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"32. Percy, Mahomet, ‘The Properties’. 33. Ibid., 1.1.26. 34. Ibid., 1.1.31, 49. 35. Ibid., 4.3.347. 36. Ibid., 4.6.37. 37. Ibid., 5.4.6. 38. Ibid., 5.13, s.d. 39. Ibid., 5.13. 3– 4. 40. Ibid., 5.13.129, s.d. 41. Ibid., 5.13. 9–14. "

The source: Jerry Brotton, This Orient Isle- Elizabethan England and the Islamic World, the footnotes of Chapter 11.

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  • 1
    Probably an abbreviation of sine die.
    – Rayan Khan
    Commented Aug 18, 2020 at 10:13
  • 4
    Does this answer your question? What does (s.d.) stand for in literature cited section of a paper
    – Rayan Khan
    Commented Aug 18, 2020 at 10:16
  • Thank you, Decapitated Soul, but this meaning doesn't seem to be fit in here; here are the other footnotes in the same place:32. Percy, Mahomet, ‘The Properties’. 33. Ibid., 1.1.26. 34. Ibid., 1.1.31, 49. 35. Ibid., 4.3.347. 36. Ibid., 4.6.37. 37. Ibid., 5.4.6. 38. Ibid., 5.13, s.d. 39. Ibid., 5.13. 3– 4. 40. Ibid., 5.13.129, s.d. 41. Ibid., 5.13. 9–14.
    – Rosa1917
    Commented Aug 18, 2020 at 11:49
  • @Rosa1917 Please add information to the question if it's relevant. Not only is it easier to format, but it keeps everything in one place. Comments are ephemeral. You can edit your question. I can't see why some Ibid. references get "s.d." and others don't, since presumably the entire publication has a date (or doesn't): I don't see why different parts of it might be different.
    – Andrew Leach ♦
    Commented Aug 18, 2020 at 13:57
  • Thank you for the warning, Andrew Leach, I did so.
    – Rosa1917
    Commented Aug 18, 2020 at 14:35

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I think "s.d." in this context stands for "stage direction." This is because each footnote refers to the Act, Scene, and Line numbers of William Percy's play "Mahomet and His Heaven." So, for example, footnote 37 reads "Ibid., 5.4.6." which I take to mean "Mahomet, Act 5, Scene 4, line 6". Therefore note 40, which reads "Ibid., 5.13.129, s.d.", I think means "Mahomet, Act 5, Scene 13, line 129, stage direction."

I base this on a similar note in James Morwood's translation of "Euripides: Medea & Other Plays", published through Oxford World's Classics (1998); the note on p. 181 to line 87 of Euripides' "Hippolytus" begins with s.d.; and it refers to an asterisk in the stage directions on p. 41 (the text of the play itself).

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  • In support of your suggestion, MLA Style Center offers this comment on its page titled "How do I quote stage directions?": "To indicate that the quoted material is a stage direction, some scholars use the abbreviation sd after the line number: (120sd). But in an essay that is not specialized in theater history, it would be better to avoid mystifying your readers with that technical detail."
    – Sven Yargs
    Commented Aug 2, 2022 at 9:36

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