Various Questions About Quotes, Capitalization & Italics

Question

Please help me with the following questions?

1. When something or someone is known by a title or phrase, how do I write this title or phrase? For example: El gnosticismo ha sido llamado "El Secreto del Templo de Salomón". Should El Secreto del Templo de Salomón be placed in quotes? Should any of the words in the phrase El Secreto del Templo de Salomón be placed in capital letters?
2. Are the names of cities, countries and states placed in italics or placed in quotes?
3. Should any part of this phrase be italicized: Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre?
4. Is the following sentence correct, or should I delete the quotes? Ella es “la madre” o “la madre de los vivos”.
5. Is the following the correct translation of the Roman Catholic Church: La Iglesia católica apostólica romana? Or is this overly complicated? I have seen this translation frequently as: La Iglesia católica. Is this better?

Thank you.

Thank you for your help. I am still having problems understanding whether or not the "El" or "La" in front of a title is considered part of the book title? For example in the phrase: El Evangelio de los Egipcios or the phrase: La Sophia de Jesucristo. - Gargeniture, Jan 23, 2017

Yes, the definite article "El, La" etc. is very important in Spanish. - Daniela2041, Jan 23, 2017

Answer 1

The rules for quotation marks vary, but I can address other things.

(1) Titles can be put in quotation marks, but italicized is preferred.

(2) No italicization of cities, countries and state need to be placed within quotes, unless they are part of a title that you have placed in quotes. Ex. Soy de España. I am from Spain. On SpanishDict we often use quotation marks to set off an expression or example. I often use italics for this purpose as in" Soy de España. Again this is a device used to give emphasis or set apart something as in an example.

(3) Placing this phrase into italics would only be placed in italics if you were quoting it as from a source.

(4) Same a #3.

(5) Both are correct, but most people prefer to use the shorter version. The longer phrase would probably be used by a Catholic theologian, in discussing Catholicism.