General User Documentation for PhiloLogic

1. Introduction
2. Searching the Bibliography
    2.1 Bibliographic Fields
    2.2 Retrieving and Navigating Documents
3. Character Representation for Search Terms
    3.1 Accents and Special Characters
    3.2 Wildcard Characters and Boolean Operators
    3.3 Punctuation Marks and Searching
4. Selecting a Search Option
    4.1 Single Term and Phrase Search (Default)
    4.2 Proximity Searching in the Same Sentence or Paragraph
5. Selecting a Results Format
    5.1. Concordance Report (300 characters plus)
    5.2. KWIC Report (a single line of text)
    5.3. Frequency by Title
    5.4. Frequency by Author
    5.5. Navigating Documents from Word Searches
6. Getting More Help

Database-Specific Searching Tips

Bibliographic Searching:
Author and Title: In bibliographic searching, punctuation and spacing must match exactly that in the online bibliography.
Many titles and authors' names contain accented characters and must be entered as such; however, in order to enter words without having to pay attention to accents simply turn on Caps Lock and type in uppercase. Titles can be quite long and may contain various forms of punctuation. In searching the bibliography by title, one should use a minimum number of terms, choosing a term or terms that are unique within the bibliography.
Date: The texts in the database range in date from 1567 to 1744. Some dates represent date of composition and others the date of first publication (e.g., all of Cervantes' plays in the database are dated 1615).
Genre: To limit one's search to a particular genre, simply enter the genre code into the Genre box. One may search more than one genre at a time; the vertical bar ( | ) serves as the OR operator (e.g., Comedia|Jacara).

• Auto Sacramental
• Baile.
• Colloquio.
• Comedia.
• Dialogo.
• Entremes.
• Jacara.
• Loa.
• Paso.
• Tragedia.
• Tragicomedia.
• Zarzuela.

Orthographic Considerations:
Do not expect standard orthography in this database of sixteenth, seventeenth, and early eighteenth century texts. For example, one finds forms such as muerte and mverte; venganza, venganca, vengança, and bengança. Wildcard characters or Boolean operators can help detect such anomalies. One may enter m[u|v]erte or muerte|mverte or .engan.a to achieve the desired results. Words that contain accented characters must be entered as such; however, in order to enter words without having to pay attention to accents simply turn on Caps Lock and type in all uppercase. Thus, entering NUNO finds the name Nuño. This is best since accentuation is not always consistent (one can find, for example, the following forms in the database: ira, irà, irá, irâ, ìra, ìrà, íra, and îra).

Data-Entry Idiosyncrasies:
Several data-entry errors have been found in some databases either from typesetting errors in the original source or from rekeying the documents. One should avoid making arguments from silence. In particular, look out for the transposition or doubling of letters or word-clustering. Also, some confusion occasionally seems to have arisen between the letter "n" and the letter "u" (e.g., nneuamente= nueuamente).

Punctuation and Full-Text Searching:
Hyphens: Hypens act as word separators. Thus, one should treat hypenated expressions as separate words excluding the hyphen (e.g. if searching for Sancti-Spiritus, type in sancti spiritus.)
Apostrophes: One must include apostrophes when searching words with apostrophes in them and one must insert a space after apostrophes since in this database apostrophes act as word separators (e.g., only by typing qu' es will one find "qu'es").
Ampersands: The ampersand (&) is not a searchable character. Avoid Phrase Searches where an ampersand may be used as a conjunction.

Formatting and Display:
Notes: There are notes throughout Teatro Español del Siglo de Oro. In PhiloLogic notes never interfere when searching the text to which they refer. To search only the text within notes enter Notes in the Division Objects Field Type and then enter keyword(s) in the "Search in Texts for:" box.