context-sbl

Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) style files for ConTeXt

About This Project

I initially began developing this bibliography rendering for my own use, but since the SBL citation style is commonly used in the humanities (particularly in religious studies), I felt that a full implementation for the ConTeXt typesetting system would be of value for other users. Thankfully, David Purton had already put together a thorough implementation of this citation style for LaTeX (https://github.com/dcpurton/biblatex-sbl), so I was able to use his category definitions as starting points instead of reinventing the wheel. At the same time, since I had to build the .lua and .mkvi files mostly from scratch, I took advantage of opportunities to simplify certain implementation details. I will summarize the changes I made below.

Structure of the Bibliographic Database

In my opinion, one of the most useful innovations of the biblatex package (which Purton generally uses to good effect in biblatex-sbl) is its use of cross-references between BibTeX entries. This feature allows us to simplify the pool of fields used by different categories, modularize the structures of categories, and reduce redundancy of common higher-level references. In short, it allows (and encourages) users to structure their .bib files more like actual databases. I decided to implement this feature more generally and (for now) more strictly, eliminating the book*, main*, and revd* fields in favor of values in the crossref or xref fields. This is intended to be compatible with the biblatex cross-referencing convention, although (again) it is a bit stricter, as it does not work with entries that directly use the book*, main*, and revd* fields. Even separate @journal and @series entries are supported and can be cross-referenced with the journalxref and seriesxref fields (but the traditional journal, shortjournal, series, and shortseries fields are still supported).

Since some of the entry types that Purton adds on top of the basic biblatex types are functionally identical, I collapsed some of them to more common biblatex categories where this was feasible. My aim was to introduce as few new categories as possible so as to maximize compatibility with bibliographic databases already intended for use with biblatex. A brief summary of each category, starting from the top-level categories and working our way down, follows:

