Bibliotheca Teubneriana Latina Helpsheet

The Bibliotheca Teubneriana Latina (BTL) makes use of the most recent or best editions of Latin texts published by Teubner. As for content, Brepols states:

The present version, BTL-2, comprises classical Latin literature in almost its entirety for the period up to the second century, together with important non-Christian authors from the second century through to the Carolingian Renaissance. The gaps correspond essentially to some fragments. It also includes the complete corpus of texts of the 'Grammatici Latini', and 'Servius Grammaticus'.

Location: BTL is available from the third computer workstation in the fourth floor of the Joseph Regenstein Library in the Classics Reading Room (JRL 470).

I. How to load the database: Click on the BLT icon and choose your preferred language. Choose the Inquisitio tab to begin a search.

II. How to define a corpus: BTL offers four fields by which to define a corpus (i.e. limit a search). To search the entire database leave all four fields blank. The escape key (Esc) clears whatever field your cursor is in.

     A. Auctor: You may define a corpus by authors (authors' names must be separated by a comma with no intervening spaces). Either type in each author's name exactly as it appears in the appendix in the manual entitled "Auctores et Tituli Operum Anonymorum" or click on the Auctor button to the left of the author field and scroll through the author index. Note: typing the initial letters of an author's name will take you closer to the author's name in the list (e.g., typing pl will take you directly to Plautus). Press Home to go to the top of the list and End to go to the bottom. To highlight an author's name click the box to the left of the name (to choose additional authors repeat this step). When finished adding authors, press OK on the scroll menu, or press the select button (***) to the right of the author field if you are manually adding authors. To the right of the author field you will see the number of sententiae in your defined corpus.

      B. Titulus operis: You may define a corpus by title or titles of authors' works (titles must be separated by a comma with no intervening spaces). Either type in the title exactly as it appears in the appendix in the manual entitled "Auctores et Tituli Operum Anonymorum" or click on the Titulus button to the left of the title field and scroll through the title index. Note: typing the initial letters of a title will take you closer to the title in the list. Press Home to go to the top of the listand End to go to the bottom. To highlight a title click the box to the left of the text (to choose another title repeat this step). When finished adding titles, press OK on the scroll menu, or press the select button (***) to the right of the title field if you are manually adding titles. To the far right of the title field you will see the number of sententiae in your defined corpus.

      C. Clavis: You may also define a corpus by title using one or several clavis numbers from the Handbuch der lateinischen Literatur der Antike (PA31.H24 Abt. 8 RR4Cla). In the Clavis field, type clavis numbers separated by commas, or press the Clavis button to scroll the index. The Clavis field may also be used for a broad genre search (prosa, versus, or prosa et versus). Type in the genre, press enter twice, and press the select button (***) to the right of the Clavis field.

      D. Aetas: You may define a corpus by era. Antiquitas has as its terminus ad quem the end of the second century. Press the Aetas button to search the index as above. To the far right you will see the number of sententiae in your defined corpus.

III. Searching a corpus: After having defined a corpus, move your cursor to the Formae (or search) box. Type in a word and press ENTER. The numbers to the far right of the search box indicate the number of sentences in which the word occurs in the entire database. The number at the bottom right of the screen indicates the number of sentences in which the word occurs in your corpus. Truncated and boolean searches are possible. To truncate a word use an asterisk (*) (e.g., oracul* will retrieve all words beginning with the letters oracul; *trix will retrieve all words ending with the letters trix; an asterisk may be placed in the middle of a word as well). A question mark (?) stands for any single letter (e.g., r?bigo will retrieve both robigo and rubigo). To find out the forms to be searched before activating a search press the select button (***) to the right of the Formae field. You will see all the words in the entire database conforming to your entry. At this time you may eliminate certain words from your search. To do this remove the check mark next to unwanted words by clicking on the red check mark as you scroll through the list. Then press OK to set these modifications. Do not forget that Latin is a highly inflected language.

The following Boolean operators are also available for searching:

• comma (,) = "or" (e.g., rostra,rostrorum,rostris will retrieve instances of all three words).
• plus sign (+) = "and" (e.g., senatus+consultum will retrieve sentences in which both words occur).
• pound key (#) = "not" (e.g., senatus#consultum will retrieve all instances of senatus except for senatus consultum).
• forward slash (/) = proximity in any order (e.g., senatus/2 consultum will retrieve instances of senatus and consultum within a single sentence, in this case, with no more than two words intervening).
• percent sign (%) = proximity in a particular order (e.g., senatus% consultum will retrieve all instances of senatus and consultum in the given order within a single sentence).

IV. Displaying results: To display results press the Sententiae tab. You may scroll through the sententia results by using the scroll bar. Should you wish to see a sententia in full context, place the cursor on the desired sententia and press the Textus tab. Pressing the Sententiae tab will take you back to the list of occurrences. CLCLT provides editorial and bibliographic information for titles of works. To gain access to this information press the Memento tab when a particular sententia is highlighted. To return to the list of occurrences press the Sententiae tab. Pressing the Inquisitio tab will take you back to the Search screen

V. How to print and download results: To print results select Print Results from the File menu. To download results to a diskette insert a diskette into drive A: and select Save Results under the File menu. Select Drive A:, enter a file name, and then press OK.

VI. How to exit the database: Select Exit under the File menu.

For more help use the Help Function available on the menu bar, refer to the manual located next to the workstation in the Classics Reading Room, or contact Catherine Mardikes, ETS Coordinator and Bibliographer for Classics and the Ancient Near East, JRL 471, 708-2783, c-mardikes@uchicago.edu.