Style Guide: Critical Apparatus

Spelling

Spelling should conform to American practice and follow Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition. When Webster’s gives variants of a spelling (e.g., catalog and catalogue, use the more globally recognized spelling — here, catalogue).

Be consistent in transcribing foreign names. Spellings should conform to the Biographical Names section at the back of Merriam-Webster’s. As a general rule, use the native form of place-names. In some cases, the English form can be retained: Prague, Vienna, Florence, The Hague.

Font

• Use a single font throughout, including italic and boldface.
• Place non-English single words or short phrases in italics if they are in a Roman-alphabet language, but don't italicize non-Roman languages; place direct quotations or more substantial quotations in roman.
• In the case of foreign words, an English translation may immediately follow in normal type, in parentheses, e.g., “the distinction between exhortatio (exhortation) and praedicatio (preaching) became very important in thirteenth-century discussions about lay preaching.” For block quotes and longer translations, place English translations in brackets.
• Use italics for titles of books and journals; titles of articles or essays should be placed between double quotation marks.
• Use regular font for section headings, and italics for subsections within.

Capitalization

On the whole, CMS 17 prefers a “down” style, or a sparing use of capitals. Some of the exceptions are noted below. When in doubt, consult chapter 8, “Names, Terms, and Titles of Works.”

• Nationalities and nouns deriving from people or languages are capitalized (e.g., Latinate, the Lombards), as are nouns and adjectives of movements derived from proper nouns (e.g., Christian, Platonism).
• Historical periods are capitalized (e.g., Middle Ages, the Reformation), but a descriptive designation of a period is usually lowercased, except for proper names (e.g., the medieval era, ancient Greece, the baroque period, antiquity; but the Victorian era).
• Books of the bible are capitalized but not italicized (e.g., the book of Genesis, the Gospel according to John, the First Epistle to the Corinthians); also note biblical, not Biblical; satanic, not Satanic; the Eucharist but eucharistic.
• Named prayers, canticles, creeds, etc., are capitalized but not italicized (e.g., the Ten Commandments, Kaddish, the Nicene Creed). Parables and miracles are lowercased (e.g., doxology, the parable of the prodigal son, the miracle of the loaves and fishes).
• Unique events and periods take capitals (e.g., the Last Judgment, the Peasants’ Revolt).
• Note that church is generally lowercased, unless it is part of the official name of a denomination or building, or unless it refers to the whole body of Christians in all times and places.
• References to particular parts of a book are not capitalized (e.g., chapter 1; appendix 2; part ii, figure 8).
• Seasons of the year are not capitalized (e.g., spring 1349); nor are points of the compass (north of England, northern England), except when they indicate an official name or specific concept (South America, the Western world).
• Civil, military, religious, and professional titles are capitalized when they immediately precede a personal name and are thus used as part of the name (e.g., the Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishop Wilberforce). When following a name or used in place of a name, a title is normally lowercased (e.g., the president, the bishop, the pope).

In most European languages, titles of books and other publications are set in sentence-style caps, with just an initial capital. English-language titles are set in headline-style caps, following these basic principles:

• The first and last words in titles and subtitles are capitalized.
• All nouns, pronouns (except the relative that), adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinating conjunctions are capitalized.
• Always capitalize the first element in a hyphenated compound. Capitalize any subsequent elements unless they are articles, prepositions, coordinating conjunctions, or such modifiers as flat or sharp following musical key symbols. If the first element in the compound could not stand by itself as a word (i.e., anti-, pre-, etc.), do not capitalize the second element unless it is a proper noun or adjective.
• Do not capitalize: articles; prepositions; and the coordinating conjunctions and, but, or, and nor; to, whether as a preposition or as part of an infinitive; as in any function; and parts of proper names that would be lowercased in text, such as de or von.
• For journals, follow the preferred capitals style of the journal.

Punctuation

• Avoid using abbreviations or contracted forms in ordinary prose (do not, instead of don’t).
• Series (“Oxford”) commas should be used: commas should appear before the final and/or in a list of three or more items (e.g., truth, grace, and beauty).
• Use double quotation marks; single quotation marks belong only within double quotation marks (e.g., “This is the ‘best’ way.”) Translate quotation marks from different systems or languages (e.g. « … » or „…“) into the forms here (“ ”).
• All quotation marks should be curly, not straight.
• Punctuation goes inside quotation marks, except for colons and semi-colons that separate items in a list.
• Footnotes go outside the final punctuation mark: e.g., Smith said that “this was the best way.”15
• A single space (not two) should follow periods at the end of sentences, as well as commas, colons, and other punctuation marks.
• Do use a space to separate each initial of an author or editor’s surname (e.g., B. C. Cummings, not B.C. Cummings).
• Ellipses should have a space before and after; if the beginning of the sentence is omitted following the ellipses, begin with a capital letter. Do not use ellipses at the beginning of a quotation or at the end, unless there is a specific reason such as a purposefully incomplete thought or sentence.
• Possessives almost always take the ’s. This includes names ending in s or another sibilant (e.g., Jesus’s, Berlioz’s), and names with es endings (e.g., Moses’s leadership, Sophocles’s plays). When the singular form of a noun ending in s is the same as the plural, the possessives of both are formed by adding an apostrophe only (e.g., politics’ true meaning). The same applies for the name of a place, organization, or publication if a plural form ending in s, even though the entity is singular (i.e., the National Academy of Sciences’ new policy).
• Hyphenation is used where the first of two or more words is used adjectively (e.g., a tenth-century manuscript versus in the tenth century). You may find these referred to as compound adjectives or compound modifiers. Where one of the words is an adverb ending in –ly, do not hyphenate (e.g., a handsomely bound codex).
• When using em-dashes (—), put a space before and after (Vernagu fulfills the typical function of a giant in a Western European medieval narrative — that is, to represent the Other — and, in being defeated, to reinforce the supremacy of those belonging to dominant categories.)
• See the Numbers section below for use of the en-dash (–).
• In quotations, forward slashes separate lines of poetry. Put a space before and after a slash. (“He came / And saw the day rise before him.”)
• Use the Merriam-Webster dictionary (available free online at http://www.merriam-webster.com/) as guidance for hyphenation, particularly at ends of lines.

