diff --git a/Documentation/manpage-1.72.xsl b/Documentation/manpage-1.72.xsl
index 4065a3a27a..e24d26cd00 100644
--- a/Documentation/manpage-1.72.xsl
+++ b/Documentation/manpage-1.72.xsl
@@ -1,21 +1,18 @@
-<!-- Based on callouts.xsl. Fixes man page callouts for DocBook 1.72 XSL -->
-<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0">
+<!-- manpage-1.72.xsl:
+     special settings for manpages rendered from asciidoc+docbook
+     handles peculiarities in docbook-xsl 1.72.0 -->
+<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
+		version="1.0">
 
+<xsl:import href="manpage-base.xsl"/>
+
+<!-- these are the special values for the roff control characters
+     needed for docbook-xsl 1.72.0 -->
+<xsl:param name="git.docbook.backslash">&#x2593;</xsl:param>
+<xsl:param name="git.docbook.dot"      >&#x2302;</xsl:param>
+
+<!-- these params silence some output from xmlto -->
 <xsl:param name="man.output.quietly" select="1"/>
 <xsl:param name="refentry.meta.get.quietly" select="1"/>
 
-<xsl:template match="co">
-	<xsl:value-of select="concat('&#x2593;fB(',substring-after(@id,'-'),')&#x2593;fR')"/>
-</xsl:template>
-<xsl:template match="calloutlist">
-	<xsl:text>&#x2302;sp&#10;</xsl:text>
-	<xsl:apply-templates/>
-	<xsl:text>&#10;</xsl:text>
-</xsl:template>
-<xsl:template match="callout">
-	<xsl:value-of select="concat('&#x2593;fB',substring-after(@arearefs,'-'),'. &#x2593;fR')"/>
-	<xsl:apply-templates/>
-	<xsl:text>&#x2302;br&#10;</xsl:text>
-</xsl:template>
-
 </xsl:stylesheet>
diff --git a/Documentation/manpage-base.xsl b/Documentation/manpage-base.xsl
index 6a361a2136..6d3eb1912a 100644
--- a/Documentation/manpage-base.xsl
+++ b/Documentation/manpage-base.xsl
@@ -1,30 +1,31 @@
-<!-- callout.xsl: converts asciidoc callouts to man page format -->
-<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0">
+<!-- manpage-base.xsl:
+     special formatting for manpages rendered from asciidoc+docbook -->
+<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
+		version="1.0">
+
+<!-- convert asciidoc callouts to man page format;
+     git.docbook.backslash and git.docbook.dot params
+     must be supplied by another XSL file or other means -->
 <xsl:template match="co">
-	<xsl:value-of select="concat('\fB(',substring-after(@id,'-'),')\fR')"/>
+	<xsl:value-of select="concat(
+			      $git.docbook.backslash,'fB(',
+			      substring-after(@id,'-'),')',
+			      $git.docbook.backslash,'fR')"/>
 </xsl:template>
 <xsl:template match="calloutlist">
-	<xsl:text>.sp&#10;</xsl:text>
+	<xsl:value-of select="$git.docbook.dot"/>
+	<xsl:text>sp&#10;</xsl:text>
 	<xsl:apply-templates/>
 	<xsl:text>&#10;</xsl:text>
 </xsl:template>
 <xsl:template match="callout">
-	<xsl:value-of select="concat('\fB',substring-after(@arearefs,'-'),'. \fR')"/>
+	<xsl:value-of select="concat(
+			      $git.docbook.backslash,'fB',
+			      substring-after(@arearefs,'-'),
+			      '. ',$git.docbook.backslash,'fR')"/>
 	<xsl:apply-templates/>
-	<xsl:text>.br&#10;</xsl:text>
-</xsl:template>
-
-<!-- sorry, this is not about callouts, but attempts to work around
- spurious .sp at the tail of the line docbook stylesheets seem to add -->
-<xsl:template match="simpara">
-  <xsl:variable name="content">
-    <xsl:apply-templates/>
-  </xsl:variable>
-  <xsl:value-of select="normalize-space($content)"/>
-  <xsl:if test="not(ancestor::authorblurb) and
-                not(ancestor::personblurb)">
-    <xsl:text>&#10;&#10;</xsl:text>
-  </xsl:if>
+	<xsl:value-of select="$git.docbook.dot"/>
+	<xsl:text>br&#10;</xsl:text>
 </xsl:template>
 
 </xsl:stylesheet>
diff --git a/Documentation/manpage-normal.xsl b/Documentation/manpage-normal.xsl
index 6a361a2136..e36472f5ad 100644
--- a/Documentation/manpage-normal.xsl
+++ b/Documentation/manpage-normal.xsl
@@ -1,21 +1,17 @@
-<!-- callout.xsl: converts asciidoc callouts to man page format -->
-<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0">
-<xsl:template match="co">
-	<xsl:value-of select="concat('\fB(',substring-after(@id,'-'),')\fR')"/>
-</xsl:template>
-<xsl:template match="calloutlist">
-	<xsl:text>.sp&#10;</xsl:text>
-	<xsl:apply-templates/>
-	<xsl:text>&#10;</xsl:text>
-</xsl:template>
-<xsl:template match="callout">
-	<xsl:value-of select="concat('\fB',substring-after(@arearefs,'-'),'. \fR')"/>
-	<xsl:apply-templates/>
-	<xsl:text>.br&#10;</xsl:text>
-</xsl:template>
+<!-- manpage-normal.xsl:
+     special settings for manpages rendered from asciidoc+docbook
+     handles anything we want to keep away from docbook-xsl 1.72.0 -->
+<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
+		version="1.0">
 
-<!-- sorry, this is not about callouts, but attempts to work around
- spurious .sp at the tail of the line docbook stylesheets seem to add -->
+<xsl:import href="manpage-base.xsl"/>
+
+<!-- these are the normal values for the roff control characters -->
+<xsl:param name="git.docbook.backslash">\</xsl:param>
+<xsl:param name="git.docbook.dot"	>.</xsl:param>
+
+<!-- attempt to work around spurious .sp at the tail of the line
+     that docbook stylesheets seem to add -->
 <xsl:template match="simpara">
   <xsl:variable name="content">
     <xsl:apply-templates/>