Authors in bibliography: no "and" conjunction, compact initials

Question

Two questions about authors in bibliography. I am working on the Overleaf platform

First.

If some reference has two or more authors, LaTeX prints «and» before the last author (or the corresponding translation «e», because I am Italian). But I need to delete this conjunction, in order to have only a comma between authors.

Second.

The problem concerns authors that have two or more given names (exempli gratia: John Simon Bercow; Charles Howard McIlwain). Ok to have only initials for given names, but I prefer also that there is no space between the two or more initials of given names: so, I would like have something like: J.S. Bercow or C.H. McIlwain.

Moreover, i prefer too that names are in small-capital letters, but I know that there is the command \DeclareNameWrapperFormat{author}{\mkbibsc{#1}}. This is the only option that guarantees me the small capital letter, if I set also the command \DeclareNameAlias{author}{given-family}, in order to have first the given name (or given names) and then the family name [in fact, I noted that this command is no compatible with “scauthorsbib” of \usepackage[bibstyle=philosophy-verbose,citestyle=authoryear,scauthorsbib=true,scauthorscite=false,giveninits=true]{biblatex}].

On the other hand, between the givennames and the surname of authors (and editors, or translators etc.), I would like to have the space reinforced with the tilde, in order that there is no possibility ofinterruption at the end of the line (so, something like: P.~Grossi, G.~Lattanzi, J.S.~Bercow).

So, in conclusion, I ask for something like:

P. Grossi, G. Lattanzi, J.S. Bercow, Mitologie giuridiche della modernità, Giuffrè, Milano 2007.

Thanks.

P.S. Just before confirming posting this announce, I found this command:

\AtBeginBibliography{%
  \renewcommand*{\finalnamedelim}{%
    \ifnumgreater{\value{liststop}}{2}{\addcomma}{}%
    \addspace}%

Perhaps, that's what I needed, concerning my first question.

Answer 1

philosophy-verbose uses a custom definition of the sortname name format, so if you want to change the name format in the bibliography you probably want to base your redefinition on that. The MWE below shows how you get given-family order for all names.

The command to control the space between given name initials is called \bibinitdelim.

Finally, the "and" can be turned into a comma with \DeclareDelimAlias.

\documentclass[british]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}

\usepackage[
  bibstyle=philosophy-verbose,
  citestyle=authoryear,
  giveninits=true,
  scauthorsbib=true,
  scauthorscite=false,
]{biblatex}

\renewcommand*{\bibinitdelim}{}

\DeclareNameFormat{sortname}{%
  \iftoggle{bbx:scauthorsbib}{\usebibmacro{bbx:scswitch}}{}%
  \nameparts{#1}%
  \ifgiveninits
    {\usebibmacro{name:given-family}
      {\namepartfamily}
      {\namepartgiveni}
      {\namepartprefix}
      {\namepartsuffix}}
    {\usebibmacro{name:given-family}
      {\namepartfamily}
      {\namepartgiven}
      {\namepartprefix}
      {\namepartsuffix}}%
  \usebibmacro{name:andothers}}%

\DeclareDelimAlias[bib]{finalnamedelim}{multinamedelim}

\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}

\begin{document}
Lorem \autocite{sigfridsson,baez/article,nussbaum,geer,companion}

\printbibliography
\end{document}

That said, I don't think bibstyle=philosophy-verbose, citestyle=authoryear, is a particularly good match. An author-year citation style should be combined with a bibliography style that moves the year into a more prominent position. Plus I would recommend you use a biblatex-philosophy style for both bibliography and citation. Mixing standard and custom styles can sometimes lead to side effects. For author-year citations philosophy-classic seems like a good choice.

\documentclass[british]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}

\usepackage[
  style=philosophy-classic,
  giveninits=true,
  scauthorsbib=true,
  scauthorscite=false,
]{biblatex}

\renewcommand*{\bibinitdelim}{}

\DeclareNameFormat{sortname}{%
  \iftoggle{bbx:scauthorsbib}{\usebibmacro{bbx:scswitch}}{}%
  \nameparts{#1}%
  \ifgiveninits
    {\usebibmacro{name:given-family}
      {\namepartfamily}
      {\namepartgiveni}
      {\namepartprefix}
      {\namepartsuffix}}
    {\usebibmacro{name:given-family}
      {\namepartfamily}
      {\namepartgiven}
      {\namepartprefix}
      {\namepartsuffix}}%
  \usebibmacro{name:andothers}}%

\DeclareDelimAlias[bib]{finalnamedelim}{multinamedelim}

\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}

\begin{document}
Lorem \autocite{sigfridsson,baez/article,nussbaum,geer,companion}

\printbibliography
\end{document}