• @series: A set of books, including multivolume collections published by the editor, such as Migne's Patrologia Graeca or Patrologia Latina (§6.4.6). The only required field is title (although a shorthand will be used instead if it is also provided).
• @journal: A journal. The only required field is title (although a shorthand will be used instead if it is also provided). This category is structurally identical to @series, but their typeset representations are different. (A journal's title is italicized, while a series's title is not.)
• @mvbook: A multivolume work (SBLHS §6.2.20) with the same author(s) or editor(s). Required fields are author (either a proper author or an editor), title, and publisher. The volumes and parts fields are allowed, but not required, as they may not be available for works in progress. If the work corresponds to multiple entries in a series, then this can be indicated by cross-referencing the @series entry in the seriesxref field or by repeating its title or shorthand in the series and shortseries fields.
• @mvreference: A multivolume encyclopedia or dictionary (§6.3.6.2), a multivolume commentary (§6.4.10), or a multivolume lexicon (§7.2) with the same author(s) or editor(s). In the SBL specification, this is functionally just an alias of @mvbook. Purton's @mvcommentary and @mvlexicon categories are collapsed into this one (though they can still be distinguished with the entrysubtype field).
• @mvcollection: A multivolume collection of contributions by different authors (§6.2.21-22) overseen by the same editor(s). Required fields are author (which in this case is just an alias for editor), title, and publisher. Apart from its required fields, this is functionally just an alias of @mvbook.
• @mvproceedings: A multivolume collection of published conference proceedings (§6.4.11). Required fields are author (either an editor or an organization), title, and publisher. Apart from its required fields, this is functionally just an alias of @mvbook.
• @book: A single-volume book, or a titled or untitled volume in a multivolume work (§6.2). Required fields are author (either a proper author or an editor), title or both crossref/xref and volume, and publisher. If the work corresponds to an entry in a series, then this can be indicated by cross-referencing the @series entry in the seriesxref field or by repeating its title or shorthand in the series and shortseries fields.
• @reference: A single-volume encyclopedia or dictionary (§6.3.6.1), commentary (§6.4.9), or lexicon (§7.1). In the SBL specification, this is functionally just an alias of @book. Purton's @commentary and @lexicon categories are collapsed into this one (though they can still be distinguished with the entrysubtype field).
• @collection: A single-volume collection of contributions by different authors (§6.2.21-22) overseen by the same editor(s). Required fields are author (which in this case is just an alias for editor), title, and publisher. Apart from its required fields, this is functionally just an alias of @book.
• @proceedings: A single-volume collection of published conference proceedings (§6.4.11). Required fields are author (either an editor or an organization), title, and publisher. Apart from its required fields, this is functionally just an alias of @book.
• @manual: A manual (§7.3). Identical to @book, except that the author field is optional, and it can consist of an author, editor, or organization.
• @inbook: A article or chapter in a book, presumably by the same author of the entire book (although this is not required), identified by an explicit page range. Required fields are author (referring to author or the article or chapter), title, either crossref or xref (consisting of the entry tag for the book or volume containing this work), and pages (containing the page range for this work in the book or volume).
• @inreference: An article in an encyclopaedia or a dictionary (§6.3.6.1-2), an article in a lexicon (§6.3.7), an article or note in a study Bible (§6.4.9.1), or an article in a commentary on the entire Bible (§6.4.9.2, 6.4.10.2). Structurally identical to @inbook, but their typesetting rules are slightly different. Purton's @incommentary, and @inlexicon categories are collapsed into this one (though they can still be distinguished with the entrysubtype field).
• @incollection: A article or chapter in an edited volume (§6.2.12-13, 6.2.22-23). Structurally identical to @inbook, but the cross-reference in the crossref or xref field should point to a @collection entry. (This is not checked, though, so functionally this category is the same as @inbook.)
• @inproceedings: A paper published as part of a conference proceedings, including seminar papers (§6.4.11). Structurally identical to @inbook, but the cross-reference in the crossref or xref field should point to a @proceedings entry. (This is not checked, though, so functionally this category is the same as @inbook.) This category encapsulates Purton's @seminarpaper category.
• @suppbook: A named section of a book (e.g., introduction, preface, foreword) written by someone other than the author (§6.2.14). Required fields are author (referring to a proper author), type (containing a string like "introduction", "preface", or "foreword"), and either crossref or xref (consisting of the entry tag for the book or volume containing this work).
• @ancienttext: A text from the Ancient Near East (or anywhere, really; §6.4.1) or a papyrus or ostracon (§6.4.3). The only required field is title. If known, an author can be specified in the optional author field. Optionally, a volume or single-volume book reproducing and/or translating the text can be cross-referenced with the crossref or xref field, respectively. Entry subtypes like PGM (Magical Greek papyri entries), inscription, chronicle, and manuscript that require special typesetting are supported.
• @classictext: A classical text (§6.4.2), or an ancient work by a church father (§6.4.4-6). The only required field is title. If known, an author can be specified in the optional author field. Optionally, a multivolume set or single-volume book reproducing and/or translating the text can be cross-referenced with the crossref or xref field. If the text is published in a series (such as Migne's PG or PL) instead, then the series can be cross-referenced in the seriesxref field or in the series or shortseries field with the type = {useseriesshorthand} field. (TODO: This mechanism may be changed or least rewritten as an options field.)
• @article: An article from a journal (§6.3) or a magazine (§6.3.9). Required fields are author (referring to a proper author), title, and either journalxref (for a cross-reference to the appropriate @journal entry) or journal or shortjournal (for a reference to the journal's name or shorthand). Typically, the volume (and sometimes number), date, and pages fields will accompany the journal cross-reference, but they are not required.
• @review: A book review published in a journal (§6.3.4). Required fields are author (referring to the author of the review), either crossref or xref (cross-referencing the reviewed book), and at least one of journalxref (for a cross-reference to the appropriate @journal entry), journal, or shortjournal (for a reference to the journal's name or shorthand). If the review itself has a title, then this can be included in the title field. Typically, the volume (and sometimes number), date, and pages fields will accompany the journal cross-reference, but they are not required.
• @conferencepaper: A paper presented at a professional society, but not published (§6.3.8). Required fields are author (referring to a proper author), title, and conference (the title of the conference). Typically, the location and date fields will accompany the conference field, but they are not required.
• @thesis: An unpublished dissertation or thesis (§6.3.5). Required fields are author (referring to a proper author), title, institution (the name of the school where the thesis was undertaken), and type (assumed to be the name of another thesis category, like "mastersthesis" or "phdthesis"). Typically, the date field will accompany the institution field, but they are not required.
• @mastersthesis: An unpublished Master's thesis (§6.3.5). Identical to @thesis with type=mastersthesis.
• @phdthesis: An unpublished PhD dissertation (§6.3.5). Identical to @thesis with type=phdthesis.
• @unpublished: An unpublished work of some other form. Required fields are author (referring to a proper author, an editor, or a responsible organization), title, and note (ideally explaining how the work has been made available).
• @online: A document published online with no print counterpart (§6.4.13), an online database (§6.4.14), or a website or blog entry (§6.4.15). The only required field is title, although typically doi or url is included.
• @electronic: Legacy alias of @online. Note that per §6.4.12, works on electronic media (such as CD-ROMs) that have a counterpart in part should just be cited as the print counterpart.
• @misc: For everything else. No fields are required. This is basically a "last-resort" category; as such, it has not been extensively tested.

