Style Sheet Guidelines – Brepols’ English-language series
For the majority of series in which English is the sole or primary language of publication the following Style Sheet should be followed:
MHRA Style Book: Notes for Authors, Editors, and Writers of Theses, 5th edn. (London: Modern Humanities Research Association, 1996). ISBN 0-947623-61-2. viii + 100 pp.
We recommend that all monograph authors and editors of miscellany collections use this Style Book. Copies can be obtained inexpensively direct from the printers, W.S. Maney & Son Ltd., Hudson Road, LEEDS LS9 7DL, U.K.; tel: +44 (113) 249-7481; fax: +44 (113) 248-6983 [email: maney@maney.co.uk]
The following is a simple digest for authors, with certain additional information on place-names and abbreviations applicable to Brepols publications.
1. GENERAL
1.1 Languages
The language of publication should be agreed in advance with the relevant Editorial Board and Brepols Publishing Manager, or the editor of a miscellany or periodical. Normally, articles in periodicals or miscellanies and reviews are acceptable in English, French, German, Italian, or Spanish. Many of the following guidelines assume publication in English.
1.2 Presentation
It is expected that articles will be submitted in machine-readable form. Prior to submitting a disk authors are normally asked to submit two copies of their work on A4 (210 x 297 mm) or 8.5 in. x 11 in. paper. Typescripts should be double-spaced to facilitate copy-editing. Adequate margins should be provided. Pages must be numbered, and notes numbered consecutively as footnotes. Please keep formatting codes to an absolute minimum and avoid using features that are specific to your own word-processing programs.
Please ensure that you correctly distinguish ‘0’ (number nought) from ‘O’ (capital o), ‘l’ (lower case l) from ‘1’ (number one).
1.3 Word-processing Package and Unusual Fonts
If you are not using WordPerfect 5.0, Word 2.x for Windows or Word 4.0 for Macintosh (or later versions of these programs) please consult the appropriate Brepols Publishing Manager to ensure that your program can be easily converted. Equally, consult the Publishing Manager if you are intending to use unusual characters or diacritics (e.g. Celtic, Slavic, or Arabic diacritics) not found in modern Western European languages, or non-Latin alphabets (Cyrillic, runic, Greek).
Please turn off any auto-hyphenation on your word-processing package.
1.4 Spacing
A single space (not two) should follow full-stops at the ends of sentences, and a single space after commas, colons and other punctuation marks. Please ensure that you use the Tab bar (¬ ®) instead of the Space bar for indentations, especially at the opening of paragraphs.
1.5 Place-names
MHRA recommends (§4.6) using English forms of place-names where these exist (e.g. Dunkirk for Dunkerque, Majorca for Mallorca, Naples for Napoli, Quebec for Québec and so forth). Even so, they recognise that the list of such names is steadily reducing, noting the trend away from spelling Lyons, Marseilles and Rheims to the native forms Lyon, Marseille and Reims. The historical development is easily shown by the fact that a century ago the forms Brunswick for Braunschweig and Bois-le-Duc for ’s-Hertogenbosch were commonplace; nowadays few would recognise the cities to which such forms refer.
Moreover, since Brepols is an international publisher and its English-language publications are intended for a global readership it cannot be assumed that speakers who are not native-English speakers will always recognise these place-name variants. Therefore, we recommend the following rule of thumb: “use the native form of the place-name except in the most limited of cases”. Such cases where the English form may be retained could, for instance, be limited to the following:
East-Central Europe
Prague, Warsaw
Germany, Switzerland and Austria
Cologne, Munich, Vienna
Iberian peninsula
Lisbon, Seville
Italy
Florence, Milan, Naples, Rome, Venice
Low Countries
Antwerp, Brussels, The Hague
Scandinavia
Copenhagen
and for the countries using Greek and Cyrillic scripts (which should always be Romanized)
Belgrade, Bucharest, Moscow, Warsaw.
All regions or countries (Flanders, Sicily, etc.) should remain in their English forms.
