Classical Studies Materials at LETRS:

Table of Contents:

1. What Resources Are Available At LETRS?
2. What Materials Do These Databases Contain?
   • Thesaurus Linguae Graecae
   • Packard Humanities Institute
   • Perseus 2.0
   • Archive of Celtic Latin Literature
   • Bible Windows 4.0
   • Bibliographie Papyrologique
   • CETEDOC Library of Christian Latin Texts
   • Greek Verb Help
   • Thesaurus Musicarum Latinarum
   • Abbreviationes
   • Epigraph
3. So What Can I Do With All This Stuff

What Resources Are Available At LETRS?

Electronic resources for research in Classical Studies and related disciplines are well represented at LETRS. Presently, the following electronic text databases in Latin and Greek are accessible at the LETRS facility:

• Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (disk #D)
• Packard Humanities Institute Latin and Coptic Texts (disk #5.3)
• Packard Humanities Institute Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri, and Inscrip tions of the Christian Empire (disk #6)
• Perseus 1.0
• Archive of Celtic Latin Literature
• Bible Windows 4.0
• CETEDOC Library of Christian Latin Texts
• Electronic Bibliographie Papyrologique
• Greek Verb Help
• Thesaurus Musicarum Latinarum
• Abbreviationes 1.7
• Epigraph

In addition to the databases of texts in the original ancient languages, LETRS provides access to electronic libraries of Greek and Latin texts in translation and to growing archives of internet and World Wide Web resources for Classical Studies and related disciplines.

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What Materials Do These Databases Contain?

Computer databases of Greek and Latin texts have actually been around for quite some time. They were, in fact, some of the first searchable electronic text archives ever created. As a result, there are good collections of Greek and Latin texts in electronic format available to read, search, download. The following are brief descriptions of the kind of materials you will find in the Classical Studies databases available at LETRS.

Thesaurus Linguae Graecae

The TLG data bank now contains virtually all ancient Greek texts surviving from the period between Homer (8th century B.C.) and A.D. 600, plus historiographical, lexicographic, and scholiastic texts from the period between 600 and 1453. This canon amounts to approximately 69 million words of text. Approximately 58 million words of this total are verified, and available for distribution; verification and correction of the remainder is in progress. The TLG Project is now concentrating its efforts on filling the gaps in the Thesaurus and hopes to complete the project within a decade.

Packard Humanities Institute

The Packard Humanities Institute produces two CD-ROMs relevant to classical studies. The first, entitled CD-ROM #5.3 contains virtually all of Latin literature up to A.D. 200, including the later writers Servius, Porphyry, Zeno, and Justinian, as well as several bible versions (King James, Revised Standard Version, Latin Vulgate, Septuagint, Hebrew Bible, and the Coptic New Testament), and MiltonÕs Paradise Lost. This project was begun in 1987 with more than five million words entered via keyboard and finally completed in 1991. The second PHI product relevant to classical studies is Greek Documentary CD-ROM #6. This contains the more than 32,000 documentary papyri held by Duke University and the University of Michigan. Also included are the approximately 87,000 Greek inscriptions.

LETRS has available searching and textual analysis software for the TLG and PHI CD-ROMS. For Windows: TLG Workplace, produced by Silver Mountain Software; and for Apple Macintosh: Pandora, produced by Harvard University and distributed by Scholars Press. Printed documentation is available for all these products. For more information about the PHI and TLG CD-ROMs and search programs, please refer to the following LETRS resources:
PHI CD-ROM 5.3: Complete Listing of Contents
PHI Workplace QuickGuide
Pandora QuickGuide

Perseus 2.0

Perseus is a multimedia interactive database designed to facilitate the study of Archaic and Classical Greece and to expand the ways in which ancient Greek literature, history, art, and archaeology can be examined.

The major authors of the classical period are represented, as well as some later authors whose writing is useful for the study of the fifth century B.C. Version 2.0 contains, among others, Aeschines, Aeschylus, Andocides, Antiphon, Apollodorus, Aristophanes, Aristotle, Bacchlyides, Demades, Demosthenes, Dinarchus, Diodorus Siculus, Euripides, Herodotus, Hesiod, Homer, Homeric Hymns, Hyperides, Isaeus, Isocrates, Lycurgus, Lysias, Pausanias, Pindar, Plato, Plutarch, Pseudo-Xenophon, Sophocles, Strabo, Thucydides, and Xenophon. The Intermediate Liddell & Scott Lexicon is also in Perseus, together with complete morphological databases for all Greek texts in the system.