A relational diagram between the most commonly used categories is shown below.

In the diagram above, solid lines indicate required cross-reference relationships (although in most cases, only one such relationship, if any, is required), and dashed lines indicate optional cross-reference relationships. Additional relationships can be encoded in the related field, such as reprints (relatedtype = {reprintof}) and translations (relatedtype = {translationof}); for the sake of space, these are not illustrated here. (For an example of both, see §6.2.5.)

Citation Alternatives

Given the hierarchical structure just described, it is natural to handle citations of lower-level entries that cross-reference higher-level entries recursively on the ConTeXt side. Because SBL formats bibliographic list entries, and long- and short-form inline citations all slightly differently, I chose to develop multiple citation alternatives for the rendering. The three main alternatives are the following:

• entry (whose setups are defined in the btx:sbl:list namespace): variant for bibliographic list entries. Authors (or editors, if an entry has no authors) are printed before titles, with the first author's name in inverted order (i.e., last name first). Most fields are separated by periods and capitalized accordingly. If an entry's shorthand abbreviates its author names (which is assumed to be the case when the entry's shorthand field does not match its shorttitle field), then this variant is used for the full-form citations in the bibliographic abbreviations list.
• inlinelong: the long-form citation alternative intended for the initial citation of a work in the text. Authors (or editors, if an entry has no authors) are printed before titles in normal order. Most fields are separated by commas, and publisher, institution, conference, etc. blocks are parenthesized.
• inlineshort: the short-form citation alternative intended for subsequent citations of a work already cited in the text or for any citation of an entry with a shorthand field. If an entry has a shorthand, then that will be added to the abbreviations list and associated with an entry-style citation of the work, and the shorthand will be used as the in-text citation. Failing that, if it has a shorttitle field, then that will be used (usually preceded by the author/editor, if there is one). Otherwise, the title field will be used (usually preceded by the author/editor, if there is one), but any subtitle field will be ignored.

The setups for these alternatives, in turn, are invoked in the setups for the following higher-level alternatives:

• inline: high-level variant intended to cover all citations in the text. This setup intelligently determines if it should use a long-form or short-form citation based on previous citations and the fields of the entry being cited. For this reason, its setup is invoked by the other high-level citation alternatives described below.
• paren: variant for parenthetical citations in the text. An inline-style citation is placed within parentheses using the startparen ... stopparen delimited-text environment, which will intelligently replace parentheses with brackets at alternating nesting levels. (If you want to take advantage of this feature in fields of your entries, make sure you enclose them in this environment or the \paren command.)
• footnote: variant for citations in footnotes/endnotes. An inline-style citation is placed in a footnote via the startfootnote ... stopfootnote environment, with a period placed at the end of the footnote. If, for some reason, you want to use endnotes instead of footnotes, then you can use the following setup in your .tex file:

\setupnote
  [footnote]
  [location=none]

...