2. DIGEST OF MHRA STYLE BOOK §§ 4-10
2.1 Spelling (MHRA §4)
1. Modern Commonwealth and UK spelling (as given in the Oxford English Dictionary and its derivatives) should be followed. Thus, use ‘honour’, ‘defence’, ‘centre’, ‘travelling’, ‘practice’ (noun) and ‘practise’ (verb) instead of alternative conventions.
2. For words ending in –ize or –ise, the –ize form is preferred (but note: ‘analyse’ and its derivatives and other words where the derivation demands –ise, e.g. ‘advertise’, ‘exercise’).
3. Hyphenation should be used where the first of two or more words is used adjectively: e.g. ‘a tenth-century manuscript’ versus ‘in the tenth century’. Where one of the words is an adverb ending in –ly, do not hyphenate: e.g. ‘a handsomely bound codex’.
4. Apostrophes: The plural of 860 is 860s, not 860’s. Proper names ending in a pronounced –s (or other sybillant) take a possessive in –’s: e.g. ‘Jesus’s parables’, ‘Berlioz’s criticisms’ – except in the case of proper names ending in –es: e.g. ‘under Moses’ leadership’, ‘Sophocles’ plays’.
2.2 Abbreviations (MHRA §5)
1. Contracted forms of words that end in the same letter as the full form, including plural –s, do not take a full-stop: e.g. Mr, Dr, Ms, St, ca, fols, nos, vols. Other abbreviations take a full-stop: e.g. ed., fol., no., p., pp., ps., repr., sc., trans., viz., vol. In all cases a space follows the full-stop.
2. Full-stops denoting abbreviations are omitted from standard reference works, journals, or series (e.g.: OED, MLR, or EETS); countries, institutions, or organizations (e.g.: UK or USA, BL or CNRS, UNESCO); and in bibliographical references the abbreviations MS or MSS for ‘manuscript(s)’. MS and MSS should only be used in shelfmark citations and references; otherwise the words should appear in full.
3. The preferred abbreviations for US states are the two-letter postal codes: e.g. ‘IL’ (Illinois), MA (Massachusetts) or NY (New York state). This does not apply to Canadian provinces (e.g. ‘Ont.’ for Ontario) or Australian states (e.g. ‘Vic.’ for Victoria).
4. The abbreviations for denoting years of birth or death are: ‘b.’ and ‘d.’ or ‘†’ (in parentheses with the date).
5. Where possible avoid starting sentences or footnotes with abbreviations. Fulll forms may be used here instead: e.g. ‘compare’ for ‘c.f.’, ‘For example’, for ‘e.g.’.
2.3 Punctuation (MHRA §6)
1. Commas should be inserted before the final ‘and’ or ‘or’ in a list of three or more items: e.g. ‘truth, grace, and beauty’.
2. When a complete sentence falls within a parenthesis, the final full-stop falls within the closing parenthesis: e.g. ‘(This was clearly proved in the aforementioned paper.)’. Otherwise the full-stop or other punctuation falls outside the closing parenthesis. Parentheses, rather than brackets (i.e. […]), should be used for a parenthetical statement within a parenthesis.
3. No punctuation, other than question marks, should occur at the end of headings or subheadings.
4. Ellipses denoting omissions from a quotation should be denoted by three points within brackets: […]. When the beginning of a sentence is omitted, at the outset of a quotation or following an ellipsis, the letter may be capitalized without your having to denote this change by the use of brackets.
2.4 Capitals (MHRA §7)
1. Adjectives deriving from nouns taking initial capitals are often not capitalized: e.g. ‘Bible’ but ‘biblical’, ‘Satan’ but ‘satanic’. But nouns and adjectives of movements derived from personal nouns remain capitalized: e.g. ‘Christian’, ‘Platonism’. Historical periods are capitalized: ‘Middle Ages’, ‘the Reformation’.
2. Places, persons, days, and months take capitals: ‘Paris’, ‘Thomas Aquinas’, ‘the Lombards’, ‘Monday’, ‘August’. So do unique events and periods: e.g. ‘the Last Judgement’, ‘the Peasants’ Revolt’. Also capitalize nationalities and nouns deriving from peoples or languages: e.g. ‘the Lombards’, ‘Gallican’, ‘Latinate’.
