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Chicago Citation Style: Secondary Sources

This guide will help you cite sources using the Chicago Citation Style 16th edition.

Secondary Sources (14.273 / p. 764)

Sometimes an author will quote work someone else has done, but you are unable to track down the original source. In this case, both the original and the secondary source must be listed in the note and the bibliography. 

   
If, for example, you were reading a book and the author of the book (in the example below, that would be Sarah Gwyneth Ross) made reference to the work done by another author (in the example below, that would be Astrik L. Gabriel), you would refer to the work as per the layout below.

General Format 

Full Note:

1. Author First Name/Initial Surname [original author], Title (Place of
      Publication: Publisher, Year), page number, quoted in Author First Name/Initial
      Surname [the author of the book that refers to the thoughts/ideas of the
      other author]), Title (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year), page #.

Concise Note: 

2. Author Surname [original author], Title, page #.

Bibliography:

Author Surname, First Name/Initial [original author]. Title. Place of Publication:
            Publisher, Year. Quoted in Author First Name/Initial Surname [the author
            of the book that refers to the thoughts/ideas of the other author]. Title
            Place of Publication: Publisher, Year, page #.

Example 

Full Note:

1. Astrik L. Gabriel, "The Educational Ideas of Christine de Pisan," Journal of
      the History of Ideas
 16, no. 1 (1995): 3-21, quoted in Sarah Gwyneth Ross, The
      Birth of Feminism: Women as Intellect in Renaissance Italy and England
 (Cambridge:
      Harvard University Press, 2009), 23.

Concise Note:

1. Gabriel, "The Educational Ideas," 3-21.

Bibliography:

Gabriel, Astrik L.. "The Educational Ideas of Christine de Pisan." Culture and 
            Imperialism. Journal of the History of Ideas 
16, no. 1 (1995). Quoted in
            Sarah Gwyneth Ross. The Birth of Feminism: Women as Intellect in 
            Renaissance Italy and England
. Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
            2009, 23.

Learn More

Download this 2-page guide:

Websites with information on using Chicago style:

About Citing Other Sources

This guide is intended to cover only the Notes and Bibliography system for citing sources.

For each type of source in this guide, both the general form and a specific example will be provided.

The following format will be used:

Full Note - use the first time that you cite a source.
Concise Note - use after the first time you cite a source.
Bibliography - use when you are compiling the Bibliography that appears at the end of your paper.

Information on citing and several of the examples were drawn from The Chicago Manual of Style (16th ed.). 

Numbers in parentheses refer to specific sections and pages in the manual.

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