Hi Julian,
After looking at this more carefully, it seems that the current
ConTeXt APA specification does not provide structured support for an
|originalyear| or |origdate| field. In |publ-imp-apa.lua|, |year| is
recognized, but I cannot see an equivalent field for the original
publication date. So the present APA definitions do not appear to
model this information as a standard bibliographic field.
Without modifying the APA style itself, the simplest way to obtain
the form you want would therefore be not to use
|alternative=authoryear|, since that already supplies |1998|, but to
request the author only and provide the two dates together as
|righttext|:
\cite
[alternative=author,
righttext={ca. 350 BCE/1998}]
[main::aristotle1998]
This should give something like:
(Aristotle, ca. 350 BCE/1998)
Ideally, of course, one would like to be able to write something
conceptually like:
@book{aristotle1998,
author = {Aristotle},
title = {Poetics},
year = {1998},
originalyear = {ca. 350 BCE},
...
}
and have the APA renderer automatically combine |originalyear| and
|year| as |ca. 350 BCE/1998|. But as far as I can see, the present
ConTeXt APA implementation does not yet do that.
Could you test the |alternative=author| + |righttext| form and tell
me whether the result is what you were aiming for? If not, I’ll look
for something closer.
JP
Le 17/08/2026 à 08:36, jbf a écrit :
Well, I intended off-list, but hit the send button too early! Still
and all, the question might interest others.
Julian
On 17/8/26 16:34, jbf wrote:
JP, off-list for the moment just to clarify a small detail.
How can I get something like (Aristotle, ca. 350 BCE./1998)? APA
indicates this possibility, but so far the best I can come up with,
using righttext, is something like (Aristotle, 1998, original ca. 350
BCE)
Julian
On 16/8/26 17:41, Jean-Pierre Delange via ntg-context wrote:
Hi Julian,
I think there are actually two possible approaches here, depending
on whether you want to keep this entirely within your present APA
setup, or whether Augustine is part of a larger body of
patristic/classical material for which a canonical-reference model
would be useful.
1. Keep APA and add the canonical locator only to the citation
occurrence
If all your other references are author–year, I would probably keep
your present APA setup unchanged.
ConTeXt citations can take a |righttext| parameter. With APA this is
particularly convenient because |righttext| is added as
supplementary material inside the parenthetical citation.
So instead of:
\cite[authoryear][main::augustine1991confessions]
you can use:
\cite
[alternative=authoryear,
righttext={X.33.50}]
[main::augustine1991confessions]
which should give:
(Augustine, 1991, X.33.50)
while all your ordinary citations can remain:
\cite[authoryear][main::someotherwork]
and continue to produce the normal:
(Author, 2020)
If you want the work title to be explicit as well, you could equally
write:
\cite
[alternative=authoryear,
righttext={{\em Confessions} X.33.50}]
[main::augustine1991confessions]
The useful distinction here is that |X.33.50| belongs to this
particular *citation occurrence*, not to the bibliographic identity
of the 1991 edition. So there is no need to add it permanently to
the |.bib| record, nor to create a special rendering just for Augustine.
2. Use SBL modelling if Augustine is part of a larger
patristic/classical corpus
If, however, the book contains many references to Augustine or other
ancient/patristic texts with canonical locators, then the module
|context-sbl| may be worth considering.
The SBL implementation provides a |@classictext| category
specifically for classical texts and ancient works by Church
Fathers. In that model, the ancient work itself can be kept distinct
from the modern edition or translation being used.
Schematically:
@classictext{augustine-confessions,
author = {Augustine},
title = {Confessions},
shorttitle = {Conf.},
crossref = {augustine1991confessions},
}
@book{augustine1991confessions,
...
}
The canonical locator then belongs to the citation of the ancient
work, while the 1991 translation remains the bibliographic edition
behind it.
This is a more structural solution than |righttext|, and is useful
when canonical references are not merely occasional exceptions but a
recurring feature of the document.
So, roughly:
APA + righttext
-> simplest solution for a few isolated canonical locators
SBL + @classictext
-> structural solution for a corpus of ancient or patristic texts
I would not switch an otherwise APA-based document to SBL merely to
solve one Augustine citation. For your present example, |righttext|
is probably the simplest and most appropriate answer.
Incidentally, your question is very useful feedback for the new
bibliography material on the ConTeXt Garden. This particular case —
keeping an author–year style while adding a canonical or
work-specific locator only to selected citation occurrences —
deserves a small explicit example there.
I should also mention that ANSS-CE is expected to receive, this
autumn, a set of additional chapters devoted specifically to
bibliography and citation management in ConTeXt. Those chapters are
currently being written and are intended to provide a more
systematic treatment of datasets, renderings, local and cumulative
bibliographies, citation occurrences and locators, specialised
styles such as SBL, and multilingual or multiscript bibliography.
That does not make the Garden material redundant. On the contrary,
the Garden remains the natural place for concise, task-oriented
examples and for cases that emerge from actual user questions — like
this one.
Best,
JP
Le 16/08/2026 à 01:54, jbf a écrit :
It is possible that the answer to my question already lies
somewhere in the extensive (new) bibliography material in
contextgarden, but if so I have missed it. And indeed it may be a
very simple solution, but I can't work it out at the moment.
I am typesetting an academic work by an author who wants local (end
of chapter) bibliographies as well as, obviously, a final complete
bibliography. No problem. I can do that and in fact have done so
successfully. My problem lies with one particular set of citations
from Augustine's/Confessions/, where the canonical references are
something like Augustine, 1991, /Confessions/ X.33.50. All I can
manage to produce at the moment is the usual author-year APA inline
format (Augustine, 1991) [Obviously we are referring to a modern
1991 translation, but that is immaterial here].
My current set up is:
\usebtxdataset
[main]
[references.bib]
\usebtxdefinitions
[apa]
\definebtxrendering
[chapterlist]
[apa]
[dataset=main,
sorttype=authoryear]
\definebtxrendering
[finallist]
[apa]
[dataset=main,
sorttype=authoryear]
And where I need to reference Augustine inline I write, e.g.
\cite[authoryear][main::augustine1991confessions] which gives me
(Augustine, 1991). Is there is a way I can also include X.33.50 in
this inline reference, but only for the Augustine citations? All
other citations are strictly author-year.
Julian
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___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the
Wiki!
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