Search the TML
The search is mainly used to look for a specific text or phrase or to discover all the instances of a particular term across the corpus. Note that the TML reproduces texts exactly as in the sources, so it is always advisable to try alternative spellings.
Through the “Search options” panel, you can select any number of centuries in which to search, or limit your search to digitized editions or manuscript transciptions. You can choose to have matched lines of the text shown by default in the search results (otherwise they are hidden until you click “See matches” to show them).
Rules for searching
- By default, this utility finds indexed words that match or end with the searched string.
- The Boolean operators AND/OR can be used, in all capital letters. A space between two terms is interpreted as the Boolean operator AND.
- The addition of the asterisk (*) at the end of a string has the effect of searching for words that begin with that string (not necessarily a full word) followed by zero or more alphanumerical characters. It is mostly used for searching inflected forms, or any word with a given root. Note that the asterisk tells the utility to add to the basic results all words with the same root of the exact string; in other words, the utility does not find words with extra characters on both sides of the searched string.
- Double quotes can be used to find a phrase. Include a space at the beginning to restrict the search to the exact first word of the phrase. Double quotes and an initial space is also the recommended method to search for an exact word.
- Asterisks and double quotes can be combined.
- Diacriticals are not accepted in the search box, but the results will include words with any diacritical variant. That is, a word in the text containing an accented letter is interpreted as the same as the searched one without the accent.
- This search utility finds words and phrases in the text of the treatises, not in the metadata.
Examples
| Searched string | Finds |
|---|---|
| cantus | All texts that contain either ‘cantus’ or words that end with ‘cantus’ (e.g., ‘discantus’). |
| cantus natura | All documents that contain both ‘cantus’ (or ‘discantus’ etc.) and ‘natura’ (or ‘signatura’ etc.) |
| cantores OR natura | All documents that contain either ‘cantus’ or ‘natura’ (or ‘signatura’ etc.) but not necessarily both |
| "cantus qui" | All documents that contain the phrase ‘cantus qui’ (or ‘discantus antiqui’) |
| "cantus figuratus" AND moderni |
All documents that contain the exact phrase ‘cantus figuratus’ and also the word ‘moderni’ |
| tertia* | All documents that contain ‘tertia’ or ‘tertiam’ or ‘tertiadecima’ or ‘sesquitertia’ but not ‘sesquitertiam’ (the latter word neither starts nor ends with ‘tertia’ exactly) |
| cantus natura* | All documents that contain both ‘cantus’ (or ‘discantus’ etc.) and ‘natura’ (or ‘signatura’ or ‘naturalis’ but not ‘innaturalis,’ (the latter word neither starts nor ends with ‘natura’ exactly) |
| "ord* prop*" | All documents that contain ‘ordinem proportionum’ or ‘ordinatio propter’ not ‘subordinetur proportio’ (subordinetur neither starts nor ends with ‘ord’ exactly). |
| N.B. In all searches with the asterisk, the search results page may also highlight “fuzzy” matches found in the documents, that is words that neither starts nor ends with the searched string exactly. This happens if a legitimate hit is found. Such “courtesy” highlighting does not mean that all texts with these words were found. | |
