This document treats matters of style—the general principles we follow in grammar, usage, and other matters relating to texts. For issues of style not covered in this guide, consult The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed. (Chicago, 2003) (= Chicago). For information on submitting a manuscript to Dumbarton Oaks, consult our Submission Guide. Further questions not covered in these guides can be addressed to the Byzantine editor by email.
Follow standard American usage for spelling. Consult Webster's Third New International Dictionary (Springfield, Mass., 1986) or its abridgment, Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed. (Springfield, Mass., 2003). If there are alternate spellings of a word in the dictionary use the first option listed.
For grammar and word usage, consult Chicago, chap. 5.
Commas separate all the members of a series of three or more elements. E.g., Athens, Delphi, and Corinth.
Two consecutive sentences should be separated by a single space. There should never be two or more consecutive spaces anywhere in the manuscript. For intentionally wide spaces, use tabs.
Possessives are formed on the basis of their pronunciation in English. Therefore, names, including those ending in s, are generally rendered possessive by adding 's. If a name ending in s produces an eez sound, only the apostrophe is added, not the final s, e.g., John's, Agathias's, and Demetrakos's, but Socrates' and Oikonomides'. See Chicago, 7.21–22 for other exceptions.
Foreign words and abbreviations that are in the dictionary need not be italicized, e.g., extempore, RSVP, terminus post quem.
Set a foreign word or non-English term in italics only in its first occurrence; subsequent instances should be set in roman type.
Latin expressions like ca., ibid., passim, idem, and s.v. should not be italicized or underlined.
For capitalization of biblical persons, events, services, and so on, see Chicago, chap. 8. If uncertain whether the word should be uppercase or lowercase, use lowercase.
One space between initials in personal names, e.g., W. J. Smith and J. W. H., not W.J. and J.W.H.
Dates should follow the order day, month, and year, e.g., 3 March 1999.
Use the en dash, not hyphen, between consecutive numbers in the manuscript, e.g., 142–44.
In the text spell out whole numbers one through one hundred, round numbers, or numbers beginning a sentence. All other numbers in the text should be in Arabic numerals, as should all numbers in endnotes. This applies to centuries, years, page numbers, percentages, lists of objects, and so on.
To abbreviate or condense inclusive arabic numerals, follow the principles outlined in Chicago, 9.64 and 9.66–68. Arabic numerals in titles, headers, and display type, as well as Arabic numerals representing life dates, are given in full, e.g., the emperor Julian (332–363).
Follow the conventions used in each language for capitalization, punctuation, and so forth. In Latin, Greek, French, Italian, and other languages, titles of articles, treatises, and books are capitalized sentence style, whereas English titles are capitalized headline style.
For typing in Greek, Coptic, Arabic, and other languages that do not use the Latin alphabet, work with fonts conforming to the Unicode standard. If you are uncertain whether your font is Unicode compatible, or if you need assistance in making your manuscript Unicode compatible, please contact Joel Kalvesmaki. See also our Guide to Unicode Greek. It is very important to attend to this in the earliest stages of the manuscript.
Arabic transliterations should reflect the difference between the hamza (ʾ) and the 'ayn (ʿ), between long and short vowels (by placing a macron over the letter), and between emphatic and nonemphatic letters (by placing a dot below the former). If you are uncertain how to do this, contact Joel Kalvesmaki.
If Greek proper names and terms are to be transliterated, do so either strictly, as in the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (Oxford, 1991) (=ODB), or with a Latinizing form, as in the Oxford Classical Dictionary(Oxford, 1998) (= OCD). Do not mix the two systems of transliteration. Titles of modern Greek works are rendered in Greek characters, but modern Greek authors' names are transliterated.
Transliterations of most languages should follow the Library of Congress system. Other systems may be appropriate, such as the MESA convention for Arabic transliteration.
Place one space between and around 3-dot ellipses. No space precedes the first period in a 4-dot ellipsis.
Quotations from ancient and medieval works should follow the latest critical edition, unless the reading of an earlier edition is appropriate for the argument. Incorporate into any quotation ellipses, brackets, parentheses, and other editorial marks appropriate to the kind of editorial change made (following the Leiden convention whenever possible).
Any quotation of an ancient or medieval text should indicate the edition used. Likewise, any translation should acknowledge the translator. If an ancient text is referred to, but not quoted, no edition-specific documentation need be provided, since the argument does not depend on any particular edition of the text.
Illustrations should be submitted in accordance with our Artwork Submission Guide. Failure to follow the principles outlined there may result in delayed publication and further work for the author.
