Electronic Monumenta Germaniae Historica Helpsheet

The Electronic Monumenta Germaniae Historica (eMGH) is an electronic version of Monumenta Germaniae Historica, a collection of texts concerned with medieval Germany and the Frankish Kingdom from 500-1500 c.e. At this time, the database offers only a selection of texts from the five divisions of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica.

Location: The eMGH workstation is located on the fourth floor of the Joseph Regenstein Library, RR4Cla, Room 470.

I. How to load the database: Obtain the CD-ROM (Call number: D113.E44 1996) from Regenstein Reserve (it is shelved as an oversized CD-ROM item). Insert the CD-ROM into the D: drive on the CETEDOC workstation. Open Program Manager and select the eMGH icon.

II. How to define a corpus: eMGH offers four fields by which to define a corpus (i.e. to limit a search). To search the entire database leave all four fields blank. Each field is mutually exclusive; enter information in only one level per search. To move from one field to the next use the page down (PgDn) and page up (PgUp) keys. The escape (Esc) key clears whatever field your cursor is in.

     A. Series: You may limit your search by series which correspond to the following five MGH divisions: Scriptores, Leges, Diplomata, Epistolae, and Antiquitates. Either type entries directly into the Series field, or press F2 and then Enter to scroll through the Series index. Highlight a Series and press Enter (to choose another Series press F2 and repeat; the comma will be added automatically). When finished adding Series, press Enter twice.To the far right you will see the number of sententiae in your defined corpus.

      B. Collectio: You may also limit your search by collections within divisions such as Auctores Antiquissimi and the like. Either type in the collection in the Collectio field, or press F2 and then Enter to scroll through the collection index. Note: typing the initial letters of a collection name will take you closer to the collection name in the list (e.g., typing auc will take you directly to Auctores Antiquissimi). Press Home to go to the top of the list and end to go to the bottom. Highlight a collection name and press Enter (to choose another collection press F2 and repeat; the comma will be added automatically). When finished adding collections, press Enter twice. To the far right you will see the number of sententiae in your defined corpus.

     C. Auctor: You may define a corpus by author or authors (authors' names must be separated by a comma with no intervening spaces). Either type in each author's name, or press F2 and then Enter to 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 gun will take you directly to Guntherus). Press Home to go to the top of the list and end to go to the bottom. Highlight an author's name and press Enter (to choose another author press F2 and repeat; the comma will be added automatically). When finished adding authors, press Enter twice. To the far right you will see the number of sententiae in your defined corpus.

     D.Titulus: You may define a corpus by title or titles of authors' work(titles must be separated by a comma with no intervening spaces). Either type in the title, or press F2 and then Enter to scroll through the title index. Note: typing the initial letters of a title will take you closer to that title in the list (e.g., typing cosm will take you directly to Cosmographia). Press Home to go to the top of the list and end to go to the bottom. Highlight a title and press Enter (to choose another title press F2 and repeat; the comma will be added automatically). When finished adding titles, press Enter twice. 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) field. Type in a word and press Enter. The number to the far right of the search field indicates the number of sentences in which the word occurs in the entire database. The number at the bottom of the screen indicates the number of sentences in which the word occurs in your defined corpus. Truncated and Boolean searches are possible. To truncate a word use an asterisk (*) (e.g., spoli* will retrieve all words beginning with the letters spoli; *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., ?arolus will retrieve both Carolus and Karolus). To find out the forms to be searched before activating a search press F4 (List). You will see all 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 pressing the space as you scroll through the list with the up and down arrow keys. Then press Enter to set these modifications.

The following Boolean operators are also available for searching:

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

IV.Displaying results: To display results press F3 (display). You may scroll through the sententiae results by using the PgDn and PgUp keys. Should you wish to see a sententiae in full context, place the cursor on the desired sententiae and press Enter. The escape key (Esc) will take you back to the list of occurrences. eMGH has provided editorial and bibliographic information for titles of works. To gain access to this information press F6 (Memento) with the cursor on a particular sententiae. To return to the list of occurrences press Esc. Pressing Esc again will take you out of Display mode back to the Search screen.

V.How to download and print results: Insert a diskette into drive A: and press F5 (Output) while in Display mode. You will be asked a series of questions (the arrow keys move you through the questions; space bar toggles between possible answers). Under "Text Format" be sure to save your results in ASCII. Specify a path and give the results a file name (e.g., a:\ecclesia). Press Enter. To print, press F5 (Output) while in display mode and use the space bar to toggle the Write To option so that it displays Printer. Press Enter.

VI. How to exit the database: F7 (Exit) will take you out of the database to the set-up screen.

For more help use the Help Function (F1) available on screen, refer to the manual, or contact Catherine Mardikes, ETS Coordinator and Bibliographer for Classics and the Ancient Near East, JRL 471, 708-2783, c-mardikes@uchicago.edu.