3. Seasons of the year are not capitalized: ‘in spring 1349’. Nor are points of the compass, whether as nouns or adjectives: ‘the north of England’, ‘northern England’; except when they indicate a specific concept or official name: ‘South America’, ‘the Western world’, ‘Northern Ireland’.
4. Words commonly found in religious works are not capitalized: ‘hell’, ‘incarnation’, ‘redemption’. In general capitalization should be used sparingly.
5. In titles of works in English the initial letter of the first word and all nouns, pronouns (except ‘that’), adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinating conjunctions are capitalized. Therefore, do not capitalize articles, possessive pronouns, prepositions, or co-ordinating conjunctions (‘and’, ‘but’, ‘or’ and ‘nor’). In works in German only nouns should be capitalized.
6. In titles of ancient and medieval Latin works the first word and proper nouns are capitalized: e.g. De civitate Dei. This rule also applies to most Romance and other languages and to transliterated Slavonic works. However, the citation of modern works with Latin titles may follow English conventions: e.g. Thesaurus Linguae Latinae.
7. Capitals are used for titles when these appear in full or immediately preceding a personal name: e.g. ‘King Alfred’, ‘the Archbishop of Trier’. Capitals are not used when the title is used appositively: e.g. ‘Alfred, king of Wessex’.
2.5 Italics (MHRA §8)
1. Single words or short phrases in foreign languages, where these have not passed into regular English usage, should be italicized.
2. Titles of books, but not dissertations, should be italicized, likewise the titles of journals. Series are not italicized.
3. The titles of religious works such as ‘the Bible’, ‘the Koran’ and ‘the Talmud’ remain in normal Roman script, whilst individual books of the Bible are neither italicized nor placed within quotation marks, e.g.: ‘II Corinthians 5. 13-15’.
2.6 Dates, Numbers, Currency, and Weights and Measures (MHRA §9)
1. Dates should be in the form: ‘24 September 897’. Where Old and New Styles need to be indicated use the form: ‘11/21 July 1605’. Where the year differs according to the start-date of the year use the form: ‘21 January 1564/5’.
2. Numbers up to one hundred, including ordinals, should be written in full (except in quoted material, statistical tables or the dimensions of manuscripts). Thus: ‘a twelfth-cenutry missal’, ‘45 x 95 mm’. So too should numbers that begin sentences (e.g. ‘One hundred and forty-seven manuscripts are extant’), and round multiples of hundred, thousand, or million (e.g. ‘The fire destroyed five thousand books’).
3. List the last two digits of all numbers within the same hundred, thus: ‘13-15’, ‘44-47’, ‘104-08’, ‘1933-39’.
4. No commas are required for four-digit numbers, but should be used for every three digits thereafter, thus: ‘2589’ but ‘125,397’ and ‘3,450,500’.
5. Roman numerals should be used sparingly. However, they are necessary for denoting the numbering of preliminary pages of books, where lower case should be used. In codicological datings capitalized Roman numerals may be used; e.g.: ‘saec. XII’. They are also used for ordinals of monarchs, popes, etc. (e.g. Pope John XXII).
6. Money expressed in pounds, shillings and/or pence should be expressed thus: ‘£197 12s. 6d.’ or ‘6s. 8d.’
7. The following currency symbols for pound/lira, dollar, yen, euro, deutschmark and florin/guilder precede the numbers: £, $, ¥, ¤, DM and fl. For other currencies the symbol or abbreviation follows the number: e.g. ‘15 DKr’.
8. In non-statistical contexts express weights and measures in words: e.g. ‘He carried an ounce of arsenic two miles from the apothecary’. In statistical contexts or subjects where frequent reference is made to them weights and measures may be expressed in figures with the appropriate abbreviations (most of which do not take a full-stop or have a plural –s), namely: ‘1 kg’, ‘45 mm’, ‘3½ in.’, ‘2 ft’, ‘6 oz’, ‘100 lb’, ‘4 l’ (for kilogram, millimetre, inch, foot, ounce, pound (in weight) and litre respectively. Note that ‘inch’ takes a full-stop. These forms are to be preferred to the used of inverted commas, such as ‘6'8"’ for ‘6 ft 8 in.’