% Put this wherever you want endnotes to appear
\placenotes [footnote]

The SBL specification also includes the following alternatives, although they are mostly intended for internal use:

• title: variant for citing just the title field (and the subtitle field, if there is one) of an entry.
• shorthand: variant for citing just the shorthand field of an entry. If the entry does not have a shorthand field, then nothing is printed.
• volume: variant for citing just the volume field (and part field, if there is one) of an entry. If the entry does not have a volume field, then nothing is printed.

For more details, see https://www.mail-archive.com/ntg-context@ntg.nl/msg98667.html.

biblatex-style Citation Macros

Following the conventions of biblatex (but with some minor modifications to accommodate locators) the SBL specification also supports the following high-level commands that allow for more concise usage:

• \autocite[leftttext][altloctext][loctext][righttext]{tag}<punct>: cite the source in the tag argument (or a comma-separated list of sources) using the default citation alternative. (This is footnote by default, but you can set it to, say, inline via \setupbtx[sbl:cite][alternative=inline].) The first four arguments (in brackets) are optional. If only one is specified, it is assumed to contain a postnote (a single righttext value for one source, or multiple righttext values enclosed in braces and separated by commas for multiple sources). If two are specified, then the first is treated as the locator text (i.e., loctext) and the second as the postnote (i.e., righttext). If three are specified, then they are treated as an alternate locator text (altloctext), a locator text (loctext), and a postnote (righttext), respectively. If all four are specified, then they are taken to be a prenote (lefttext), an alternate locator text (altloctext), a locator text (loctext), and a postnote (righttext), respectively. If you wish to cite a source with only a prenote, then use something like \autocite[See][][][]{talbert:1992}. The last punct argument is not expected to be explicitly specified; it is listed here because this macro (and the others described below) store any trailing punctuation as a citation parameter so that some setups (specifically, footnote) can intelligently move trailing punctuation before the footnote.
• \inlinecite[leftttext][altloctext][loctext][righttext]{tag}<punct>: cite the source in the tag argument (or a comma-separated list of sources) using the inline citation alternative. Everything else works as described above. (This corresponds to biblatex's \textcite command, but uses a different name, as ConTeXt's publications support module already has a \textcite command that prints a citation without adding its entry to the list.)
• \parencite[leftttext][altloctext][loctext][righttext]{tag}<punct>: cite the source in the tag argument (or a comma-separated list of sources) using the paren citation alternative. Everything else works as described above.
• \footcite[leftttext][altloctext][loctext][righttext]{tag}<punct>: cite the source in the tag argument (or a comma-separated list of sources) using the footnote citation alternative. Everything else works as described above.

Support for CSL Locators

The SBL rendering also includes support for page number and other references specified using Citation Style Language (CSL) locators (https://github.com/citation-style-language/locales). The \loc macro can be used in anywhere in the text of your document or specified in the lefttext, altloctext, loctext, or righttext parameters of a citation. The preferred usage is to specify all locators assignment-style (e.g., \loc[vol=2,pt=1,p=12,fig=3]), but raw text inputs (e.g., \loc[1.3]) are also supported. Some examples follow:

\loc[p=xii,n={4, 7}] % an inline locator involving a page number in Roman numerals and multiple footnote numbers

\loc[fol={212\high{r}},col=2,l={18--20}] % an inline locator involving folio, column, and line numbers

\loc[pl=5,col=2,l=20]--\loc[col=3,l=2] % an inline locator involving plate, column, and line numbers that spans multiple columns in the same plate

\autocite[{\loc[127]][]{talbert:1992}

\autocite[{\loc[p=127]][]{talbert:1992} % same as previous, but more portable over different bibliographic styles

