• Our publications generally follow the Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition, with full footnote style (no parenthetical, author-date citations). Below are some clarifications.

• If you use reference management software (Endnote, Zotero), make sure that publications before 1900 include the place of publication, which may be left off when citations are automatically generated.

Bartolomé de las Casas’s name

• Full name: “Bartolomé de las Casas” (las not capitalized)

• First word of a sentence: “Las Casas”

• Mid-sentence, surname only: “Las Casas”

• Possessive: “Las Casas’s”

• Bibliographic entry: “Casas, Bartolomé de las”

• Footnote entry: authorial reference only (consistent with the bibliography entry): “Casas, A Short Account, 42.”

Historical names

• For historical figures, first usage should include full name in standard English form, as indicated by Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, or the Encyclopedia Britannica

  • Example: Hernán Cortés, NOT: “marqués del Valle de Oaxaca,” “Hernando Cortés,” “Fernando Cortés,” or “Cortéz.”

• If there is no English form in the above sources, use the standard form in the original language.

• At first usage, include birth and death dates: Juan Gínez de Sepúlveda (1490–1573).

Citing Las Casas’s works

• Prefer citations from Obras Completas.

  • On first citation: Bartolomé de Las Casas, Obras completas, ed. Paulino Castañeda Delgado et al. (Alianza, 1988–1998) [hereafter O.C.].

• When the work is divided into books (the Historia) and/or chapters (Apologia, etc.) include the original book and chapter numbers, so as to facilitate lookup in various editions, using the style usually used for classical sources.

• Example: Bartolomé de las Casas, Historia de las Indias, ed. Miguel Ángel Medina, Jesús Ángel Barreda, and Isacio Pérez Fernández, O.C. vols. 3–5 [hereafter Historia], 5: 1761–62 (bk. 3, ch. 4)​.

  • Subsequent: Casas, Historia 3.4 [O.C. 5: 1761–62].

• Example. Bartolomé de las Casas, Apologia, ed. and trans. Ángel Losada Garcia, O.C.  9 (Alianza, 1988), 184–85 [ch. 10].

  • Subsequent: Casas, Apologia 10 [O.C. 9: 184–85].

Citing a particular volume of a multivolume work when using list of abbreviations:

• O.C. 5: 2045

• O.C. 11/2: 372.

Citing common, complex sources

• Civil Law (Codex, Institutes, Code, Novels, etc.) should be cited according to the Ames Foundation (Harvard Law School) guidelines, found at https://amesfoundation.law.harvard.edu/digital/CJCiv/CitationForm.shtml

• Canon Law (Gratian’s Decretum, Gregory’s Liber Extra, Clement’s Clementines, etc.). Follow the Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law, when necessary helped by James A. Brundage, Medieval Canon Law (Longman, 1995), 190–205.

• Thomas Aquinas: Use the editions recommended by the Catholic University of America Libraries. Generally, follow the Liturgical Press Style Guide, 28. Helpful comments at The Thomist, as well as Douglas Beaumont. For the rest of Thomas’s work, see Thomas Polsky’s Thomistic Metaphysics website. Accurate Latin may be found at  https://www.corpusthomisticum.org/iopera.html (of the Leonine edition); and at Aquinas.cc (includes Shapcote’s literal translation in parallel).

  • Simple Citation: Summa Theologiae, I-II, q. ______, a. _____, ad. ______.

  • Example (Latin only): Thomas Aquinas, in Opera omnia, ed. René Antoine Gauthier, Louis J. Bataillon, and Adriano Oliva, with commentary of Tommaso de Vio Cajetan (Rome: Typographia Polyglotta, 1882–), 3: 202; 

  • Example (translation): Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, III, q. 72, a. 11, trans. Laurence Shapcote [Fathers of the English Dominican Province], 2nd ed. rev. (Burns, Oates, and Washbourne, 1921), 4: 2426–27.

    • Subsequent citations: Summa Theologiae, I-II, q. ______, a. _____, ad. ______ (trans. Shapcote, 6: 224).

Translations from languages other than English

Published vs. unpublished translations, in-line and notes

Text body should generally be in English.