Numbers

• Numbers from zero to one hundred should be written out as words (so, nineteen but 345), and all numbers pertaining to even hundreds and thousands. You may depart from this rule when numerals or numbers form the main part of the text.
• Follow the Chicago Manual of Style for inclusive pairs of numbers (e.g., 96–97, 101–04, 246–48), except for spans of years, which repeat the century (1014–1103). Use an en-dash between number ranges, like date ranges and page ranges.
• Decades should be written as 860s, not 860’s.
• Use Arabic numbers for volume numbers (whether of journals, series, or multivolume works) and for sections of medieval texts. Roman numerals are used for front matter, manuscript shelfmarks as per library usage, and in titles.
• Set dates in month day, year format (February 19, 2018).
• Use BCE and CE for dates

Common Abbreviations

Abbreviations and symbols are most appropriate in tabular matter, explanatory and textual notes, and parenthetical references. The use of less familiar abbreviations should be limited to those terms that occur frequently enough to warrant abbreviation — roughly five times or more within a chapter or section — and the terms must be spelled out on their first occurrence.

The following conventional abbreviations may be used:

• ca. [not ca. or c.]
• b. (birth / born), d. (died), r. (reigned), fl. (flourished)
• Use full-stops / periods after Mr., Dr., ad., vols., eds.; and with e.g., i.e., vol., fol. (for folio; plural fols.), no., ed., vol., chap., pp., n., trans., and so on. Other than Mr. and Dr., these abbreviations should not be used in running text.
• Do not omit the period after abbreviations such as “St.” except in titles that themselves omit it. French place names containing “Saint” are normally spelled out, and the hyphen is essential: “Saint-Denis.”
• Avoid starting sentences and footnotes with abbreviations. Use For example, not e.g.
• Do not use ibid. in footnotes or citations. Use short titles, instead, as indicated in Internal Citations, below.

Internal references appear most frequently in the Introduction and the Explanatory Notes. In both places, they should follow the same format. The only difference is that citations in the Introduction are footnoted, whereas those in the Explanatory Notes are parenthetical. The only exception to footnotes in the Introduction is that quotations from your own edited text may be cited parenthetically, by line or paragraph number(s). Use line or lines; do not shorten to l. or ll. For prose texts, use ¶ or ¶¶.

All internal references should follow the template below. Short titles should match the punctuation given in its bibliographic entry and page numbers should be preceded by p. or pp.:

For secondary sources: Author’s surname, short title, page number(s)

            ex.       Carruthers, The Book of Memory, pp. 60–65

                        Chance, “Allegory and Structure in Pearl,” p. 35

Most primary sources tend to be editions of primary texts, in which case:

            ex.       Author’s surname (if known), short title, editor’s surname, page number(s)

                        Le Fèvre, Le respit de la mort, ed. Hasenohr-Esnos, p. 113

If the author is not known, replace with editor’s name. Use ed.:

            ex.       Harvey, ed., The Court of Sapience, p. 20

To cite your own verse text(s), use line or lines before the number. For prose text(s), follow this format: Book number.Chapter number.Paragraph number. If the text doesn’t have books or chapters, use ¶ or ¶¶ before the number.

            ex.       line 265; lines 260–65

                        1.5.¶20; ¶10

Cite entries from the Middle English Dictionary by word, part of speech, and definition (using “sense” to indicate a specific definition). Entries from other dictionaries should also follow this format.

            ex.        MED, wer(e) (n.5), sense 3a

For a Canterbury Tales reference, use the Riverside Chaucer model of citation [e.g., CT I(A)1655–57], that is, fragment number in Roman numerals, (group indicated by letter), and line numbers in Arabic numbers. If the citation appears in parentheses, replace parentheses around the group identifier with square brackets. Capitalize the titles of individual tales, but do not otherwise punctuate them:

            ex.        In The Knight’s Tale (CT I[A]1655–57), Chaucer compares Arcite and Palamon respectively to the tiger and the lion; see also Troy Book 3:5246 and 3:796.

