There are various ways of citing charters for scholarly purposes, none of which is necessarily better than any other; but one has to decide what system to use, and to apply it consistently. In the following examples, the charter chosen for illustrative purposes is King Æthelred's charter for Abingdon Abbey, dated 993.
The practice adopted within the volumes of the British Academy edition is to cite charters from the same archive simply by their number in the edition, in bold type (124), and to cite charters from other archives by their Sawyer number, in the abbreviated form S 876, perhaps with further indication of the edition, e.g. S 876 (Kelly, Abingdon, no. 124), or S 876 (Abingdon, no. 124), or S 876 (Abing 124). As one might expect, there is some variation from one volume to another.
Outside the immediate context of the series, the system adopted will depend on various considerations: whether one is needing to make just one or two references to a charter or charters, or whether one is needing to cite several charters in a list, or in a single sentence; whether one is needing to cite the introduction and/or the commentary in a given volume of the new edition, or simply the edited text; whether one feels the need in a given context to cite a modern edition, as well as the basic 'Sawyer' number, or whether the ready availability of 'Sawyer' online means that one might for the sake of simplicity dispense with a full reference; and whether one gives priority to the particular edition or to the all-embracing catalogue. The matter may also be determined by house style or editorial preference.
By way of example, King Æthelred's charter for Abingdon could be cited in any number of ways, in various combinations:
- P. H. Sawyer, Anglo-Saxon Charters: an Annotated List and Bibliography, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks 8 (London, 1968), no. 876, in Charters of Abingdon Abbey, ed. S. E. Kelly, Anglo-Saxon Charters 7-8 (Oxford, 2000-1), no. 124 (pp. 477-83), and 'Historia Ecclesie Abbendonensis' / The History of the Church of Abingdon, ed. John Hudson, 2 vols. (Oxford, 2002-7), I, pp. 140-51.
- Sawyer, Anglo-Saxon Charters, no. 876 (Charters of Abingdon, ed. Kelly, no. 124); Sawyer no. 876 (Kelly, Abingdon, no. 124); Sawyer 876 (Abingdon, ed. Kelly, no. 124); S 876 (Abingdon, no. 124); S 876 (Abing 124).
- S. E. Kelly, Charters of Abingdon Abbey, 2 vols. (Oxford, 2000-1), no. 124 (Sawyer, Anglo-Saxon Charters, no. 876); Kelly, Charters of Abingdon, pp. 477-83 (no. 124) (Sawyer 876); Abingdon, ed. Kelly, no. 124 (S 876).
- Sawyer, Anglo-Saxon Charters, no. 876; Sawyer no. 876; S 876; S.876; S876.
- Kelly, Abingdon, no. 124; Abingdon, ed. Kelly, no. 124; Abingdon 124.
- and so on.
It is often desirable or necessary to cite a charter not only by its Sawyer number, but also by the best available edition, in a way which focusses attention on its provenance (Abingdon, Glastonbury, or whatever), so that the range (or otherwise) can be seen at a glance; and if one is citing say five or ten charters together, this can occupy a considerable amount of space. Of course it might also be necessary to cite the introduction or commentary in one of the modern editions, in which context one would always need to employ a different system, for a reference to the book, in which the editor is named (e.g. Charters of Abingdon, ed. Kelly, pp. cxi-cxv).
The practice adopted in the journal Anglo-Saxon England is explained here <.pdf file>.
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October 2011