\autocite[{\loc[chap=1.3]}][]{reventlow:2009}

\autocite[{\loc[chap=3]\btxcomma\quotation{Introducing David}}][]{wright:2014}

\autocite[{\loc[sec=3] \paren{A I 11--17}}][{\loc[p=26]}][]{disappearanceofsungod} % "§ 3 (A I 11–17)" appears after the title of the ancient text, and "26" is cited as a page number in the book reproducing the text

\autocite[{obv. \loc[l={10--17}]}][{\loc[p={143--144}]}][]{ashurinscription} % "obv. lines 10–17" appears after the title of the ancient text, and "143–44" is cited as a page number in the book reproducing the text

\autocite[{See the discussion of ἐκρατοῦντο in}][][{\loc[vol=2,p=271]}][]{Str-B}.

\autocite[{\loc[sec=6.2.1]}][]{SBLHS}

\autocite[{\loc[sv={\quotation{ἐνθύημα}, \quotation{λεαίνω}}]}][]{LEH}

\autocite[{See}][][{\loc[p=8]}][{\btxcomma but there are also contradictory statements\btxcomma e.g. \loc[p=12].}]{Doe:Title} % locators can also be invoked in the lefttext or righttext; note, however, that \btxcomma must be used in place of the usual comma (otherwise ConTeXt will parse the bracketed argument incorrectly)

Other Options

The SBL specification includes several customizable options intended to give users a degree of flexibility approximating that offered by biblatex. Most of the options are intended to be specified up front via \setupbtx[sbl:cite], so that the biblatex-style citation macros can be used in place of ConTeXt's more verbose \cite commands. The most useful of these options are described below:

• useibid (default: no): enable ibidem tracking, which will abbreviate consecutive citations of the same entry as "ibid." (TODO: new helper functions need to be implemented for this and should take into account whether or not we're in footnote mode)
• useidem (default: no): enable idem tracking, which will abbreviate an author cited multiple times consecutively (even in different works) as "idem" (TODO: new helper functions need to be implemented for this and should take into account whether or not we're in footnote mode)
• synonym (default: abbreviation): the singular name of the synonym set to use for shorthands (TODO: the infrastructure for this is in place, but I haven't gotten it to work)
• synonyms (default: abbreviations): the plural name of the synonym set to use for shorthands (TODO: the infrastructure for this is in place, but I haven't gotten it to work)
• sameauthor (default: rule): how to handle repeated printings of the same author name in the bibliographic list. Options include rule (use a horizontal rule), empty (use an empty space the length of the list's margin), ditto (use "idem"), and none (print the repeated author as-is)
• titleauthor (default: no): if yes, print the author after the title (primarily used internally for subcitations and entries in the abbreviations list)
• useauthor (default: yes): if no, then don't print the author (primarily used internally for subcitations) (TODO: define starred variants of the biblatex-style citation macros that set this to no?)
• usecrossref (default: yes): if no, then don't print the cross-referenced source (primarily used internally for entries in the abbreviations list)
• usepubl (default: yes): if no, then don't print the publication fields (non-author editor, translator, edition, volumes, series, publisher, institution, conference, DOI, e-print, etc.)

Special Formatting Rules

While I have tried to account for all cases in the examples using only category-based rules as much as possible, there are some types of entries within certain categories that need to be typeset slightly differently. These special type values are detailed below. (TODO: These will likely be changed to values for the options field, in accordance with biblatex conventions. Like everything else, they are subject to change as I continue to work through the issues for this project.)