For all biblical citations, use the Vulgate for chapter and verse numbering, the titles of books, and the names of individuals. (NB: Use Chronicles in place of Paralipomenon.) If there is potential confusion (most prominent in Psalms), make your reliance on the Vulgate clear. All translations should be from the Douay-Rheims.

            ex.       Apocalypse (not Revelation) 21:1; Isaias (not Isaiah) 42:18; Zacharias (not Zachary or Zachariah); see Psalm 71:2 in the Vulgate (not Psalm 72:1 as it is listed in RSV): “Give to the king thy judgment, O God: and to the king’s son thy justice.”

Write out biblical titles in full; separate chapters and verse numbers of the bible with a colon:

            ex.       Matthew (not Matt.) 25:16.

Cite Patrologia Latina by volume and column, separated by a period.

            ex.        PL 93.487.

For web citations, list the author (if known), “title of a specific webpage,” title of website (if applicable).

            ex.       (Ainsworth, “Jean Froissart: Chronicler, Poet and Writer,” The Online Froissart)

            ex.       (Klein, “Arm Reliquary of the Apostles,” Treasures of Heaven)

            ex.       (“Wills and Testaments,” National Records of Scotland)

For digital facsimiles of a manuscript, give the institutional website’s title, “title of MS”

            ex.       (British Library, “Landsowne MS 757”)

            ex.       (Biblioteca Nacional de España, “Libro de horas de Carlos V”)

For online dictionaries or encyclopedias, check whether the individual entry is attributed to an author or contributor. If so, give author’s surname, the website’s (abbreviated) title, “title of a specific webpage.” If not, omit the author’s surname.

            ex.       (Johnson, ODNB, “Lydgate, John”)

            ex.        (Catholic Encyclopedia, “St. Martin of Tours”)

Additional Points of Style

When quoting a note (footnote or endnote) from another work, list p., the page, n, and the note number without spaces or periods.

            ex.        (p. 193n9).

Separate book and line numbers with a period for a poem or similar work. Do not use line (line, lines) or page designations (p., pp.) in this case:

            ex.        Troy Book 2.479–768.

Separate volume and page numbers with a colon.

            ex.       Minor Poems of John Lydgate 2:695–98.

When referring to a section of your volume, capitalize but do not italicize:

            ex.        See the Introduction (pp. 6–9) for more about the historical background of the poem.

When listing numbers, repeat the last two digits unless a previous number changes, then list the whole number. The only two exceptions to this rule are folio numbers and year ranges, where all numbers should be listed in full.

            ex.        pp. 124–79; lines 1220–50; pp. 224–379; fols. 196r–197v; 1980–1985                     

All cited sources must appear in the Bibliography. See Bibliography section below.

Front matter consists, in this order, of: 

• Title page
• Dedication page (if applicable)
• Table of contents
• List of illustrations and figures (if applicable; for images, see Submission Instructions.)
• Preface (usually only for 2nd editions)
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations list

See the Submission Instructions, for a sample Front Matter template. METS/MIP will provide additional standard front matter.

Abbreviations List

Sources should be abbreviated in the following cases:

• Manuscript sigla. The base manuscript may be abbreviated MS. Indicate the base manuscript in square brackets; if your edition contains multiple texts, also include the relevant text title. See MS and S below.
• Editions of your Text(s). Editions should be abbreviated using the editor(s)’ surname. If an editor is also an author of a frequently-cited work, add a keyword from the source’s title to the author/editor’s name to distinguish the abbreviations from each other. See Bühler vs. Bühler-Apostles, below.
• Reference Works (see the Reference Texts section below)
• Sources cited 12 times or more

You may also include abbreviations that are not sources, for example, for institutions, series, and languages.

Formatting: Include a list of abbreviations as the last item in the Front Matter. List abbreviations alphabetically, then tab over and list the source by author (if applicable), short title, and editor (if applicable). Punctuation for titles should replicate how the entry appears in the Bibliography, but do not give full bibliographic information. Italicize abbreviations, as you would titles.

ASD                 Bosworth and Toller, Anglo-Saxon Dictionary

B                      Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fr. 606

B1                    London, British Library, Harley 4431 

BI                     Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud misc. 570

BL                   British Library

Bühler              Scrope, Epistle of Othea, ed. Bühler

Bühler-Apostles  Bühler, “Apostles and the Creed” 

CA                   Gower, Confessio Amantis, ed. Peck

Chance            Christine de Pizan’s Letter of Othea to Hector, ed. and trans. Chance 

CP                   Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy, trans. Stewart, Rand, and Tester

CT                    Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, ed. Benson

DMF                Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330–1500)

EETS               Early English Text Society

Fein-Children   Fein, “All Adam’s Children”

FP                    Lydgate, Fall of Princes, ed. Bergen

Gordon            Gordon, ed., The Epistle of Othea to Hector: A ‘Lytil Bibell of Knughthod’

GR                   Herrtage, ed., Gesta Romanorum

Hassell             Hassell, Middle French Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases

