How to cite a manuscript

A manuscript citation must identify the object and the cited location well enough for another scholar to retrieve them. Repository, collection, shelfmark, and folio or page supply that identity; city appears when the style or repository requires it.

Repository instructions and publisher style control the order and punctuation. Build the citation from verified identifiers before formatting it.

The anatomy

A manuscript citation may draw on the following elements. The repository's preferred citation and the publisher's style determine which appear and in what order:

• City: the repository's location, when the style requires it.
• Repository: the library or archive that holds the object, under its current name.
• Collection or fonds: the named group within the repository, when there is one.
• Shelfmark: the repository's identifier for the object, such as MS 233, Cod. theol. fol. 12, or Add. 4004. The examples here are invented.
• Folio or page reference: the cited leaf and side, or page.

A shelfmark is the repository's identifier for an object or archival unit. Copy it as the repository presents it, including punctuation and capitalization. A shelfmark such as MS 233 is not globally unique, so pair it with the repository and collection where needed. The guide on organizing manuscript research photos applies the same composite identity to files.

Folio references

Catalogs often cite manuscripts by leaf and side. f. 12v means folio 12, verso; see What recto and verso mean and Foliation vs. pagination. Citation conventions include:

• f. for one folio, ff. for several: f. 12v, ff. 12v–14r. A range runs from the first cited side to the last, so ff. 12v–14r covers 12v, 13r, 13v, and 14r.
• Books written in columns get column letters: f. 12ra is the first column of the recto, 12rb the second, 12va and 12vb across the leaf. Add a line number and a footnote becomes a set of coordinates: f. 12rb, lines 4–9.
• A paginated manuscript is cited with p.. Cite the numbering recorded in the object or repository description rather than inventing a foliation.
• When old and new foliations coexist, identify the system used or follow the repository's concordance.

Chicago's general pattern

Chicago notes and bibliography style supplies a general documentary framework, but it does not create one universal manuscript citation. Practice varies by discipline, press, journal, repository, and record type. Use the repository's preferred form when it provides one, then apply the publisher's punctuation and note style.

The archival example requires a hierarchy. A codex may have one shelfmark, whereas an archival document can sit within a fonds, series, box, and folder. Vocabulary varies among archives; name the item and the containers needed to locate it.

The digitized copy and the object

When research relies on a digitization, identify the online surrogate. Retain the object citation and add the stable location of the images consulted. An older microfilm scan and a newer color campaign may preserve different visual evidence.

Record the surrogate as carefully as the object:

• Which URL. Prefer the repository's stable link for the manuscript over a session-specific viewer URL. Cite an offered permalink, ARK, DOI, Handle, or IIIF manifest according to the required style.
• Access dates. Chicago asks for an access date mainly when the source is undated or likely to change. Follow the publisher's stated rule.
• Crediting the digitization. If a different institution hosts the images, follow the holding repository's and host's citation instructions. The directory of digitized manuscript collections and reuse terms shows why the object, image provider, and rights source may differ.
• Image version. When a repository exposes several scans or photography campaigns, identify the version consulted if the record does not make it unambiguous.

The abbreviations you will meet

• MS / MSS, manuscript, manuscripts. Usually without periods in shelfmarks; house styles differ elsewhere.
• f. / ff. or fol. / fols., folio(s). Both families are current; pick one and hold it through the whole piece.
• olim, Latin “formerly,” marking a former shelfmark: “MS 233 (olim Phillipps 1802)” says the manuscript once sat in another collection under another number. Old scholarship cites old shelfmarks, so recording olim numbers is how you connect a 1900 catalog entry to the same book on today's shelf, one of the working tools of provenance research.
• s. xv, saeculo, “in the fifteenth century”: the standard shorthand for dating by script. s. xv1 is the first half of the century, s. xiv/xv the turn of one into the next. It belongs to descriptions more than citations, but a citation that identifies one of several similar manuscripts by date will use it.

Cite in full once, then short

A note style may allow a full first citation followed by a shelfmark-and-folio short form or a declared siglum. Keep enough repository or collection information to distinguish identical shelfmarks. Follow the publisher's rules for repeated notes and bibliographies.