How to do a Bibliography
Bibliographies
Basic Directions
1. Primary and secondary sources should be listed in separate sections. Each section should be labelled "Primary Sources" or "Secondary Sources." Journal articles and encyclopaedia articles should be listed with secondary sources (do not list each genre separately).
2. Entries are placed in alphabetical order under each author’s last name. Because ancient and medieval authors usually do not have a “last name,” you should generally list them under their first name.
3. Each entry should be single-spaced within the entry. It should be separated
from the next entry by 1 blank line. Information within in each citation is separated by periods.
4. The first line of each entry should begin at the left margin. Each subsequent line should be indented 5 spaces from the left margin. [This arrangement is called a “hanging indent.” Consult the help section in your word processor for directions on hanging indents.]
5. When listing more than one item by the same author, it is not necessary to write the author’s name twice so long as the author’s name has been printed in exactly the same way for each work (which is not always the case). For each subsequent reference in the bibliography, type five dashes and a period to begin the entry. See the example below.
Carruthers, Mary. The Craft of Thought: Meditation, Rhetoric, and the Making of Images, 400-1200. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
-----. “Reading with Attitude, Remembering the Book.” In The Book and the Body, edited by Dolores Warwick Frese and Katherine O'Brien O'Keefe, 1-33. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1997.
-----. The Book of Memory: A Study of Memory in Medieval Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Examples
Here are examples of the major kinds of works typically included in undergraduate history assignment.
Books
Books by modern authors are probably the most common sources used by history students in their papers. Citations should include the author’s name (last name first), the title of the book (underlined or in italics), and the publishing information, all separated by periods. Here are a few examples of books:
Book by a single author:
Aston, Margaret. Lollards and Reformers: Images and Literacy in Late Medieval Religion. London: The Hambledon Press, 1984.
Clanchy, M. T. Abelard: A Medieval Life. Oxford and Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1997.
Wenzel, Siegfried. Verses in Sermons: Fasciculus Morum and its Middle English Poems. Cambridge, Mass.: Medieval Academy of America, 1978.
Book by more than one author:
Briscoe, Marianne G. and Barbara H. Jage. Artes Praedicandi and Artes Orandi, Typologie des sources du moyen âge occidental, 61. Turnhout: Brepols, 1992.
NB: Note that the first author’s name should begin with the last name first, while the second author’s name is listed with the first name first.
Book edited by one or more editors:
Alexander, J. J. G., and M.T. Gibson, eds. Medieval Language and Literature: Essays Presented to Richard William Hunt. Oxford: Clarendon, 1976.
Chance, Jane, ed. The Mythographic Art: Classical Fable and the Rise of the Vernacular in Early France and England. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1990.
Translated Books:
By a modern author:
Rossi, Paolo. Logic and the Art of Memory. Translated by Stephen Clucas. Chicago: University of Chicago Press , 2000.
Primary sources:
Augustine. The Trinity. Translated by Stephen McKenna, C.SS.R., The Fathers of the Church, 18. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1963.
Stahl, William Harris, Richard Johnson, and E. L. Burge, trans. Martianus Capella and the Seven Liberal Arts. 2 vols. New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1971.
Stump, Eleonore, trans. Boethius's De topicis differentiis. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1978.
Item in an Anthology
Primary sources are often included in collections of many sources. They should be cited as in the examples below:
Fulcher of Chartres. “The First Crusade.” In A Cloud of Witnesses: Readings in the History of Western Christianity, 138-44. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001.
Pecham, John. “The Ignorance of Pastors.” In Pastors and the Care of Souls in Medieval England, edited by John Shinners and William J. Dohar, 127-32. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1998.
A similar method should be used for essays and articles collected into one book.
Areford, David S. “The Passion Measured: A Late-Medieval Diagram of the Body of Christ.” In The Broken Body: Passion Devotion in Late Medieval Culture, edited by A. A. MacDonald et al., 211-38. Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 1998.
Aston, Margaret. “Devotional Literacy.” In Lollards and Reformers: Images and Literacy in Late Medieval Religion, 101-133. London: The Hambledon Press, 1984.
Journal Articles
When citing a journal article in a bibliography, follow the examples below:
Bossy, J. “The Social History of Confession in the Age of the Reformation.” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th series, 25 (1975): 21-38.
Brown, Peter. “Society and the Supernatural: A Medieval Change.” Daedalus 104, no. 2 (1975): 133-151. [Here “104" is the volume number, “no. 2" is the issue number. It is also correct to list the month of publication with the year; in this case, do not add the issue number]
DeVries, Kelly. “The Lack of a Western European Military Response to the Ottoman Invasions of Eastern Europe.” Journal of Military History 63, no. 3 (1999): 539-559.
Mango, Andrew. “Turkey and the Enlargement of the European mind.” Middle Eastern Studies 34, no. 2 (1998): 171-192. or 34 (April 1998): 171-192. or 34 (1998): 171-192.
Sources on Internet sites
Basic citation components and punctuation
Author's Last Name, First Name. [author's internet address, if available]. "Title of Work" or "title line of message." In "Title of Complete Work" or title of list/site as appropriate. [internet address]. Date, if available.
Vasco da Gama. “Round Africa to India, 1497_1498 CE.” In “Modern History Sourcebook.” [https://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1497degama.html]. 6 September 2002.
Salvian. “Romans and Barbarians, c. 440.” In “Medieval Sourcebook.” [https://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/salvian1.html]. 6 September 2002.