HJW                 Mason, A History of the Jewish War A.D. 66–74

L                      Warminster, Longleat House, MS 253

M                     New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M.775

MED                McSparran et al, Middle English Dictionary

MP                   Lydgate, Minor Poems, ed. MacCracken 

MS                   British Library, Harley 838 [base text for Lytle Bibell of Knyghthod]

NIMEV             Boffey and Edwards, eds., New Index of Middle English Verse

OCD                Hornblower and Spawforth, eds., Oxford Classical Dictionary 

ODNB              Matthew and Harrison, eds., Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

OE                   Old English

OF                   Old French

OM                  de Boer, ed., Ovide moralisé

Parussa             Christine de Pizan, Epistre Othea, ed. Parussa

RR                    Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, Romance of the Rose, trans. Dahlberg

S                      Cambridge, St. John’s College, MS H.5 [base text for Scrope, Epistle of Othea]

STC                  Pollard and Redgrave, eds., A Short-Title Catalogue of Books 

TM                   Mombello, La tradizione manoscritta dell’ Epistre Othea di Christine de Pizan 

Warner             Scrope, The Epistle of Othea to Hector or The Boke of Knyghthode, ed. Warner

Whiting            Whiting and Whiting, Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases

An introduction should give a basic overview of your text(s). At minimum, your introduction(s) should include a brief synopsis of your text, authorship (if known), dating, language/dialect, meter and rhyme scheme (if applicable), sources, historical/cultural context, and significance. The maximum length of an introduction should be roughly 30,000 words.

Include a section about the text’s manuscript history and provenance, in which you clearly identify and justify your choice of base manuscript. Describe its physical appearance, including size, binding, collation, hand, scribe(s), if known, and any relevant signatures and other identifying marks. For early print editions, identify the printer, typeface, date, and any running titles/headers. Discuss other major witnesses and modern editions, and identify those you have consulted in your transcription and collation of Textual Notes. 

The final section should explain your Editorial Practice. Describe your rationale for emendation and, if appropriate, your choices for large-scale text divisions, stanza forms, etc. If applicable, discuss your treatment of extra-textual elements (i.e., marginalia, images, etc.). If you translate your text into English, provide a brief discussion of your translation philosophy. 

Some editors conclude this section with a list of Witnesses and Source Texts, especially if their Text(s) have many textual witnesses, or a list of Further Reading. Such lists are welcome, but not required. If you choose to include such a list, make sure the items listed are identical to their entries in the Bibliography.

METS’s Explanatory Notes ("E-Notes") are geared towards our student audience. They include substantial general contextualization and information. Therefore, this section tends to be longer than those of comparable series. In keeping with this ethos, we ask that volume editors provide English translations for any non-English phrases or quotations used, in square brackets. 

It is common practice for METS texts to include the following types of explanatory notes: 

• Specialized ME terminology (e.g., chivalric, liturgical, legal contexts), usually citing the MED
• Proverbs or proverbial phrases. We recommend citing Whiting for Middle English texts and Hassell for French texts. See Reference Texts below.
• References to other texts or figures (Classical, Scriptural, historical), including source texts
• References to the Middle English literary canon
• Genre conventions — verbal tags, or tropes like the disguised knight or the Nine Worthies
• Place names. If your text includes many locations, consider identifying their modern analogues

In addition to these, we encourage you to discuss any thematic elements pertinent to your text.

Formatting for Verse Texts

Each individual note should be indicated by line number(s), followed by a tab. Then copy the catchword/catchphrase in italics, followed by a full stop, after which the note begins. Use relevant abbreviations from the Abbreviations List. 

ex.

        4393    A sory beverage there was browen. Proverbial: breuen a bitter (sory) beverage, denotes “inflict[ing] great harm” (MED, breuen (v.), sense 3a). Compare Whiting B529. [Whiting and MED should appear in the abbreviations list.]

Include catchwords/phrases from your edited text whenever possible. If your note spans multiple lines/sentences, the catchphrase should include the first 2 or 3 words, a three-point ellipsis, and the last 2 or 3 words. 

Formatting for Prose Texts

Follow formatting instructions for verse Explanatory Notes as above, except for line numbers. Instead of numbering each note, include a heading above the relevant notes: Book number, Chapter number, Paragraph number. Use Arabic numbers. For Rubrics, use the same heading but replace the Paragraph Number with Rubric.

ex.

        Chapter 1, Paragraph 4

        musycyens. Musicianship was associated with chivalry, especially the ability to perform courtly melodies and lyrics. Sir Tristrem was a noted harper; his lessons with Isolde kindled their love affair. Chaucer says of his Squire that “syngynge he was, or floytynge [piping], al the day; . . . He koude songes make and wel endite” (CT I [A] 91, 95).

        hyghe lygnage. Paris’s father is a vassal of the dauphin and without a title.

        Chapter 2, Rubric

        by nyght tofore the chambre of Vyenne. BN1 and L read aubades, a word from Old Provençal referring to love songs, literally dawn songs. According to convention, they would be performed beneath a lady’s opened window. [CT, BN1, and L should appear in the abbreviations list.]

