[texhax] fatal errors with footnote italics for critical edition

[crebecca at uchicago.edu]

For a critical edition (Mac OS, ledmac, TeXShop, all latest versions) with double 
footnotes, my B footnotes are vulnerable to random "fatal errors" when text is 
italicized.  These fatal errors tend to happen when B footnotes follow A 
footnotes, or when B footnotes reach some kind of length or formatting limit.  
The error disappears when the italicization is removed.

Error first, preamble next.  Both \textit and my macro \I generate the same 
error.    Other macros: \edt = \edtext  \A = Afootnote  \B = Bfootnote

\edt{ananas}{\A{\I{Ananasses} F; Anana's H}}{\B{pineapples (Fr. \I{ananas})}}, 
\edt{which to my taste}{\A{\sout{I} to H; which, to my taste, F}}

(./Letter19final.aux)
(/usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf-dist/tex/latex/psnfss/ot1ptm.fd) Section 1
(./Letter19final.1)
! TeX capacity exceeded, sorry [input stack size=5000].
\@nomath ...e \@font at warning {Command \noexpand #1
                                                  invalid in math mode}\fi 
l.43 ...nana's H}}{\B{pineapples (Fr. \I{ananas})}
                                                  }, \edt{which to my taste}...

!  ==> Fatal error occurred, no output PDF file produced!
Transcript written on Letter19final.log.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\title{Turkish Embassy Letters}
\author{ed. Rebecca Chung}   
 \renewcommand{\rmdefault}{ptm} 
 
\newcommand{\A}{\Afootnote}
\newcommand{\B}{\Bfootnote} 
\newcommand{\edt}{\edtext}
\newcommand{\I}{\textit}
\newcommand{\U}{\uline}
\newcommand{\OED}{(\I{OED})}  
\newcommand{\CL}{\I{Complete Letters}} 
                             
\usepackage{ledmac}
\usepackage{ulem}
\setcounter{page}{55}
\setcounter{firstlinenum}{0}
\setlength\parindent{0.25 in}
\renewcommand*{\thefootnoteB}{\alph{footnoteB}}
\renewcommand{\notenumfont}{\bfseries\footnotesize}
\footparagraph{A}
\footparagraphX{B}
\noendnotes   

Some workarounds seem to help - pasting in B footnotes first, nesting B 
footnotes within the lemma, adding \newcommands that embed the italics in 
the text.  But no workaround works around consistently, or helps me 
understand why italics create fatal errors at all.

Grateful in advance for any help, and for patience with a learning user in 
humanities.

Rebecca 





--------------------------
Rebecca Chung 
crebecca at uchicago.edu
chung at iit.edu

if you receive this message in error, 
please notify crebecca at uchicago.edu 
and support at uchicago.edu