Chapter and Verse
Locating a quotation by fixed internal divisions rather than by page number.
'Chapter and verse' names a citation system that points to divisions inside a work — book, chapter, verse, section, line — instead of to a page in one printing. Scripture is the familiar case (John 3:16), but the principle covers Shakespeare by act, scene and line, Plato by Stephanus number, and Aristotle by Bekker number.
The reason is portability. A page number is true only of one edition; an internal division is true of every edition and translation. A reader with a different printing can still find your quotation in seconds.
The convention has entered ordinary speech — 'he gave me chapter and verse' means he supplied exact, checkable detail — and that idiom captures the scholarly point precisely: precision that survives the change of book in the reader's hands.
Common mistake: mixing systems in one citation, such as giving a Stephanus number and a page number of a specific translation without labelling which is which. Name the system when it is not obvious.
“Hamlet 3.1.56 — not 'page 87 of the Arden edition'.”
Keep reading the glossary
A citation that points to the exact page, paragraph, or section where a quoted or paraphrased passage appears.
Citing manuscripts and early printed books by leaf, side and line rather than page.
A citation that gives two or more reporters for the same source, so readers using different libraries can find it.
A pointer inside a document to another passage of the same document, using consistent language such as 'see above' or 'infra'.