Documentation: Notes and Bibliographies

An important skill to acquire in History courses is the correct way to refer to sources, both primary and secondary. Several referencing systems are in use. Some prevail in the sciences, others in the social sciences, still others in the disciplines of languages and literature and of the humanities in general. One of the acknowledged authorities for all aspects in style, including footnotes/endnotes and bibliographies is The Chicago Manual of Style. The most recent edition, the fifteenth, appeared in 2003. It has reorganized existing material and includes new material. As far as I can tell, the rules for notes and bibliographies have not changed since the fourteenth edition, published in 1993.

Below please find several basic examples of correct footnote/endnote and bibliography form. (The distinction between footnotes and endnotes is that the former appear at the bottom of a page of text, whereas the latter appear at the end of the main body of a text, such as a book or an essay.) For more specific cases, please consult The Chicago Manual of Style. The referencing system is not difficult to learn. You will need to put it to use in your essays.

Please note: N = footnote/endnote reference, B = bibliography reference.

The text that appears in italics may also be underlined.

1. Book with one author

N:

Gareth Roberts, The Mirror of Alchemy: Alchemical Ideas and Images in Manuscripts and Books from Antiquity to the Seventeenth Century (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994), 96.

B:
Roberts, Gareth. The Mirror of Alchemy: Alchemical Ideas and Images in Manuscripts and Books from Antiquity

to the Seventeenth Century. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994.

2a. Book in translation

N:

Jacques Le Goff, The Birth of Purgatory, trans. Arthur Goldhammer (Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1984), 58.

B:
Le Goff, Jacques. The Birth of Purgatory. Translated by Arthur Goldhammer. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1984.

2b. Book in an edition other than the first

N:

Edward Muir, Ritual in Early Modern Europe, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 46.

B:
Muir, Edward. Ritual in Early Modern Europe. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2005.

3a. Collection of essays by the same author

N:

Robert Darnton, "A Police Inspector Sorts His Files: The Anatomy of the Republic of Letters," in Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History (New York: Random House, 1985), 177.

B:
Darnton, Robert. The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History.
New York: Random House, 1985.

3b. Collection of essays with one editor

N:

James Grantham Turner, ed., Sexuality and Gender in Early Modern Europe: Institutions, Texts, Images
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).

B:
Turner, James Grantham, ed. Sexuality and Gender in Early Modern Europe: Institutions, Texts, Images.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

3c. Collection of essays with more than one editor

N:

Antony Grafton and J. H. M. Salmon, eds., Historians and Ideologues: Essays in Honor of Donald R. Kelley
(Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2001).

B:
Grafton, Athony M. and J. H. M. Salmon, eds. Historians and Ideologues: Essays in Honor of Donald R. Kelley.
Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2001.

4. Journal article

N:

James Schmidt, "The Question of Enlightenment: Kant, Mendelssohn, and the Mittwochsgesellschaft,"
Journal of the History of Ideas 50 (1989): 274.

B:
Schmidt, James. "The Question of Enlightenment: Kant, Mendelssohn, and the Mittwochsgesellschaft."

Journal of the History of Ideas 50 (1989): 269-91.

5. Article or essay that appears in a book

N:

Jeffrey Chipps Smith, "The Jesuit Church of St. Michael's in Munich: The Story of an Angel with a Mission," in Infinite Boundaries: Order, Disorder, and Reorder in Early Modern German Culture, ed. Max Reinhart (Kirksville, MO: Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers, 1998), 155.

B:
Smith, Jeffrey Chipps. "The Jesuit Church of St. Michael's in Munich: The Story of an Angel with a Mission." In

Infinite Boundaries: Order, Disorder, and Reorder in Early Modern German Culture, ed. Max
Reinhart, 147-69. Kirksville, MO: Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers, 1998.

6. Book Review

N:

John C. Olin, review of The Society of Jesus in Ireland, Scotland, and England, 1541-1588: "Our Way of Proceeding?," by Thomas M. McCoog, Renaissance Quarterly 51 (1998): 287.

B:
Olin, John C. Review of The Society of Jesus in Ireland, Scotland, and England, 1541-1588: "Our Way of

Proceeding?," by Thomas M. McCoog. Renaissance Quarterly 51 (1998): 287-88.

Please Note: Articles, essays, and book reviews that appear in books or journals provide the complete span of pages in a bibliographical entry. A footnote/endnote reference, however, provides only the specific page(s) from which a quotation or information is taken.

Multiple References to the Same Source in Footnotes / Endnotes:

1. Gareth Roberts, The Mirror of Alchemy: Alchemical Ideas and Images in Manuscripts and Books from Antiquity to the Seventeenth Century (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994), 96.
2. Ibid., 98.
3. James Schmidt, "The Question of Enlightenment: Kant, Mendelssohn, and the Mittwochsgesellschaft," Journal of the History of Ideas 50 (1989): 274.
4. Roberts, The Mirror of Alchemy, 105.
5. Schmidt, "The Question of Enlightenment," 276.
6. Ibid.

Explanation:

  • The first reference should give complete details (notes 1, 3).
  • Use "Ibid.," (without the quotation marks) when you cite the same source in the next note (notes 2, 6).
  • All by itself, "Ibid.," means the same source as the previous note and the same page (note 6).
  • If you are refering to the same source but at a different page, write "Ibid.," followed by the page number (note 2).
  • If you refer to a source that you have already cited but not in the immediately previous note, list only the author's last name, an abbreviated form of the title, and the page number (notes 4, 5).

    Arrangement of Bibliography Entries

    The most practical and useful way to arrange entries in a bibliography is in alphabetical order by authors. In bibliographies that include several works by the same author, the author's name is not repeated for successive works but is represented by a 3-em dash. Works by the same author may be arranged either chronologically by date of publication or alphabetically by title (discounting an initial definite or indefinite article).

    Post, R. R. The Modern Devotion: Confrontation with Reformation and Humanism. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1968.
    Reedijk, C. "Das Lebensende des Erasmus." Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichte und

    Altertumskunde 57 (1958): 23-66.
    Reinburg, Virginia. "Popular Prayers in Late Medieval and Reformation France." Ph.D. dissertation,
    Princeton University, 1985.
    Renaudet, Augustin. Études Érasmiennes (1521-1529). Paris: Droz, 1939.
    Rummel, Erika. Erasmus and his Catholic Critics. 2 vols. Nieuwkoop: De Graaf, 1989.
    -----. Erasmus' Annotations on the New Testament: From Philologist to Theologian. Toronto:
    University of Toronto Press, 1986.
    -----. "Manifesta Mendacia: Erasmus' Reply to Taxander." Renaissance Quarterly 43 (1990): 731-43.

    OR

    Rummel, Erika. Erasmus' Annotations on the New Testament: From Philologist to Theologian. Toronto:

    University of Toronto Press, 1986.
    -----. Erasmus and his Catholic Critics. 2 vols. Nieuwkoop: De Graaf, 1989.
    -----. "Manifesta Mendacia: Erasmus' Reply to Taxander." Renaissance Quarterly 43 (1990): 731-43.

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