How to create "local" footnotes in block quotes?

Question

I have a block quote, which contains a footnote - but I don't want to put that at the end of the page, but rather at the end of the quote. Like so:

Does footnote command allow this kind of customization? If not - where should I look? Much appreciated!

Answer 1

A possible simple approach would be to use a minipage inside the quote environment:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\begin{document}

\lipsum[1]
\begin{quote}
\begin{minipage}{\linewidth}
\stepcounter{footnote}
\renewcommand\thempfootnote{\arabic{footnote}}
\lipsum[1] text\footnote{this is a footnote} text text text.
\end{minipage}
\end{quote}

\end{document}

Here's an enhanced version of my answer: now everything is dome through a new environment fnquote that redefines and steps appropriately the counter and formats the footnote mark as in the image (suppressing the indentation):

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\makeatletter
\newenvironment{fnquote}
  {\begin{quote}
  \begin{minipage}{\linewidth}\stepcounter{footnote}
  \renewcommand\thempfootnote{\arabic{footnote}}
  \renewcommand\@makefntext[1]{\noindent\makebox[1.2em][l]{\@makefnmark}##1}}
  {\end{minipage}\end{quote}}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\lipsum[1]
\begin{fnquote}
\lipsum[1] text\footnote{this is a footnote} text text text.
\end{fnquote}

\end{document}

A new version; a new command \qtfootnote is available allowing to manually specify the value for the footnote marker:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\newcounter{tmpfn}

\makeatletter
\newenvironment{fnquote}
  {\begin{quote}
  \begin{minipage}{\linewidth}
  \renewcommand\thempfootnote{\arabic{mpfootnote}}
  \renewcommand\@makefntext[1]{\noindent\makebox[1.2em][l]{\@makefnmark}##1}
  }
  {\end{minipage}\end{quote}}
\makeatother
\newcommand\qtfootnote[2]{%
  \setcounter{tmpfn}{\thempfootnote}%
  \setcounter{mpfootnote}{#1}\addtocounter{mpfootnote}{-1}%
  \footnote{#2}%
  \setcounter{mpfootnote}{\thetmpfn}}

\begin{document}

\lipsum[1]
\begin{fnquote}
\lipsum[1] text\qtfootnote{5}{this is a footnote} text text text.
\end{fnquote}

\end{document}

And the fourth version, now the code has been greatly simplified by using the features provided by the nccfoots package; now the footnote marker can be freely assigned (arabic, alphabetic, roman, etc.) in an easy way:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{nccfoots}

\newcommand\Text{Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut purus elit,
vestibulum ut, placerat ac, adipiscing vitae, felis. Curabitur dictum gravida
mauris. Nam arcu libero, nonummy eget, consectetuer id, vulputate a, magna.
Donec vehicula augue eu neque.}

\makeatletter
\newenvironment{fnquote}
  {\begin{quote}\begin{minipage}{\linewidth}
  \renewcommand\@makefntext[1]{\noindent\makebox[1em][l]{\@makefnmark}##1}}
  {\end{minipage}\end{quote}}
\makeatother
\newcommand\qtfootnote[2]{\Footnotemark{#1}\Footnotetext{#1}{#2}}

\begin{document}

\Text
\begin{fnquote}
\Text text text text text\qtfootnote{4}{this is a footnote} text text.
\end{fnquote}
\begin{fnquote}
\Text text text text text\qtfootnote{d}{this is a footnote} text text.
\end{fnquote}
\begin{fnquote}
\Text text text text text\qtfootnote{IV}{this is a footnote} text text.
\end{fnquote}

\end{document}

Answer 2

Anticipating your follow-up questions based on this question: Change the font of the block quote? here's a solution with minipages that also gets the formatting of the footnote and the marker correct. I've also created a \qfootnote command (adapting Gonzalo's idea) which takes 3 arguments: the first optional argument specifies the formatting for the footnote marker. The second argument is the footnote number. Since the quoted footnotes will be arbitrarily numbered, it makes sense to set them manually inside each quote. The third argument is the footnote text. This command includes Gonzalo's modifications to the footnote marker indentation. This gives you maximum flexibility on the formatting of the footnotes in the quote.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{etoolbox}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{Linux Libertine O}
\newfontfamily\quotefont{Linux Biolinum O}
\AtBeginEnvironment{quote}{\quotefont\small}
\makeatletter
\patchcmd{\@mpfootnotetext}{\footnotesize}{\footnotesize\quotefont}{}{}
\newcommand\qfootnote[3][arabic]{%
       \defcounter{mpfootnote}{#2-1}%
       \renewcommand\@makefntext[1]{\noindent\makebox[.5em][l]{\@makefnmark}##1}%
       \renewcommand{\thempfootnote}{\quotefont\csname#1\endcsname{mpfootnote}}%
       \footnote{#3}}
% Use of the \qfootnote command:
% \qfootnote[<format>]{<number>}{<text>} (default is arabic)
% example: \qfootnote[alph]{3}{text} will yield 'c' as the footnote marker.
% example: \qfootnote[roman]{4}{text} will yield 'iv' as the marker
% example: \qfootnote{2}{text} will yield '2' as the marker
\begin{document}
Some text. This is the main text.\footnote{This is a footnote in the main text.}
\begin{quote}
\begin{minipage}{\linewidth}
This is a quotation with a footnote in it.\qfootnote[alph]{4}{A footnote in the
minipage} The footnote is numbered independently of the rest of the text.
\end{minipage}
\end{quote}