It is up to you how much secondary material you would like to use, and how deeply you engage with the scholarly literature. We encourage you to cite relevant scholarship, particularly major works in the field that are considered fundamental “Further Reading” for non-specialist readers.

Textual Notes (or "T-Notes") document variant readings among your witnesses. Volume editors should cite substantive variants only, though we leave it to your discretion to determine what counts as substantive variation. Where your emendations do not follow any witnesses, provide a brief justification (like Emended for sense or Emended for rhyme). If your base text includes damaged or lost leaves/passages, include notes explaining how much is missing (if known) and — where possible — reconstructing the sense of the lost content from other witnesses. If your base text has multiple scribes, include notes on where the hand changes.

Unlike the rest of the volume, readings in Textual Notes should use Middle English characters like thorn [þ], eth [ð], yogh [ȝ], and wynn (ƿ), except in the catchwords/phrases from your edited Text. Use Word’s insert symbols feature to add relevant characters. Do not use the number 3 for yoghs or 7 for Tironian ets. When you submit your edition, include a list of special characters including these ME characters; for details, see Submission Instructions.

Words or letters that have been canceled should be transcribed using Word’s strikeout feature. 

            ex.        MS: went come

It is up to you whether to document visual or extra-textual material such as enlarged or rubricated capitals, marginalia, illustrations, etc. The same principle stands for early print features, such as transposed letters, catchwords, and paraph marks. However, if you do document such elements, do so consistently — that is, if you have a note about one enlarged capital, include notes for all enlarged capitals.

Formatting for Verse Texts

Each individual note should be formatted like an Explanatory Note, with line number(s) and italicized catchphrases. Immediately after the catchphrase, indicate readings that exactly follow the catchphrase (your edited text) with So (see below). Then, list any variant readings. All readings should be italicized. Expand abbreviations silently. Each note MUST contain the reading from your base text; this usually means most catchphrases are followed by So MS.

If there are multiple instances of your catchword in the given line, indicate which instance you mean with a subscript. If, for example, hir appears three times in the relevant line and you mean the second instance, list the catchphrase as hir2. Include capitalized instances in the count.

ex.

        27        jestes. So W. MS: ȝyiftys. B: geste. L: ȝestes. [Here, MS is the base manuscript. W, B, and L are sigla for manuscripts or editions that should appear in the Abbreviations List. Note that L’s variant is identical to the catchword, except for the yogh. This counts as a different reading, so include the variants in your notes.]

        495–96 The aventurous . . . knyght betydde. Absent in MS, these lines are supplied from W.

        396–426 To the . . . hym drowe. For D’s version of these lines, see Löwenherz, pp. 98–101n.

Formatting for Prose Texts 

Follow formatting instructions for verse Textual Notes as indicated above, except for line number. Instead of numbering each note, include a heading above the relevant notes: Book number, Chapter number, Paragraph number. Use Arabic numbers. For Rubrics, use the same heading but replace the Paragraph Number with Rubric. Since paragraph numbering is used, longer catchphrases are suggested to facilitate locating the catchphrase within the Text. Using a single catchword (to) is not advised, because to may appear many times in a paragraph.

Bibliographies should function as a Works Cited section. Volume editors should not attempt a full bibliography of all relevant sources.

Sections

Include three sections in the Bibliography, in the order below. List all sources alphabetically in each section. When deciding which sources belong in which section, keep in mind that authors of secondary sources may also be editors of primary sources, and that some titles may be very similar. In these cases, make sure to specify whether an individual is an author or editor. You will create short titles for relevant sources, and ensure they are distinct from each other.

• Manuscripts and Documents include any documents with shelfmarks — mostly manuscripts and early print editions (of the edited Text(s)), but also historical documents like the Rolls Series. If a textual witness is available online, include the URL in the bib entry.
• Primary Sources include all literary texts and editions; facsimiles of MSS, early print editions (of any material except edited Text(s)); and historical documents like state records or registers, parliamentary rolls, calendars, royal letters, and treasury accounts.
• Secondary Sources include works of scholarship like monographs, collections of essays, journal articles, as well as reference sources like dictionaries, encyclopedias, databases, annotated bibliographies, and catalogues.

Alphabetization

• For medieval names with particles, alphabetize by first name (Geoffrey of Monmouth under G, not M; Chretien de Troyes under C, not D or T)
• For modern names with particles, take into account the individual’s preference (if known), as well as traditional and national usages. (Charles de Gaulle, for example, is sometimes listed under D and sometimes G.) Merriam Webster’s Biographical Dictionary is a guide for well-known persons long deceased; library catalogues and encyclopedias are also of assistance. Alphabetize those names as appropriate.

Abbreviations

• The Abbreviations List does not apply to the Bibliography, other than for Primary Text series like EETS. See Primary Text series in Reference Texts, below.
• Unless an author uses initials in their name, or a title includes an abbreviation, do not use abbreviations in the Bibliography. Do not, for example, use UP to indicate University Press. Spell out all words. 

Types of Sources

A manuscript:

City of holding institution, institution title, manuscript shelfmark. Online catalog page’s URL (if digitized).

Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, MS fr. 20044. Online at https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10721305x.

An early print:

Author [last name, first name — if known]. Title. Ed. or trans. [first, last]. City of publication: Publisher, Year. STC number. Holding institution, shelfmark (only for witnesses of the edited text). Online catalog page’s URL (if digitized).

NB: METS uses three types of STC numbers: ESTC, ISTC, and USTC. For an early print entry, include only one STC number: for English sources, include an ESTC number; for incunables (15th century), include an ISTC number; for any non-English sources, include a USTC number. See Reference Sources > Databases, below, for links to each database.

Caxton, William. Thystorye of the noble ryght valyaunt and worthy knyght Parys, and of the fayr Vyenne de daulphyns doughter. Westminster: William Caxton, 1485. ISTC: ip00113500. London, British Library, C.10.b.10. Online at http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100102251449.0x000001#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=76&xywh=-982%2C-345%2C11693%2C6873.

Fitzjames, Richard. Sermo die lune in ebdomada Pasche. London: Wynkyn de Worde, 1491–1499. STC 11024. [Not a witness for the edited text, so holding institution and shelfmark are not needed]

A book:

Author [last name, first name — if known]. Title. Ed. or trans. [first, last]. Vol. [either vol. number or number of vols. in the series]. Name and number of series. City of publication: Publisher, Year. 

NB: Include METS and TEAMS as series, even though items in these series are unnumbered. For U.S. cities that are not well-known, include a 2-letter state abbreviation (Carbondale, IL: Penguin) unless the state name appears in the publisher’s name (e.g., Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press). Distinguish between Cambridge, MA and Cambridge in England. For cities outside the U.S., do not list countries (Paris, not Paris, FR).

Barbour, John. Barbour’s Bruce. Ed. Matthew P. McDiarmid and James A. C. Stevenson. 3 vols. STS 4th series 12, 13, 15. Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1980–1985.

Geoffrey of Monmouth. The History of the Kings of Britain. Trans. Lewis Thorpe. Baltimore: Penguin, 1966.

Pearsall, Derek. Gower and Lydgate. Harlow: Longman, Greens, and Co., 1969.

An edition with an unknown author:

Editions with unknown authors are formatted as regular book entries, replacing the author’s name with the editor’s name, using ed.

Herrtage, Sidney J. H., ed. The English Charlemagne Romances. Part I: Sir Ferumbras. EETS e.s. 34. London: Oxford University Press, 1879. 

An EETS edition:

Note that editions are listed by their original author, if known, otherwise by editor. NB: include o.s. (original series), e.s. (extra series), s.s. (supplementary series), n.s. (new series).

Lydgate, John. Lydgate’s Troy Book. A. D. 1412–20. Ed. Henry Bergen. 4 vols. EETS e.s. 97, 103, 106, 126. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1906–1935.

An edition other than the first:

Gower, John. Confessio Amantis. Ed. Russell A. Peck. 2nd ed. 3 vols. METS. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 2006–2013.

Hammond, Eleanor P. English Verse between Chaucer and Surrey. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1927. Reprint, New York: Octagon Books, 1969.

A multi-volume work:

Dunbar, William. The Poems of William Dunbar. Ed. Priscilla Bawcutt. 2 vols. Glasgow: Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 1998.

An essay in an edited collection:

Author [last, first]. “Title of article.” In Title of Book. Ed. [first then last]. City: Publisher, year. Pp. [page numbers].

Watson, Nicholas. “Outdoing Chaucer.” In Shifts and Transpositions in Medieval Literature. Ed. Karen Pratt. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1994. Pp. 291–303.

If two or more essays from the same collection appear in the bibliography, add the collection of essays as a separate entry and shorten each individual essay entry as follows:

Author [last, first]. “Title of article.” In Name of Editor(s), Short Title. Pp. [page numbers].

Larson, Wendy R. “The Role of Patronage and Audience in the Cults of Sts Margaret and Marina of Antioch.” In Riches and Salih, Gender and Holiness. Pp. 23–35.

Elsewhere, the full collection of essays appears as a separate entry:

Riches, Samantha J. E., and Sarah Salih, eds. Gender and Holiness: Men, Women and Saints in Late Medieval Europe. London: Routledge, 2002.

Multiple entries by an author:

List all entries chronologically, oldest to most recent, including monographs, edited volumes, and co-authored texts. Do not list them alphabetically. After the initial entry, repeat the author’s name; do not replace it with three em-dashes, and complete the entry.

Skeat, Walter W. The Chaucer Canon with a Discussion of the Works Associated with the Name of Geoffrey Chaucer. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900.

Skeat, Walter W., ed. Early English Proverbs, Chiefly of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, with Illustrative Quotations. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910.

An article in a journal:

Author [last, first]. “Title of article.” Journal Title volume number, issue number (date), page numbers. Online at Article DOI, if available.

