Manuscript Preparation Based on Speculum Guide

Manuscripts must be printed in 12-point type with double spacing throughout, including notes. Italics should be employed as needed, but boldface should be avoided. Ample margins (at least one inch on all sides) should be provided. Each part should begin on a new page, and the manuscript should be paginated consecutively from start to finish. Notes should be printed as footnotes. Captions and illustrations should be placed at the very end.

Most of the prescriptions that follow are concerned with citation style. For matters not discussed here, authors should refer to recent issues of the journal.

CITATION PRACTICE IN BRIEF

The author is responsible for the accuracy of quotations and citations, which should be verified before the manuscript is submitted.

Primary sources

Models for the citation of classical and medieval works are the following:

          1. Medieval Author, Opus 2.4.1, ed. Modern Editor (City, 1990), p. 135.

          2. Medieval Author, Opus 2.4.1, ed. Editor, p. 135.

          3. Medieval Author, Opus 2.4.1.

          4. Medieval Author, Opus 2.4.1, line 5.

          5. Medieval Author, Opus 2.4.1, p. 135.

          6. Matt. 5.21; 1 Cor. 2.12.

Note 1 is a standard first citation. The subdivisions of the medieval work follow the title without intervening punctuation, in descending order, separated by periods. For example, Opus is divided into books, sections, and chapters, and the sample citation should be read as book 2, section 4, chapter 1.

Once the edition of a work has been provided in the first citation, subsequent references are shortened as in note 2, or even more as in notes 3, 4, or 5. The nature of the work and its editorial history will determine which version is required.

Note 6 shows standard biblical citations, which likewise use periods as the divider between subdivisions, in this instance between chapter and verse.

Secondary works

Models for the citation of secondary works are the following:

          7. John Doe, Book Title (City, 1995), pp. 27-31.

          8. Jane Smith, "Article Title," Journal 24 (1992), 2-14.

          9. Doe, Short Title, p. 76; Smith, "Short Title," p. 9.

BOOK CITATIONS

Authors' names should be cited as they appear on the title page. Do not abbreviate given names to initials. Publishers can be omitted but you may add them as well.

Simplest form

Susan Reynolds, Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted (New York, 1994), pp. 18-19, 92-93, and 118-19.

Later editions and reprints

Frank Barlow, The Feudal Kingdom of England, 1042-1216, 4th ed. (London, 1988), pp. 224-26.

Charles H. Beeson, A Primer of Medieval Latin: An Anthology of Prose and Poetry (Chicago, 1925; repr. Washington, D.C., 1986), pp. 25-27.

Monographs in a series

Arno Borst, Die Katharer, Schriften der Monumenta Germaniae Historica 12 (Stuttgart, 1953), pp. 112-15. [Series information is sometimes essential for locating books and ought to be included in such cases; the series should always be included when there is a series number.]

Edited or translated works

Hildegard of Bingen, The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen,1, trans. Joseph L. Baird and Radd K. Ehrman (New York, 1994), pp. 34-35. [Here the abbreviation "trans." means "translated by" and does not change when there is more than one translator.]

Emil Friedberg, ed., Corpus iuris canonici, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1879-81), 2:lxiv. [Here the abbreviation "ed." means "editor"; the plural is "eds."]

Georges Duby, Love and Marriage in the Middle Ages, trans. Jane Dunnet (Chicago, 1994), pp. vii and 25.

Foreign titles

In Latin titles capitalize only the first word, proper nouns, and proper adjectives. In French, Italian, and Spanish titles capitalize only the first word and proper nouns. Follow the prevailing rules for the given language in the capitalization of other foreign titles.

Titles in languages other than classical and medieval Latin and Greek, French, Italian, German, and Spanish may be translated. The translation follows the title in square brackets and is not italicized; only the first word and proper nouns and adjectives are capitalized.

Boris Poršnev, Feodalism i narodnye massy [Feudalism and the masses] (Moscow, 1964), pp. 22-50.

Subsequent references

Reynolds, Fiefs and Vassals, p. 97.

Use short titles rather than "op. cit." "Ibid." may be used for successive references to the same work within a single note; it may also be used for a work cited in the immediately preceding note when only one work is listed in the prior note.

"hereafter cited as Reynolds." Subsequent references take the form "Reynolds, p. 97."

ARTICLES

Please do not abbreviate journal titles. 

Anne Walters Robertson, "The Mass of Guillaume de Machaut in the Cathedral of Reims," in Plainsong in the Age of Polyphony, ed. Thomas Forest Kelly, Cambridge Studies in Performance Practice 2 (Cambridge, Eng., 1991), pp. 100-139, at p. 135.

Anna Carlotta Dionisotti, "On Bede, Grammars, and Greek," Revue bénédictine 92 (1982), 129.

Robert Bourgeois, "La théorie de la connaissance intellectuelle chez Henri de Gand," Revue de philosophie, n.s., 6 (1936), 238-59.

Subsequent references

Robertson, "Mass," p. 129.

MANUSCRIPTS

Both in the text and in the notes the abbreviation "MS" (plural "MSS") is used only when it precedes a shelf mark. Cite the shelf mark according to the practice of the given library. Folio numbers should include a recto/verso reference, abbreviated and written on the line, not as a superscript. The abbreviation of "folio" is "fol." (plural "fols.").

The first reference to a manuscript should give the place-name, the name of the library, and the shelf mark:

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 4117, fols. 108v-145r.

Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Vat. lat. 6055, fols. 151r-228v.

Subsequent references

BnF lat. 4117, fol. 108r. [If the context allows, "lat. 4117" may be sufficient.]

Vat. lat. 6055, fol. 151r.

ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL WORKS

For canonical collections, registers, and other specialized texts, the prevailing abbreviations and style of citation should be used. In citing standard editions of poetry it is often sufficient to cite line numbers without page references.

Bede, Historia ecclesiastica 2.3, ed. and trans. Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors (Oxford, 1969), pp. 142-45.

Dante, Inferno 11.13-14, trans. Mark Musa, Dante's Inferno (Bloomington, Ind., 1995), p. 89.

The Battle of Maldon, lines 42-61, ed. D. G. Scragg (Manchester, Eng., 1981), pp. 58-59. Marie de France, Le Chaitivel, lines 231-32, ed. Jean Rychner, Les Lais de Marie de France, Les Classiques Français du Moyen Âge 93 (Paris, 1966; repr. 1971).

Subsequent references

Bede, Historia ecclesiastica 3.16, pp. 262-63.

Inferno 3.58-60, p. 35.

Battle of Maldon, lines 312-19, p. 67.

Le Chaitivel, lines 9-180.

Recurring references to primary sources may sometimes be treated economically within the text.

Call for Submissions For Our First Volume

Welcome to Sententia: The Pearl Kibre Medieval Review. This is a new graduate student journal of the Medieval Studies Certificate Program (MSCP) and the Pearl Kibre Medieval Study of the CUNY Graduate Center. We are putting together our first volume based on last year's annual MSCP conference theme titled "Intimacy: Family, Fealty and Friendship in Middle Ages" and we are soliciting submissions from graduate students in fields related to medieval studies for our inaugural edition. We are planning a fairly aggressive time frame for the publication of the first volume and as such, if you wish to submit your work please do so no later than Friday January 7 to allow for a full editorial process to take shape. We also welcome reviews of recently published books. The first volume will be an online volume only and we would like submissions to be no longer than forty-five double spaced pages. If you are interested in submitting a paper or book review or if you have any questions please contact Ethan Zadoff at Ezadoff@gc.cuny.edu.