• Use published English translations and citations when available. Unless there is a compelling reason, modern, published English translations, if they are available, should be used for any quotation. In quoting and citing Las Casas’s Apologia, for example:

  • YES: Bartolomé de las Casas, In Defense of the Indians, trans. Stafford Poole (Northern Illinois University Press, 1974), 86 [ch. 10].

• Do not translate other translations into English.

  • YES: Emmanuel Lévinas, Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority, trans. Alphonso Lingis (Kluwer, 1991), 88.

  • OK: Emmanuel Lévinas, Totalité et infini: Essai sur l’extériorité, 3rd ed. (Nijhoff, 1968).

  • NO: Emmanuel Levinas, Totalidad e Infinito (Sígueme, 1999), 110.

  • NO:  Bartolomé de las Casas, Apologia, ed. and trans. Ángel Losada Garcia, O.C. 9: 184 [ch. 10]. Author’s translation from the Spanish.

• If a published translation is used, the original need not be cited, except

  • In citing works with multiple editions (especially Las Casas), please cite original book and chapter numbers when applicable (see above).

• Author’s translations must always be indicated.

  • YES: Bartolomé de las Casas, Apologia, ed. Ángel Losada Garcia, O.C. 9 (Alianza, 1988), 184 [ch. 10]. Author’s translation from the Latin.

Quotations, phrases, titles, common and otherwise

Use parentheses and italicize the phrase: (phrases in other languages). If the phrase is a quotation, it needs quotation marks. In chapter/article text, titles may be provided in the original language, in the text of the chapter.

Quotations

• Inline quotations: “translation of original” (“quotation in original languages”)

• Indented quotations: “quotation as translated” [in footnote, “quotation in original language.”]

Titles and Phrases

• Inline phrase: translation of original  (phrase in original languages)

  • Example. New Laws (Leyes nuevas)

• Use commonly accepted translations of titles and phrases:

  • Example: Brevísima relación (Short account)

• If there are no commonly accepted translations, provide the title in the original language:

  • Example: Nevertheless, because the basis for the 1632 imprint of the Historia verdadera was the copy that Bernal Díaz had sent to Spain decades earlier, his initial claims were brought forward, printed, and even highlighted in the posthumous edition of 1632: “The Bishop of Chiapa’s Error regarding this event” (“Error en este suceso del Obispo de Chiapa”) appears as a carefully placed announcement of the topic in the margin.

• Author’s comments go in brackets: “translation [comments here] translation continues.”

• Example: (Bernal Díaz then offers his summary of the Brevísima relación): Let’s move on and say that these were the “great acts of cruelty” about which the bishop of Chiapa, Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, writes and never tires of repeating, because he claims that without any cause, but only for our pastime, and because it appealed to us, we carried out that punishment. And he even says so purposely [that is, de arte] in his book—he who never saw it nor knows about it, but will make others believe that it happened as he states, when, in fact, it was just the opposite.

Capitalization and Punctuation

The preference is for minimal capitalization:

• Religious terms: do not capitalize religious or theological terms such as “ritual,” or “sacrament.” Do capitalize terms that refer to a specific rite or sacrament (e.g. “Sacrament [or ‘Rite’] of Penance,” or “Sacrament [or “Rite”] of Baptism”), but not general terms such as “baptism” or “penance”, etc; 

• Theological noun phrases: rarely capitalized. Exceptions are noun phrases for which there is a longstanding tradition of using them with capitals, for example: “Old Law” and “New Law.” 

• Legal codes: normally capitalized, for example “Laws of Burgos,” “Siete Partidas,” etc. 

• Generic noun phrases: which refer to groups of people, such as “indigenous peoples,” “indigenes,” “amerindians,” “native americans,” “first nations,”  do not capitalize

• Proper adjectives: “Thomistic” and “Lascasian”, not “thomistic” or “lascasian”

Minimize Abbreviations

• In the main body of the text, do not use general abbreviations.

  • “century,” “for example,” etc. are to be written out in full)

  • First names are to be written out in full.

• In notes, use only the simplest and most common abbreviations (i.e., etc., e.g., et al.).

• Use “sixteenth century” and not “16th century.” Hyphenated when used adjectivally.