\end{document}

Simplified version

The first version of this answer had a simpler solution. If you know that your footnotes will always have the same kind of numbering system, then you can just use regular footnote commands inside a minipage and have a simple command \quotefnum to set the footnote number. I've left in the quote font modifications from your previous question. If you don't need a different font for the quote environment, then this can be made even simpler by removing the AtBeginEnvironment line and the \patchcmd line, and removing \quotefont from the redefinition of \thempfootnote.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{etoolbox}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{Linux Libertine O}
\newfontfamily\quotefont{Linux Biolinum O}
\AtBeginEnvironment{quote}{\quotefont\small}
\makeatletter
\patchcmd{\@mpfootnotetext}{\footnotesize}{\footnotesize\quotefont}{}{}
\makeatother
\newcommand*\quotefnum[1]{\defcounter{mpfootnote}{#1-1}}

\renewcommand{\thempfootnote}{\quotefont\arabic{mpfootnote}}

\begin{document}
Some text. This is the main text.\footnote{This is a footnote in the main text.}
\begin{quote}
\begin{minipage}{\linewidth}
\quotefnum{4}
This is a quotation with a footnote in it.\footnote{A footnote in the minipage}. The footnote is numbered independently of the rest of the text.
\end{minipage}
\end{quote}

\end{document}

Answer 3

You can place the "insides" of the quote in a minipage of width \linewidth. Footnotes within a minipage will be purged at closure.

Here's a minimal example:

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. 
Vestibulum laoreet tincidunt convallis. Praesent eu purus 
mauris. Aliquam erat volutpat. Vivamus convallis neque 
rutrum lorem imperdiet egestas. Suspendisse potenti. Morbi 
posuere convallis mauris quis imperdiet.
\begin{quote}
  \begin{minipage}{\linewidth}
    Nunc suscipit gravida sollicitudin. Donec molestie libero nunc, 
    ac adipiscing odio. Pellentesque consectetur\footnote{Pellentesque 
    sed ante id nisl iaculis sagittis.} nulla vel nunc 
    blandit dapibus. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis 
    parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.
  \end{minipage}
\end{quote}
Morbi sodales arcu enim, et accumsan ante. Mauris sed ante erat. 
Praesent scelerisque metus ac mauris placerat vehicula. 
Nam tristique faucibus felis sed consectetur.
\end{document}

Footnote numbering can be modified, as needed. Perhaps more advisable is to define a blockquote environment that is all-inclusive:

\newenvironment{blockquote}[1]
  {\list{}{\rightmargin\leftmargin}% \begin{blockquote}
   \item\relax\minipage{\linewidth}%
   \setcounter{mpfootnote}{\numexpr#1-1}%
   \renewcommand{\thempfootnote}{\arabic{mpfootnote}}}
  {\endminipage\endlist}% \end{blockquote}

Now you can use

%...
\begin{blockquote}{5}
  Nunc suscipit gravida sollicitudin. Donec molestie libero nunc, 
  ac adipiscing odio. Pellentesque consectetur\footnote{Pellentesque 
  sed ante id nisl iaculis sagittis.} nulla vel nunc 
  blandit dapibus. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis 
  parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.
\end{blockquote}
%...

which yields a number-specific footnote:

Specifying such specific references might not mesh well with hyperref. Additional definitions can now be included in the blockquote environment.

Answer 4

Thank you for everyone for their answers! Here is what I did in the end - which was a simplification and unification of some of the ideas expressed in the answers.

My class defines a custom command:

% Set the footnote number inside a minipage to a custom number
\newcommand*\footnoteNum[1]{%
    \defcounter{mpfootnote}{#1-1}
    % Set numbering to arabic
    \renewcommand{\thempfootnote}{\arabic{mpfootnote}}}

and then I use it in text as follows:

\begin{quote}
    \begin{minipage}{\linewidth}\footnoteNum{4} 
        “C douzième siècle,\footnote{``Publicus scriba.''}
        que le célèbre mathématicien Léonard Bonacci de            
        l’arithmétique, de l’algèbre et de la géométrie.
    \end{minipage}
\end{quote}

The reason I like this approach is:

1. It leaves the usual environments like quote unmodified. No need to remember a weird sounding name.
2. It calls the footnote command by it's original name - again, no need to remember a custom command name.
3. It follows the common sense of a regular footnote: if the user does not wrap it up in a minipage, footnote will appear at the bottom of the page.
4. footnoteNum command, while not obvious, will be an easy to figure out, since, after compiling the document and finding that the footnote number is a, the user will suspect that he missed something, and remember to set the footnote number.

Again, thanks to everyone for answering - but there was no one answer that exactly what I needed, so for future generations I wanted to provide my own version. :-)