BA Art History

If you consulted any literature for your paper, you must cite your sources in footnotes or endnotes and a bibliography. This means that you must be able to compile a title description of a book or article and create footnotes or endnotes.

There are many so-called reference styles which enable you to cite your sources. In the Humanities the use of the Chicago Style, is very common. We will use this style here as well.

 

A title description may refer to four substantially different types of publications. Each must be described in its own way: 

1. a book

2. an article in a journal

3. an article in an edited volume

4. a collection or exhibition catalogue. 

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The title description of a book consists of the following three main components:

1.    author(s)

2.    title

3.    place of publication, name of publisher and year of publication.

 

These bibliographic units are separated by periods, a colon and closed with a period.

For instance:

Bryzgel, A. Performance art in Eastern Europe since 1960. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1985

 

Author(s)

List all initials of the author, but without titles (prof., dr., Mr, Sir, etc.).

You can place the initial(s) after or before the author's surname, as long as you consistently use the same method: Pietersen, P. or P. Pietersen.

In the latter case, keep in mind compound surnames. If you put the surname first, H. van der Grinten becomes Grinten, H. van der.

 

In the case of a double surname, the first part of the surname is listed first: Prof.dr. Th.H. Lunsingh Scheurleer becomes: Lunsingh Scheurleer, Th.H. 

Jonkheer J.A. van Lidt de Jeude becomes: Lidt de Jeude, J.A. van

In notes with an abbreviated title description, only list the surname (see two note systems, Quotes and Notes, page 28).

 

For two and three author names you must list both/all names, separated by a comma; if there are more than three authors you add, after the third name: , et al. (= and others). Exhibition catalogues and bundles often have multiple authors and an editor-in-chief. In that case, only the editor-in-chief is listed: Silve, S. (ed.)

 

Anonymous publications are listed in the bibliography by the first word of the title. If that word is an article, you use the first noun or adjective.

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For instance:

Twintig jaar buismeubelen bij de Bijenkorf. The Hague: De Bijenkorf, 1975, is listed under the T. 

Het Belgische interieur in de 19de eeuw. Leuven: Interieurpers, 1984, is listed under the B.

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Title

For the title, always check the title page. This usually contains more information than the book cover. The subtitles, in particular, are left of the cover quite often.

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• Italicize title and subtitle (separated by a period).

• Capitalize title and subtitle. 

 

For book titles in Dutch, the nouns and adjectives do not have to be capitalized. Proper nouns are of course capitalized.

For book titles in English, the nouns and adjectives can be capitalized. However, this is not mandatory but a common practice with most publishers.

For book titles in German, the nouns do need to be capitalized. This is a grammatical rule. Proper names are also capitalized.

 

For instance:

Grisebach, A. Carl Friedrich Schinkel: Architekt Städtebauer Mahler. Frankfurt am Main/Berlin: Ullstein Kunstbuch, 1983.

and

Pollitt, J.J. The Ancient View of Greek Art: Criticism, History and Terminology. New Haven/London: Pelican, 1974.

but also:

Pollitt, j.J. The ancient view of Greek art: Criticism, history and terminology. New Haven/London: Pelican, 1974.

 

You may be faced with the following complications: 

* if a book consists of multiple volumes, you must mention this after the title and subtitle. In a bibliography you list all parts, even if you only used one. Note: you indicate which specific part you have used in the notes.

For instance:

Pevsner, N. Studies in art, architecture and design. 2 volumes. London: Thames and Hudson, 1968.

* if a book belongs to a particular series, mention the name of the series and the serial number (if any) after the title. You leave out the words series and number.

For instance:

Eck, C. van. Art, Agency and Living Presence: From the Animated Image to the Excessive Object. Studien aus dem Warburg-Haus Band 16. Boston: De Gruyter, 2015.

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Place of publication 

In English papers, list all place names in English: Paris, London, Nuremberg, Liege.

For two place names, both names should be listed, separated by a slash; for three (or more) names you add, after the second name: , etc.

For instance: Cambridge MA/London, etc.

(in this case, it is not Cambridge England, but Cambridge Massachusetts in the United States. The names of the different states of the US are rarely written in full but rather in the form of a standard abbreviation of two or three letters, without a period at the end: MA = Massachusetts, NY = New York, IL = Illinois, etc.).

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You can find the place names on the title page or in the colophon. If there is a place name in the book, but it is not listed in the usual place, that is the colophon, but instead in, for instance, the foreword, then you must place the name in square brackets, like: [Munich].

If the place name is not included anywhere in the book, you must mention this as follows: N.p. That means: no place.

 

Publisher

List the name of the publisher after the place of publication, separated by a colon.

For instance:

O’Malley, M. The business of art: Contracts and the commissioning process in Renaissance Italy. New Haven/London: Yale University Press, 2005.

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Year of publication

You can find the year of publication on the title page or the colophon. If there is a year of publication in the book, but it is not listed in the usual place, that is the title page, but instead in, for instance, the foreword, then you must place the year in square brackets, like: [2002]. 

If the year is not included anywhere in the book, you must mention this as follows: n.d. This means: no date.

If place name and year of publication are both not mentioned in the title page or in the colophon, but they can be found elsewhere in the book, you add for instance: [Amsterdam 1986]. If both the place name and the year are unknown, and cannot be found anywhere in the book, you get the following combination: N.p. n.d.

International publications use the following abbreviations (first column): 

Use, in that case, the English abbreviation (second column):

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