  • Example: “sixteenth century Spain”; “sixteenth-century Spanish book.

• Spell out numbers under 100.

In citations

• Generally avoid using “idem”; instead, repeat the author’s last name.

• Avoid  “op. cit.”, “ibid.” Instead use short title (see below)

American Style for dates, spelling, etc.

• Dates in “American” style: January 1, 2011. Not: 1 January 2011.

• savior, not saviour, etc.

Dashes

Leave no spaces before or after “Em dash” or “En dash,”

• Em-dash for asides: A half dozen years later, he returned to the Netherlands to continue his ministry; he settled in Veere—a municipality on Walcheren Island in the province of Zeeland—and became known as the “Reformer of Zeeland.” 

• En-dash for numerical ranges: (c. 1525–1569)

Citations and References

Please cite specific page numbers, not whole works. Bibliographic essays are not necessary. For some clarifications and general philosophy, see Helge A. Staxrud, “Style Sheet for Manuscripts, JEMC,” Journal of Early Modern Christianity (2015).

Footnotes

Article in a journal

• Example: Volker Leppin, “Der Verlust des Menschen Luther: Zu Ebelings Lutherdeutung,” Journal of Early Modern Christianity 1 (2014): 29–50.

  • N.B. issue number is omitted unless pagination starts anew at each issue.

Book in a series:

• Example: Brian Rosner, Paul and the Law: Keeping the commandments of God, New Studies in Biblical Theology (InterVarsity Press, 2013).

  • N.B. colon between title and subtitle (not period).

Chapter of an edited book

• Example: Robert Kane, “Libertarianism,” in Four Views on Free Will, ed. John Martin et al. (Blackwell, 2007), 5–43.

  • “ed.” should be read as “edited (by)”. In German, use: “hg. von”.

  • Up to three editors are to be named, from four upwards, please use “et al.”

A particular volume of a multivolume work

• Example: Helmut Thielicke, Theologische Ethik, vol. 1, Dogmatische, philosophische und kontroverstheologische Grundlegung (Mohr-Siebeck, 1951), 120–25.

Subsequent references

Use the short form (comma always before page number): Leppin, “Verlust,” 78.

• Avoid “op. cit.”, “ibid.” etc.

• See the Chicago Manual of Style, esp. 14.118, 14.122.

Page ranges

• Use n-dashes not hyphens: 1–2 not 1-2.

• Example: not 120–125, but 120–25

• Note also the following examples, which are correct:

  • 15–17, 100–7,  120–25, 1254–55

Typeface, emphasis, and punctuation

Generally, minimize emphasis. Italics may be used sparingly to:

• draw attention to significant terms at first mention only.

• emphasize a word or phrase in a quotation

  • “ if so indicated [emphasis mine].”

• Used to indicate foreign language expressions not found in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED):

  • Example: repartimiento (not in OED)

  • Example: encomienda, not encomienda (is in OED).

• Do not use boldface, underlining, or capital letters for emphasis.

• Full stops should be placed within quotation marks.

• Use em-dashes (—) for asides, without surrounding spaces. Do not use en dashes (–). Do not use surrounding spaces.

• Do not use periods after acronyms (AAR, not A.A.R.).

Abbreviations, particularly the Bible

• Follow Chicago Manual of Style 10.50–54 (pp. 647–50); otherwise the SBL Handbook of Style.

• Abbreviate book names: Jeremiah→Jer 20:7, etc.

• Quote a standard, English translation (NRSV, ESV, NAB, etc.), note on first citation.

• Verse numbers within a chapter are separated by a comma without a space:

  • Example: Mark 12:13–17, 38–40. (note en-dashes)

• Passages from various chapters and various books are separated with a semicolon with a space:

  • Example: Num 12:1–15; 20:1–13; Mark 11:27–33; 12:1–12

  • with the exception of parallel passages: Mt 6:9–13 par. Lk 11:2–4

  • as are several chapters without verse numbers: Jer 5–6; 9.

• In the case of numbered books (e.g., 1Sam or 2Sam) there is no space between the number and the name of the book.

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Latest update: September 24, 2025