The new edition of the Chicago Manual of Style has changed its recommendations regarding the use of ibid. in bibliographic citations. As the 17th edition states: In a departure from previous editions, Chicago discourages the use of ibid. in favor of shortened citations as described elsewhere in this section; to avoid repetition, the title of … Continue reading CMS Update: Ibid.
Author: SBLPress
Citing Text Collections 10: LCL
The Loeb Classical Library (LCL) is a collection of ancient Greek and Roman writings. Founded in 1911 by James Loeb, the LCL’s goal from the beginning was to “make the work of classical authors accessible to as many readers as possible” (“Loeb Classical Library: Our History”). To that end, most volumes are diglots, including the … Continue reading Citing Text Collections 10: LCL
X-Person Phrases
Writers in the field often find it necessary to refer to the grammatical form of a given verb, which frequently involves identifying the person (first, second, or third) of the form in question. Without pretending to offer a full discussion of all the ways that authors might present such information, this post offers SBL Press … Continue reading X-Person Phrases
Greek Magical Papyri
SBLHS 6.4.3.3 offers useful guidelines for citing the Greek Magical Papyri. However, we recently encountered several questions not addressed there. Therefore, this post summarizes, clarifies, supplements, and occasionally corrects the SBLHS guidelines for citing this important corpus. The standard English translation of the corpus is a volume edited (not authored, as implied by the SBLHS … Continue reading Greek Magical Papyri
A Single Prime Symbol
Many writing in the field of biblical studies and its cognate disciplines will have reason to use a prime symbol: ′. This single mark is used in various contexts to indicate a number of different things. The following noncomprehensive list identifies some of the more common. A prime symbol can stand for the word feet, … Continue reading A Single Prime Symbol
Vetus Latina (VLB)
Vetus Latina (Old Latin Bible) refers to “the large and very diverse collection of Latin biblical texts used by Christian communities from the second century” (Vetus Latina). In 1945, the Vetus Latina Institute in Beuron began work on a new scholarly edition of these texts based on the earlier work of Pierre Sabatier (d. 1742) … Continue reading Vetus Latina (VLB)
Studia Patristica
The goal of citation is to credit the source of a quotation of an idea clearly, so that any reader who wishes can locate it in the original source. We establish specific citation styles to facilitate the reader’s interpretation of the reference provided. Thus, SBLHS style is to place the title of an unpublished dissertation … Continue reading Studia Patristica
The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition
The University of Chicago Press has just released its 17th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style. The changes offered in this new edition include updated guidelines for the citation of electronic information (including citations of social media, private messages, apps, DOIs, and e-books), expanded discussions of English grammar and syntax, and revised recommendations for … Continue reading The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition
Citing Text Collections 9: Kitchen’s Ramesside Inscriptions
Work on a soon-to-be-published SBL Press volume (Trimm 2017) led the copyediting team to clarify references to the various parts of Kenneth Kitchen’s Ramesside Inscriptions volumes. This involved not only determining the abbreviation scheme to follow (since neither SBLHS nor Schwertner 2014 includes abbreviations) but also clarifying what is contained in each of the three … Continue reading Citing Text Collections 9: Kitchen’s Ramesside Inscriptions
Kings, Queens, Pharaohs, and Emperors
Writers frequently struggle to know when a title such as king, queen, pharaoh, emperor, or the like should be capitalized and when it is more properly lowercased. SBLHS 4.3.6 includes all of these terms in a list of capitalization and spelling examples; this post reinforces the guidelines illustrated there by explaining the rationale behind them … Continue reading Kings, Queens, Pharaohs, and Emperors
SBL Handbook of Style 