Perseus contains an extensive archaeological catalogue with thousands of accompanying illustrations and the site plans and architectural catalogue for thirty Greek sites, and a catalogue of several hundred objects of Greek art. Perseus allows viewers to examine sites and objects in particular detail.

The Perseus atlas contains topographical maps of Greece annotated with place-names. Maps are represented as black and white graphics and as color Landsat images. It is possible to roam through the atlas, zoom in on regions, and see a Landsat photo of a region. The site plans are also linked with the atlas. Perseus also contains thousands of views, both still shots and motion video, of sites and scenes throughout Greece. Perseus allows for easy movement between the site plans and views, since the user can select buildings and perspectives on the plans and call up the corresponding view on the monitor, in effect Òwalking aroundÓ the site.

An historical overview and a classical encyclopedia provide two different types of entry into Perseus. The historical overview is a chronological narrative that links into the primary material. Encyclopedia articles also include links to other parts of the database, so that a reader can use a topical as well as a chronological approach to the information.

Perseus runs on Macintosh computers, using the HyperCard program from Apple Computer.

See the Perseus 2.0 QuickGuide or the Perseus Project web site for more information about Perseus.

Archive of Celtic Latin Literature

A database of Celtic Latin literature containing over 1300 texts, including inscriptions, from the period 400-1200AD. The Archive complements the largely Continental CETEDOC Library of Christian Latin Texts (CLCLT-2).

For more information about the Archive of Celtic Latin Literature please refer to the following LETRS resources:
ACLL-1 QuickGuide
ACLL-1: Complete Listing of Contents

Bible Windows 4.0

Contains the Analytical Greek New Testament with full grammatical tags and dictionary forms, the Hebrew Old Testament with full grammatical tags and dictionary forms, the Brown, Driver and Briggs Hebrew-English Lexicon, the Latin Vulgate, RSV w/ Apocrypha, NRSV, King James version, the Louw-Nida Greek-English Lexicon, the Intermediate Liddell & Scott Greek Lexicon, and a Biblial Studies Scripture Index.

For more information about Bible Windows, please refer to the following LETRS resources:
Bible Windows Tutorial

Bibliographie Papyrologique

The first electronic version of the Bibliographie Papyrologique published by the Foundation Egyptologique Reine Elisabeth (FERE) in Brusssels. It includes at present over 8500 bibliographic records, covering the years 1976-1990.

CETEDOC Library of Christian Latin Texts

CLCLT-3 contains the Latin texts of authors of the 2nd through 15th centuries, including the Corpus Patrum Latinorum, the Vulgate, the Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, and opera omnia of major authors such as Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory the Great.

For more information about CLCLT-3, Please refer to the following LETRS Resources:
CLCLT-3 QuickGuide
CLCLT-3: List of Titles and Authors

Greek Verb Help

Designed by the Joint Association of Classical Teachers (JACT) to accompany its Reading Greek text books, Greek Verb Help is a series of exercises and self tests designed to help students learn classical Greek vocabulary, grammar, and syntax.

Thesaurus Musicarum Latinarum

The TML is an evolving database (with ASCII text and associated GIF image files) that eventually will contain the entire corpus of Latin music theory. It complements but does not duplicate the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL), Lexicon Musicum Latinum (LML), Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG), and other similar projects.

Abbreviationes 1.7

Abbreviationes is a searchable database of 50,000 medieval Latin paleographic abbreviations. It is designed for use in learning and teaching medieval Latin paleography, as well as for use as a reference and research tool. Users can search the Main Dictionary or create their own. The Main Dictionary is scheduled to be updated twice a year, the goal being to make Abbreviationes the standard reference work for current scholarship.

Epigraph

Epigraph is a searchable database of Roman inscriptions based on the data used for the compilation of the Indices Vocabulorum published as CIL VI pars VII in 1974 and 1975. Users can search the datbase by Inscription Number Full Text (for text and symbols), Cognomina, Numerals, Ligatures, Reversed Letters, Greek Text, Claudian Letters, Short Letters, and Tall Letters.

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So What Can I Do With All This Stuff

This very much depends on your imagination. In the past people have used these databases for teaching purposes, conducting word searches for research, obtaining a hard to find text or manuscript, creating concordances, and practicing language skills.

The best way to find out what these tools can do for you is to try them out, test their capabilities, and talk to LETRS consultants about your needs and ideas. Documentation, bibliography, lists of contents and indices for the databases mentioned here are available at LETRS and in most cases can be accessed on these LETRS WWW pages. Also, please feel free to stop by the LETRS facility to try out the applications mentioned here and talk to consultants about these and the other services and resources available at LETRS.

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