Guidelines

As a critical journal for the entire field of classical studies, Gnomon aims to foster links between the individual disciplines of classical studies. It aims to offer the opportunity to orientate oneself especially within disciplines that are not one’s own area of expertise. The reviewer speaks to an audience from all areas of our field.

First and foremost, each review should give a clear picture of the content of the book, which is also comprehensible to those who are not familiar with the book and the problem it deals with from their own experience. The scholarly character of the review will often require individual points of criticism; however, the treatment of merely particular items should not predominate and should not be used so much for its own sake as to illustrate the method and results of the book. Everything particular should be presented separately from the general, distinguished by a clear structure within the review.

Gnomon attaches great importance to a legible, stylistically clean form. The following languages are authorised in Gnomon: German, English, French, Italian and Latin. For contributions in German, the New German Orthography applies. For contributions in other languages, corresponding guidelines apply.

As a general rule, please refrain from lists of printing errors or corrections of mere individual oversights. The reviewer's task should be to emphasise the essentials and to dismiss anything petty by silence or, if necessary, by a brief word.

Responses are not included in Gnomon. This principle protects the reviewer and the readership from debates which are, for the most part, unpleasant. However, it imposes a duty on the reviewer to exercise responsible restraint in the formulation of negative judgements. It goes without saying that the author of the reviewed work must also retain the right to a correction if he can prove that criticisms were made that are purely factually incorrect; in such a case, the reviewer himself will, if possible, retract the error in the form of a correction.

2. TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

2.1 Manuscript

2.1.1 Submission

Please submit your documents via our website gnomon.uni-bonn.de. You will receive access when we confirm your review.

The editors expressly request that you use our template file. You will receive the template file as an attachment by e-mail together with the acceptance of the review and for download at: https://www.gnomon.uni-bonn.de/about/submissions

In this way, the work of the editorial team will be considerably simplified and the time between receipt of a review and its publication can be reduced.

Please submit your document with a name following this example: (reviewer) - (author of the reviewed book).docx

2.1.2 Format specifications

The following settings have already been made in the template file:

Please use ‘Times New Roman’ as the font. The main text should be written in font size 9.5 pt with line spacing of exactly 11.25 pt. The footnotes should be written in font size 8.5 pt with line spacing of exactly 9.6 pt. The main text and footnotes should be justified.

Paragraph indents have a width of 0.3 cm. Please do not use blank lines to separate paragraphs. Please also refrain from using manual hyphenation.

Make sure that your manuscript has the following dimensions at the margins and at the top and bottom edges: left: 5.00 cm, right: 4.40 cm, top: 5.00 cm, bottom: 5.75 cm. All settings have already been made in our template file. Individual sections that are, for example, considered supplementary comments by the reviewer can be set in a smaller font size (petit). The font size and line spacing are selected in the same way as for footnotes.

2.1.3 Structure of a review

The bibliographic details of the reviewed title are at the beginning. The format can also be taken from our template file.

The authors or editors are listed with their full first and last names in bold. This is followed by the indication ed. or eds. and a colon. Titles and subtitles are separated by a full stop. The title and any subtitle are followed by the place of publication, the publisher, the year of publication and the number of pages. If the title is part of a series, the series is given at the end. Abbreviations are given in the language of the reviewed book e.g.,

Philip Aubreville: Der Hass im antiken Rom. Studien zur Emotionalität in der späten Republik und frühen Kaiserzeit. Stuttgart: Steiner 2021. 356 S. (Historia. Einzelschriften 266).

Cyril Courrier, Julio Cesar Magalhães de Oliveira (eds.): Ancient History from Below. Subaltern Experiences and Actions in Context. London/New York: Routledge 2022. XXVIII, 292 pp. 14 fig. (Routledge Monographs in Classical Studies 9).

Jérôme Moreau, Olivier Munnich (éds.): Religion et rationalité. Philon d’Alexandrie et sa posterité. Leiden/Boston: Brill 2021. VI, 297 p. (Studies in Philo of Alexandria 11).

Simonides: Epigrams and Elegies. Edited with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary by David Sider. Oxford: Oxford UP 2020. IX, 467 pp.

Lucano: Bellum Civile VIII. Introduzione, testo, traduzione e commento a cura di Alessio Mancini. Berlin: De Gruyter 2022. VII, 582 p.

At the end of the review, please insert your name in italics flush right and your place of work in recte flush left. The invisible table at the end of the template file can be used for this, e.g.,

Bonn	The editorial office

Please do not include any other details such as your address or e-mail address.

2.1.4 Notes

For the sake of clarity, side notes, supporting documents and longer references should be placed in footnotes, which should be numbered. For reviews that are intended as ‘Vorlagen’ (shorter reviews), footnotes should be omitted where possible. Cross-references should always be avoided. Details of the titles consulted for the review are cited according to the following pattern:

Monographs:

Roelof van den Broeks: The Myth of the Phoenix. According to Classical and early Christian Traditions. Leiden 1972.

Edited volumes:

Nikolaus Dietrich: Nacktheit, Gewand und der Körper in der antiken Plastik. Mit Herder contra Herder. In: Nicole Hegener (Hg.): Nackte Gestalten. Die Wiederkehr des antiken Akts in der Renaissanceplastik. Petersberg 2021, S. 19 –24.