Sobecki, Sebastian. “Ecce patet tensus: The Trentham Manuscript, In Praise of Peace, and John Gower’s Autograph Hand.” Speculum 90, no. 4 (October 2015), 925–59. Online at https://doi.org/10.1017/S0038713415002316

A book review:

Author [last, first]. Review of Title of book, by author name, ed./trans. name (if applicable). Journal Title volume number, issue number (date), page numbers. Online at Article DOI, if available.

Larrington, Carolyne. Review of Lybeaus Desconus, ed. Eve Salisbury and James Weldon. Medium Ævum 84, no. 2 (Fall-Winter 2015), 356. Online at https://doi.org/10.2307/26396560 

A dissertation:

Author [last, first]. “Title.” Ph.D. Dissertation: Institution, year. Online at URI, if available.

Haught, Leah. “Toward an aesthetics of failure: generic expectation and identity formation in Middle English Arthuriana.” Ph.D. Dissertation: University of Rochester, 2011. Online at http://hdl.handle.net/1802/14778

A contribution to a multi-author reference source:

Author [last, first]. “Title of entry.” In Title of Book. Ed. [first then last]. City: Publisher, year. Pp. [page numbers].

Sourvinou-Inwood, Christiane. “Charon (1).” In The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Ed. Simon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth, and Esther Eidinow. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. P. 307.

If two or more contributors from the same reference work appear in the bibliography, add the reference work as a separate bib entry and shorten each contributor’s entry as follows:

Author [last, first]. “Title of entry.” In Short Title. Pp. [page numbers]. 

Sourvinou-Inwood, Christiane. “Charon (1).” In The Oxford Classical Dictionary. P. 307.

Elsewhere, the full reference work appears as a separate entry:

The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Ed. Simon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth, and Esther Eidinow. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.

A contribution to an online dictionary or encyclopedia:

Author/contributor [last, first]. “Title of entry.” In Title of Dictionary or Encyclopedia. Publisher, Date of Publication. Online at URL.

Bhattacharji, Santha. “Julian of Norwich (1342–c. 1416).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2018. Online at https://doi-org.ezp.lib.rochester.edu/10.1093/ref:odnb/15163.

A website:

Author [if applicable]. “Title of webpage [if applicable].” Title of website. Owner or sponsor, date of publication [if known]. Online at DOI or URL [make sure to include https://].

“Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts.” The British Library. Online at http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.

METS generally follows the latest edition of the Chicago Manual of Style. For additional questions, consult the latest edition of CMS.

If your text is a Middle English text, include a glossary. For definitions and grammatical information on specific words, consult the MED. Non-English texts do not require a glossary, because that text is fully translated.

The scope of the glossary will differ from edition to edition. Glossaries are selective and the level of comprehensiveness is left to the editor’s discretion. But as a general rule, assume an undergraduate readership. Because readers could very well be encountering ME for the first time, you should include “false friends” (ME words that have a different meaning from their modern counterparts), as well as common words that may look unfamiliar. We recommend including personal pronouns (and their variant spellings), unusual verb forms, prepositions with multiple meanings, words with intensifiers (like words with the for- prefix), and rare or difficult words. You may also want to include thematic terms (chivalric, religious, feudal, etc.) important to your text. Etymologies should not be included.

Texts in early Middle English and non-East Anglian dialects should generally have fuller glossaries. Editors of such texts have traditionally chosen to include more grammatical information, though we leave that to your discretion. If you choose to include grammatical information, include a list of abbreviations for the grammatical categories you use; see below. Include a list of grammatical abbreviations at the top of the glossary. To see glossaries with grammar-heavy entries, see The Katherine Group (MS Bodley 34), ed. Huber and Robertson (2016) and The Palyce of Honour, ed. Parkinson, 2nd edition (2018). 

Grammatical abbreviations: (adapted from EETS Guidelines for Editors)

acc(usative), adj(ective), adv(erb), card(inal), comp(arative), conj(unction), dat(ive), dem(onstrative), gen(itive), imp(erative), impers(onal), ind(icative), inst(rumental), interj(ection), intrans(itive), n(oun), nom(inative), num(eral), ord(inal), p(articiple), pa(st), pa. p. = past participle, pl(ural), poss(essive), ppl. = participial (e.g. in participial adjective, ppl.adj.), pr(esent), pr. p. = present participle, pref(ix), prep(osition), pron(oun), refl(exive), rel(ative), sg. = singular, subj(unctive), superl(ative), t(ense), trans(itive), v(erb).

Formatting

Each entry should contain the headword and its definition(s). Include parts of speech only to distinguish between multiple headwords with the same spelling.

Alphabetize all entries, using the modern English alphabet. Do not treat i and y as interchangeable letters. 