Figure callouts should appear in the text in sequential order and accompanying illustrations should follow the same sequence.
All artwork must include a photo or drawing credit even if produced by the author. If the art has been published elsewhere, the credit should include the figure and page number on which the work appears. Do not use ibid. in a caption.
Information in the caption should follow this order: title of work (or name of object); artist, life dates (if applicable); country, date of work; medium, dimensions; provenance or credit line; narrative information.
The punctuation, spacing, and paragraph style for captions should be consistent.
Dumbarton Oaks's List of Abbreviations should be consulted, in conjunction with the abbreviations listed in Chicago, chap. 15.
Abbreviations designating time are set in small caps without periods. We prefer ce and bce to ad and bc.
Biblical books are abbreviated in notes (e.g., Ps. 115:4–7) but enclosed in parentheses and spelled out in the text: (Psalms 115:4–7). See Chicago, 15.51–54, for abbreviations of books of the Bible.
In writing endnotes the author should consider completeness, clarity, and brevity, in that order.
Paragraph breaks within endnotes should be used sparingly, if at all.
The first reference to a book or article must be complete. For subsequent references use the author's last name and a shortened form of the title.
"Ibid." should be used sparingly.
Use "cf." only when it means "compare. " Otherwise, use "see."
Verify all references and quotations before submitting your manuscript. Include all required facts of publication. Incomplete contributions will be returned to the author.
We normally do not include the name of the publisher in documentation, only the name of the city, and the date of publication, separated by a comma.
Avoid the use of ff., replacing it with the best terminal page number.
For abbreviations of commonly cited journals, series, and reference works, use our List of Abbreviations.
All titles of modern literature should be cited in the original languages, not translated, with rare exceptions for more obscure languages. If the title is in Greek, do not romanize it; all other non-Latin alphabets should be transliterated. See Transliteration, above.
For ranges of dates, page numbers, and other numerals, follow examples presented in Chicago, 9.64.
If citing page and volume of a multivolume work, render both numbers in Arabic numerals (even if the publication uses Roman numerals to distinguish volumes), separated by a colon, with no space after it. If citing a periodical, put the date in parentheses between the volume number and the colon; a space follows the colon, e.g., ODB 3:1748, but REB 29 (1971): 104.
Ordinal number endings in english should not be put in superscript. Thus, 1st, 2nd. But in languages where such endings would entail confusion or ambiguity, superscript is preferred, e.g., VIe.
Ancient works, which generally have well-established editions, should be cited by author, title, then the standardized reference numbers. Normally there is no comma between the title and reference number. In the case of medieval works, which often have no standardized numeration system, the edition used must be cited, within the endnote itself, or in the bibliography.
The titles of ancient and Byzantine Greek works should follow the forms given in the ODB or the OCD.
Ancient and medieval sources are referred to according to the standards specified in Chicago, 17.250–60, with the exception that a comma separates author from title. E.g., Athanasios of Alexandria,Incarnation of the Logos 5.1.
C. Mango, Byzantine Architecture (New York, 1976), 37–39, 142–44.
C. Diehl, Manuel d'art byzantin, 2d rev. ed. (Paris, 1925), 442.
P. M. Bruun, The Roman Imperial Coinage, vol. 7, Constantine and Licinius, A.D. 313–17, ed. C. H. V. Sutherland and R. A. G. Carson (London, 1966), chap. 3.
P. Jaffé, Regesta Pontificum Romanorum, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1885–87), 1: no. 4295.
C. Jolivet-Lévy, "Présence et figures du souverain à Sainte-Sophie de Constantinople et à l'église de la Sainte-Croix d'Aghtamar," in Byzantine Court Culture, ed. H. Maguire (Washington, D.C., 1997), 221–23 and pl. 2.
W. R. Paton, ed., The Greek Anthology (New York–London, 1925–27), 1:48–49.
H. Buchthal, Historia Troiana: Studies in the History of Mediaeval Secular Illustration, Studies of the Warburg Institute 32 (London, 1971), 53–57, esp. 55.
B. Pentcheva, "Epigrams on Icons" (paper presented to the 2003 Byzantine Studies Conference, Lewiston, Me., 18 October 2003).
T. Hoffman, "Ascalon ʿArus Al-Sham: Domestic Architecture and the Development of a Byzantine-Islamic City" (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 2003).
A. E. Laiou, "The Role of Women in Byzantine Society," JÖB 31.1 (1981): 233–60.
"Nomisma," ODB 3:1490; also RBK 5:723.