2.7 Quotations and Quotation Marks (MHRA §10)
1. Translate quotation marks from different systems or languages (e.g. «…» or „…“) into the forms here.
2. Short quotations – under forty words of prose or two lines of verse – should be enclosed in single quotation marks within the main body of text. For a quotation within a quotation use double quotation marks. In such short quotations the final full-stop is placed outside the closing quotation mark.
3. Long quotations – more than forty words of prose or two lines or verse – should be separated from the preceding and following lines of typescript, double indented, but not be enclosed within quotation marks. A quotation within this extract would then be in single quotation marks and a further quotation within this quotation in double quotation marks.
2.8 Footnotes (MHRA §11)
1. The abbreviations ‘op. cit.’, ‘supra’, ‘infra’ and so forth should be avoided and replaced by a short unambiguous reference comprising the author’s surname, short title of the work or article, and a page reference.
2. Wherever possible place the footnote number within the text at the end of the sentence in question.
3. Footnotes should be numbered sequentially throughout an article or a chapter. Do not use a footnote number within a title or heading; if a note is required denote it with an asterisk.
4. In references always give the full sequence of numbering to folios or pages; avoid ‘ff.’ or ‘sqq.’ Likewise, denote the recto and verso of each folio with superscript abbreviations (r and v respectively) and ‘a’ and ‘b’ for left and right columns; thus: ‘fol. 96rb’ to denote the right hand column of the recto of folio 96.
3. REFERENCES
3.1 Examples of Secondary Sources – Books (MHRA §12.2.1)
· monograph = H. Munro Chadwick and N. Kershaw Chadwick, The Growth of Literature, 3 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1932-40; repr. 1986), I, p. xiii.
[subsequent reference = Chadwick and Chadwick, III, 72.]
· multi-authored, multi-volume work = Dictionary of the Middle Ages, ed. by Joseph R. Strayer and others (New York: Scribner, 1982-89), VI (1985), 26.
[subsequent reference = Dictionary of the Middle Ages, VI, p. 26.]
· edited or translated work = Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Sämtliche Werke, ed. by Rudolf Hirsch and others (Frankfurt a.M.: Fischer, 1975- ), XIII: Dramen, ed. by Roland Haltmeier (1986), pp. 12-22.
[replace ‘ed. by’ by ‘trans. by’ or ‘rev. by’ where necessary].
3.2 Secondary Sources – Articles in Books, Journals and Newspapers (MHRA §12.2.2-4)
· miscellany article = Fanni Bogdanow, ‘The Suite du Merlin and the Post-Vulgate Roman du Graal’, in Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages: A Collaborative History, ed. by Roger Sherman Loomis (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959), pp. 325-35.
[subsequent reference = Bogdanow, ‘The Suite du Merlin’, p. 329.]
· journal article = Robert F. Cook, ‘Baudouin de Sebourc: un poème édifiant?’, Olifant, 14 (1989), 115-35 (pp. 118-19).
[subsequent reference = Cook, ‘Baudouin de Sebourc’, p. 129.]
· newspaper article = Jacques-Pierre Amette, ‘Thé et désespoir’, Le Point, 8 October 1989, p. 18.
3.3 Secondary Sources – Theses and Dissertations (MHRA §12.2.5)
· European example = Robert Ingram, ‘Historical Drama in Great Britain from 1935 to the Present’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of London, 1988), p. 17.
· North American example = James Franklin Burke, ‘A Critical and Artistic Study of the Libro del Cavallero Cifar’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of North Carolina, 1966; abstract in Dissertation Abstracts 27 (1966-67), 2525-A).
3.4 Examples of Primary Sources – Bible and Manuscripts (MHRA §12.2.1 and 12.2.7-8)
· Bible reference = II Corinthians 5. 13-15; Isaiah 22. 17 (for abbreviations ask for further guidance)
· Shelfmark = London, British Library, Cotton MSS, Caligula D III, fol. 15
· edition of primary source, within a series = Carlos Fuentes, Aura, ed. by Peter Standish, Durham Modern Language Series: Hispanic Texts, 1 (Durham: University of Durham, 1986), pp. 12-16 (p. 14).
[subsequent reference = Aura, p. 93.]