Thanks for the reply Mike, I appreciate it greatly. Below is the relevant section of output from Textile. I am sorry that it may be a little difficult to follow but I thought it would be best to post the source of the same part of the document that I used as an example for the screenshots.
The aside element has no particular styling (other than float: footnote) and I have tried setting it to display inline and inline block without any observable change to the behaviour shown in the screenshots. I've also set the margin and padding to zero and tried altering the width and height. Changer the latter properties does not affect the gap but it does affect the footnote itself.
<p>The origin of the City of Florence and the derivation of its name are alike involved in obscurity, which a host of conjectures has done but little to dispel. The most probable of these seems to be that given by Villani and accepted by Machiavelli, namely, that the inhabitants of Fiesole, which was a flourishing city in the time of the Etruscans, came down to the banks of the Arno for the purposes of trade. A small settlement thus sprung up at a very early period, on a spot (where the Mugnone runs into the Arno) which the Fiesoleans had used as a market and a port. When this little village, which went by the name of Campo Martis, developed into a town is uncertain, but it is beyond question that at a later period it was rebuilt by the Romans. Traces of walls of Roman workmanship have been discovered, and there is evidence of the existence of a town built on the usual plan of the Castrum a quadrangle traversed by two wide and perfectly straight streets, crossing it in the centre at right angles and dividing it into quarters. Remains have also been found of an amphitheatre in the Via de’ Greci, of a theatre in the Via de’ Gondi, of a Temple of Isis on the site of San Firenze, and of baths in the street still known as the Via delle Terme<sup class="footnote"><a href="#fn83674c588f9bbfe97" id="callout83674c588f9bbfe97">1</a></sup>. Various surmises have been made as to the date of this rebuilding. It has been assigned to the days of Julius Caesar<sup class="footnote"><a href="#fn278364c588f9bbfeb8" id="callout278364c588f9bbfeb8">2</a></sup>, to those of Sulla<sup class="footnote"><a href="#fn174774c588f9bbfed1" id="callout174774c588f9bbfed1">3</a></sup>, and to a yet earlier period.<sup class="footnote"><a href="#fn183304c588f9bbfee8" id="callout183304c588f9bbfee8">4</a></sup></p>
<aside id="fn83674c588f9bbfe97" class="footnote">Villari, i. 67. </aside>
<aside id="fn278364c588f9bbfeb8" class="footnote">Villani, lib. i. cap. 38. </aside>
<aside id="fn174774c588f9bbfed1" class="footnote">Mommsen.</aside>
<aside id="fn183304c588f9bbfee8" class="footnote">There is a statement in Florus’ Abridgment of Livy that “Florentia” (or, according to an old <abbr title="manuscript">MS</abbr>, “ Florentina”) was one of the four Municipia Spendidissima that were sold by Sulla after the Civil War, but it is probable that this passage relates to the town of Ferentino (Napier, i. 13). </aside>
<p>Without fixing the date, Professor Villari thinks that it could not have taken place before <abbr title="Before Christ">BC</abbr> 200.<sup class="footnote"><a href="#fn63474c588f9beb1c6" id="callout63474c588f9beb1c6">5</a></sup> By <abbr title="Anno Domini">AD</abbr> 15 Florence had undoubtedly grown into importance, for Tacitus tells us that in that year several Italian towns sent deputations to Rome to oppose a scheme for the prevention of the overflow of the Tiber by turning the waters of its tributary, the Chiana, into the Arno, that was then under the consideration of the Senate. Of these towns Florence was one, and her emissaries were the spokesmen for all.<sup class="footnote"><a href="#fn63124c588f9beb1e5" id="callout63124c588f9beb1e5">6</a></sup></p>
