700s, were riddled by the Counter-Reformation and the superpower status of Great Britain, plus the growing influence of the Enlightenment or Age of Reason, which spurred on nationalism and anti-Christian liberalism/humanism as byproducts.