Journals:

Ezio Pellizer: Simonide κίμβιξ e un nuovo trimetro di Semonide Amorgino. In: QUCC 38 (=N.S. 9), 1981, S. 47–51.In the case of repeated references to titles already listed, please use an unequivocal short title and give the note in which the title was cited for the first time e.g., Pellizer Simonide κίμβιξ 1981, p. 48 (cf. note 2).

2.1.5 Scope of contributions

Space within Gnomon is very limited. Extreme restriction and compression are therefore necessary. Extensive reviews that fill more than eight printed pages are only possible for truly central topics. If the reviewer considers it necessary to write a review longer than the length indicated in the invitation, please contact the editorial office in advance. The publication of overlong reviews cannot be guaranteed.

The information provided by the editors on the length of the manuscripts refers to pages of 3,500 characters each (including spaces).

The shorter reviews (‘Vorlagen’) in the petit-section (up to a total of around 12,000 characters [including spaces]) is a shorter form of review that critically presents the argumentation of a book in the most concise form.

2.2 Copy editing

You can find the required characters such as different types of inverted commas and semi-colons for copying (Windows: Ctrl+C; Mac: Cmd+C) and pasting (Windows: Ctrl+V; Mac: Cmd+V) in our template file.

2.2.1 Citation method

Ancient work titles (also in translation) are in italics, modern (also Latin) in gnomic (‘ ’) inverted commas. This applies to book publications as well as individual articles or chapters. e.g., ‘in Thucydides’ Peloponnesian War the figure of Nicias is of particular importance’; in chapter 2 ‘The further development’ etc.

2.2.2 Highlighting

Only italics may be used for emphasis (so no bold print, no small caps etc.).

2.2.3 Quotation marks and apostrophe

« » without spaces between inverted commas and letters are only used for direct quotations from modern authors – including from the reviewed work. For direct quotations, the reference (e.g., page number) is mandatory. In addition, these quotation marks are used for word meanings (e.g., statio «service»).

‘ ’ (gnomic inverted commas) to express ‘so-called’, to emphasise a word etc. (e.g.,: in ‘die Cäsaren’, die ‘deteriores’, die ‘Antiquitäten’).

Double inverted commas are generally not used (unless they are used in direct quotations, e.g., from the reviewed work).

When using apostrophes, make sure that ’ (in the so called ninth position) is used. Especially in languages that regularly use apostrophes, such as Italian or French, e.g., l’Arpinat, dell’antichità.

2.2.4 Brackets

Insertions of corrections are enclosed in square brackets. Square brackets are used for brackets in already bracketed sections. e.g., ‘(up to approx. 12,000 characters [incl. spaces])’.

2.2.5 Roman numerals

For page numbers, e.g., in praefationes, the Roman numerals are capitalised to indicate page numbers. References to centuries, book numbers (especially those of ancient authors), journal volumes, illustration and plate numbers should be numbered in Arabic numerals. This also applies if the cited works themselves are numbered in Roman numerals.

2.2.6 Hyphens

Please distinguish between the hyphen (-) and the semi dash (–). The hyphen is used to separate words and syllables or to connect terms, e.g., names (e.g., Kühner-Gerth). The semi dash (–) is used to indicate ‘to’, e.g., ‘p. 117–143’ or ‘in the years 27–8 BC’.

2.2.7 Page numbers, line numbers, verse numbers

Between the abbreviation (p. / pp., l. / ll.) there is a full stop and a protected space (Windows: Shift+Ctrl+Space; Mac: Alt+Space).

2.2.8 Commas

Individual members of a series of citations that are on the same level are separated by full stops (not semicolons or commas). The comma separates volume and page, page and line, book and paragraph, e.g., Cic. or. 1,2,3.5 means book 1, chapter 2, paragraphs 3 and 5. These rules also apply if other citation methods are used in the works cited.

2.2.9 Abbreviations

Second edition by superscript number e.g., ²1992

‘Note two’ is abbreviated to ‘Note 2’.

following = f or ff (or sq. / sqq.) is not used. Instead, the specific pages concerned are always given, e.g., pp. 117–143 (not 117–43!). German abbreviations are also used in German articles. Abbreviations that summarise several words are used without spaces, e.g., vgl. (not cf.). Fig. (not fig.). Taf. (not pl. tav.). No. (not no. nr.). Manuscript(s) = Hs(s), without full stop. Fr. (not fr. Frgm.). Verf. and Jh. (so also in the oblique cases). a.O. (not l.c.). Page = p. (not p.). For reviews written in English, French or Italian, the usual abbreviations apply.

2.3 Correction

Changes to the original wording must be kept to an absolute minimum due to the high costs involved. If changes become unavoidable between the start of typesetting and printing, please make them in the form of additions (as notes), as this has the least impact on the typesetting. A second correction is possible at the reviewer's request in the case of difficult typesetting and must be agreed upon with the editor.

2.4 Offprints

Authors of reviews and obituaries will receive a pdf file of their contribution directly from the publisher C.H.Beck.