Boldface the ME word, put the part of speech in parentheses (if applicable), followed by two spaces, and the definition in italics. 

            ex.        privé (adj.)  secret, mysterious

Separate homographs (words with the same spelling but different meaning), into different entries. Make sure to differentiate them by assigning the correct part of speech.

            ex.        wight (n.)  a person

                         wight (adj.)  brave, strong, healthy

If multiple forms of a word appear, cross-reference to entry closest to the dictionary form, according to the MED (i.e., the least inflected form; for verbs, see the Preferred Order of Verbs below). Add a semicolon after the definition, put “see” in roman and the relevant headword in boldface:

            ex.        slee (pr.)  slay

                         slough(en) (p.)  slayed; see slee

                         yslawe, yslawghe (pa. p.)  slain; see slee

Separate variations of a meaning with a comma.

            ex.        her (pron.)  her, their

Indicate different forms of the word with parentheses.

            ex.        yif(fe) (prep.)  if

Phrases including the headword may be indicated, if desired. The phrase should be bolded, a tilde should replace the headword within the phrase, a comma (not bolded) should follow the phrase, and the definition should follow in italics.

            ex.        aventure (n.)  chance, fortune, fate; in ~ that, for fear that

Preferred order of verbs

Infinitive. Present 1, 2, 3 singular; plural (note there is rarely any need to distinguish persons in the plural). Subjunctive singular, plural. Imperative singular, plural. Present participle. Past singular (person marked only when necessary), plural. Subjunctive singular, plural. Past participle.

Submit the Glossary as a simple list. Do not attempt to imitate the two-column layout of METS’s published glossaries.

Additional back matter may be provided at the volume editor’s discretion, and should be noted in the original proposal. If your back matter does not fit into the format of the samples, please contact METS as soon as possible.

Indices are useful for helping readers navigate longer texts. An Index for Names and Places should include variant spellings. An Index of First Lines is usually used only in codex volumes (see Complete Harley 2253 Manuscript, ed. Fein). Indices should adopt the layout of the Glossary. 

Volume editors have used Appendices to give full lists of witnesses or miniatures; provide collations, concordances, or specialized glossaries; to include selections or translations of related texts; or include metatextual elements like music.

Below is a list of METS’s standard reference texts (and their abbreviations). You may cite other editions, but if you do not specify editions, we will default to these:

NB: All reference texts cited in your edition must appear in the Bibliography.

Canonical Texts:

Riverside Chaucer, 3rd edition, ed. Larry Benson, 1987 (CT)

Langland, Piers Plowman: Specify an edition. We default to:

• Piers Plowman: A parallel-text edition of the A, B, C, and Z versions, ed. A.V.C. Schmidt, 2011 or
• Will’s visions of Pier Plowman and Do-Well, ed. George Kane, 1960

Malory, Le Morte D’Arthur, ed. P.J.C. Field, 2 vols., 2013

Riverside Shakespeare

Vulgate Bible:

• Biblia Sacra Iuxta Vulgatam Versionem, ed. Robert Weber, with B. Fischer, J. Gribomont, H.F.D. Sparks, W. Thiele, 5th ed. rev. R. Gryson, 2007 or
• http://www.drbo.org/lvb/

Douay-Rheims: http://www.drbo.org/ 

Patrologia Latina (PL): http://pld.chadwyck.co.uk/

Aquinas, Catena Aurea, new edition, ed. John Henry Newman, trans. Mark Pattison, 6 vols., 1874: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008412369

Jacobus de Voragine, Golden Legend, trans. William Granger Ryan, 2 vols., 1993 (LA)

Primary Text Series:

Early English Text Society (EETS)

Manual of the Writings of Middle English (MWME)

Scottish Text Society (STS)

Anglo-Norman Text Society (ANTS)

French of England Translation Series (FRETS)

Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis (CCCM)

For Latin texts, use the commonly-accepted standard critical edition

Dictionaries:

Middle English Dictionary (MED) https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/middle-english-dictionary/dictionary

Dictionary of Old English (DOE): https://www.doe.utoronto.ca/pages/index.html 

Bosworth-Toller Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (ASD): http://www.bosworthtoller.com/

Oxford English Dictionary (OED) www.oed.com

Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND) http://www.anglo-norman.net/gate/

Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (DMF): http://www.atilf.fr/dmf/

Dictionary of the Scots Language (DSL): http://www.dsl.ac.uk/ 

Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., ed. P.G.W. Glare, 2012: https://archive.org/details/OxfordLatinDictionary_201708

Databases:

Digital Index of Middle English Verse (DIMEV): http://www.dimev.net/ 

English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC): http://estc.bl.uk/

Incunabula Short Title Catalogue (ISTC): https://data.cerl.org/istc/_search 

Universal Short Title Catalogue (USTC): https://www.ustc.ac.uk/ 

Bodleian Summary Catalogue (SC): http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?vid=SOLO&docid=oxfaleph010116452&context=L 

Early English Books Online (EEBO): https://eebo.chadwyck.com 

Encyclopedias: 

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB): www.oxforddnb.com

Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th edition, ed. Simon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth, and Esther Eidinow

Oxford Music Online: www.oxfordmusiconline.com

Oxford Dictionary of Saints, 5th ed., ed. David Hugh Farmer, 2003

Orbis Latinus: http://www.columbia.edu/acis/ets/Graesse/orblata.html 

Lexicon des Mittelalters, ed. Robert Auty, 14 vols., 1977–1999

Whiting and Whiting, Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases from English Writings mainly before 1500, 1968 (Whiting)

Hassell, Jr., Middle French Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases, 1982 (Hassell)