Specification Coverage

The following cases (taken from https://github.com/dcpurton/biblatex-sbl/blob/master/test/biblatex-sbl-examples.ref.txt) should be covered by this rendering:

6.2 General Examples: Books

• [x] 6.2.1 A Book by a Single Author
• [x] 6.2.2 A Book by Two or Three Authors
• [x] 6.2.3 A Book by More than Three Authors
• [x] 6.2.4 A Translated Volume
• [x] 6.2.5 The Full History of a Translated Volume
• [x] 6.2.6 A Book with One Editor
• [x] 6.2.7 A Book with Two or Three Editors
• [x] 6.2.8 A Book with Four or More Editors
• [x] 6.2.9 A Book with Both Author and Editor
• [x] 6.2.10 A Book with Author, Editor, and Translator
• [x] 6.2.11 A Title in a Modern Work Citing a Nonroman Alphabet
• [x] 6.2.12 An Article in an Edited Volume
• [x] 6.2.13 An Article in a Festschrift
• [x] 6.2.14 An Introduction, Preface, or Foreword Written by Someone Other Than the Author
• [x] 6.2.15 Multiple Publishers for a Single Book
• [x] 6.2.16 A Revised Edition
• [x] 6.2.17 A Recent Reprint Title
• [x] 6.2.18 A Reprint Title in the Public Domain
• [x] 6.2.19 A Forthcoming Book
• [x] 6.2.20 A Multivolume Work
• [x] 6.2.21 A Titled Volume in a Multivolume, Edited Work
• [x] 6.2.22 A Chapter within a Multivolume Work
• [x] 6.2.23 A Chapter within a Titled Volume in a Multivolume Work
• [x] 6.2.24 A Work in a Series
• [x] 6.2.25 Electronic Book

6.3 General Examples: Journal Articles, Reviews, and Dissertations

• [x] 6.3.1 A Journal Article
• [x] 6.3.2 A Journal Article with Multiple Page Locations and Volumes
• [x] 6.3.3 A Journal Article Republished in a Collected Volume
• [x] 6.3.4 A Book Review
• [x] 6.3.5 An Unpublished Dissertation or Thesis
• [x] 6.3.6.1 An Article in a Multivolume Encyclopaedia or Dictionary
• [x] 6.3.6.2 An Article in a Single-Volume Encyclopaedia or Dictionary
• [x] 6.3.7 An Article in a Lexicon or Theological Dictionary
• [x] 6.3.8 A Paper Presented at a Professional Society
• [x] 6.3.9 An Article in a Magazine
• [x] 6.3.10 An Electronic Journal Article

6.4 Special Examples

• [x] 6.4.1.1 Citing COS
• [x] 6.4.1.2 Citing Other Texts
• [x] 6.4.2 Loeb Classical Library (Greek and Latin)
• [x] 6.4.3.1 Papyri and Ostraca in General
• [x] 6.4.3.2 Epigraphica
• [x] 6.4.3.3 Greek Magical Papyri
• [x] 6.4.4 Ancient Epistles and Homilies
• [x] 6.4.5 ANF and NPNF, First and Second Series
• [x] 6.4.6 J.-P. Migne's Patrologia Latina and Patrologia Graeca
• [x] 6.4.7 Strack-Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament
• [x] 6.4.8 Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt (ANRW)
• [x] 6.4.9 Bible Commentaries
• [x] 6.4.9.1 Articles and Notes in Study Bibles
• [x] 6.4.9.2 Single-Volume Commentaries on the Entire Bible
• [x] 6.4.10.1 Multivolume Commentaries on a Single Biblical Book by One Author
• [x] 6.4.10.2 Multivolume Commentaries for the Entire Bible by Multiple Authors
• [x] 6.4.11 SBL Seminar Papers
• [x] 6.4.12 A CD-ROM Reference (with a Corresponding Print Edition)
• [x] 6.4.13 Text Editions Published Online with No Print Counterpart
• [x] 6.4.14 Online Database
• [x] 6.4.15 Websites and Blogs

7 Other Examples

• [x] 7.1 BDAG, BDB, BDF
• [x] 7.2 HALOT, TLOT
• [x] 7.3 SBLHS

The publ-imp-sbl-test.bib file contains BibTeX entries for these examples, and the publ-imp-sbl-test.tex file demonstrates how to typeset them with various settings.

To Do

Most to-do tasks have been moved to the Issues tab. Things that others have volunteered to do are listed below:

• [ ] If possible, add a final pass over the entry to move commas and periods after right quotes to positions before them, in accordance with American style (Hans says he can take care of this)