Last update: December 7, 2019
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The journal’s style is based on the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/), with some modifications to account for multilingual publishing in the field of medieval literature. Rather than adopting different typographical norms for each of the journal’s languages, the editors have established a series of conventions that work across the included languages, ensuring a unified look. The main features of the MLA style, including our modifications, are listed below in this quick reference guide.
Guidelines
I. Main text
1. Languages and size
Interfaces invites papers in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Each paper should have an abstract in English. We encourage the submission of substantial contributions, normally in the range of 35 000-100 000 characters.
2. Format
The document should be submitted online, as a Microsoft Word document (.doc or .docx) or an OpenOffice document (.odt). Please keep formatting to a minimum. If special signs, graphs, tables, images etc are used, please also provide a pdf file to make the arrangement clear.
3. Footnotes
For references containing bibliographical information only, please use in-text citation, as in the following example:
One imagines Petrarch intoning the word Fortuna sonorously each time it occurs – typically, for emphasis, at the end of a phrase – and giving Virgil’s verse the prominence it merits (Petrarca, “Collatio” 1290–91).
Comments, specifications, and discussions of texts, passages, variants, sources, bibliography, etc. should be developed in footnotes, where the standard MLA Citation Style for referencing sources should be applied. In both cases a short reference refers to the full bibliography at the end of the paper (see below). Footnote references should come after punctuation marks, e.g.: ;3
Example:
24. Petrarch was fond of this phrase. He had used it already in a letter to Giovanni Colonna; Familiares 2.8.3: Petrarca, Letters 1: 98 and Le Familiari 1: 89. For other citations of this phrase in Petrarch’s works, see Berra 658.
4. Spelling
In the case of English, British, American, and Canadian spelling are accepted, provided the author is consistent. In either case, please conform to the punctuation and quotation norms in this document.
5. Capitalization
Follow the general rules of the language or the spelling convention you are using.
6. Numbers
Numbers that are written in one word or two should, in English, be written out (two, twenty-two), while others should be in Arabic numerals (145). Other languages should follow their own standard.
For inclusive numbers, give the second number in full up to ninety-nine, but give only the last two digits for larger numbers, unless clarity demands otherwise (15–75, 1465–98, 11348–12449). Regarding years, after 1000 CE also omit the first two digits if they are the same in both years (2014–15). Exception from this rule are folio numbers of manuscripts, which should be given in full.
When using roman numbers (volumes, chapters, centuries [in French], etc.), please have them in small caps. The exception is numbers of kings and popes (Alfonso X, Gregory IX).
7. Abbreviations
Use only standard abbreviations in the language of the contribution. BCE and CE are preferred to BC and AD (similarly in other languages when there is a standard choice).
8. Quotations
Longer quotations in the main text should be indented.
Shorter quotations in the main text should be marked by quotation marks.
Quotations in the main text in a language other than the article’s main language should be followed by a translation in brackets in the article’s main language. If the translation is indented, no quotation marks are needed inside the brackets, but if the quotation is short and in the main text, translations should have brackets and quotation marks.
If the translation to a quotation in the main text is given in a footnote, the translation should have quotation marks but no brackets.
In footnotes quotations in languages other than the article’s main language do not need a translation if they merely document what is stated or paraphrased in the main text.
Punctuation marks that are part of the quotation, as well as commas and periods in all cases, should be placed inside quotation marks. Other punctuation marks should be placed outside the quotation.
Two types of quotation marks should be used: double quotation marks to mark a quotation proper: “ ” and single quotation marks to indicate a term discussed, a so-to-speak expression or a quote within a quote: ‘ ’. These quotation marks always overrule other language specific standards.
Use ellipses in square brackets for omissions from a quotation ([…]), ellipses for incomplete sentences (…) and square brackets for insertions ([]).
9. Hyphens and Dashes
For separating parts of sentences, use en dashes (–) with spaces on both sides. Also use en dashes without spaces for years and page numbers (1210–12). Hyphens (-) should be used only for compound words and names.
II. Bibliography and citation
1. General Style
Prepare a unified list with no distinction between primary and secondary materials.
The cities of publishing houses, as well as abbreviations for editors, translations, etc should be in the language of the respective item.
Sources, especially MGH volumes: if the text is only one part of an edition, treat it like an article; list all relevant information that allows the reader to find it.
If you are more interested in the editor's introduction, than the source edited, treat it like an article in the bibliography, with the editor as author, then list it also as a book with the medieval author, and cross-reference the two.
When alphabetizing bibliographies including items with no author, apply the convention of the article’s main language (e.g. English does not alphabetize by definite article, while Italian does).
If you have multiple works from the same author in the bibliography, use three dashes instead of the author’s name from the second occurrence on: ---.
Do not use p. or pp. in front of page numbers.
All references to secondary literature should be in-text citations consisting of the author’s surname (or surname and short title if multiple works by the same author are cited), as well as volume, chapter and page indications, if appropriate. Author and title should be separated by comma, followed by page number. For in-text citations from authors with multiple items in the bibliography, include short titles (in italics for books and quotation marks for articles).
2. In-text citations
Example:
One imagines Petrarch intoning the word Fortuna sonorously each time it occurs – typically, for emphasis, at the end of a phrase – and giving Virgil’s verse the prominence it merits (Petrarca, “Collatio” 1290–91).
3. Abbreviations of Cited Material
Only use widely recognized ones such as MGH, PL, PG etc. Write out journal titles.
III. Examples of References
1. Manuscripts
At the first occurence: city in the language of the respective country, then full official name of the library, with optional abbreviation in square brackets (these can be used at further occurences), then collection (if relevant), then shelfmark: Valenciennes, Bibliothèque_municipale, 407; København, Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Thott 291 8o_ _ When specifying folios, please be as precise as possible, indicating recto or verso as well. Use f. for folio: f. 101r–103v.
Examples:
Wien, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (ÖNB), Vind. hist. gr. 53.
In-text citation: ÖNB, Vind. hist. gr. 53.
Valenciennes, Bibliothèque municipale, 407.
København, Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Thott 291 8o.
2. Books
a. A freestanding volume
Gadamer, Hans-Georg. Wahrheit und Methode: Grundzüge einer philosophischen Hermeneutik. 5. Auflage. Tübingen: Mohr und Siebeck, 1985.
b. A multi-volume work
Gómez Redondo, Fernando. Historia de la prosa medieval castellana. 4 vols. Madrid: Cátedra, 2007.
c. Multiple publications by the same author
Véronèse, Julien. L’Ars notoria au Moyen Age. Introduction et édition critique. Firenze: SISMEL – Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2007.
---. “Virgile et la naissance de l’ars notoria.” Micrologus XXI: The Medieval Legends of Philosophers and Scholars (2013): 219–42.
d. An edited or translated book
Stephenson, Paul, ed. The Byzantine World. London: Routledge, 2010
Kula, Witold. Riflessioni sulla storia. A cura di Marta Herling. Introduzione di Bronisław Baczko.Venezia: Marsilio, 1990.
3. Dissertations
Edwards, Glenn Michael. “The Liber introductorius of Michael Scot.” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Southern California, 1978.
4. Articles
a. Articles in Journals
Binetti, Maria Angela. “La salubrità dell’aria e dell’acqua nel Mezzogiorno svevo-angioino.” Quaderni medievali 46 (1998): 19–57.
b. Articles in Books (Conference Proceedings, Festschriften, etc.)
Idel, Moshe. “Hermeticism and Judaism.” Hermeticism and the Renaissance, Intellectual History and the Occult in Early Modern Europe. Ed. Ingrid Merkel and Allen G. Debus. Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Press, 1988. 59–76.