On 29 April, the beta version of the Library of Latin Texts received its second update. It now covers Latin literature from the third century BC up to the eleventh century AD.

In the previous blogpost, we explained why we moved from “authors” to the more flexible concept of “related persons”. In this blog post, we will focus on the organization of related works into collections and how this can be beneficial for our users.

What Is a Collection?

A collection is a group of works that clearly belong together, because:

1. They have a common literary genesis. This is the case, for example, for prologues or epilogues that were composed by other authors alongside the work they introduce or complement;
2. They have historically grown to be considered as a single work. A prime example of this are the Bible books, that can be seen either as individual works or as a whole;
3. They have a strong tradition of being edited as a collection, despite the fact that their authorship or date may vary. This is often the case for collections of letters or sermons.

Collections can have a multi-level hierarchy, that can help make large corpora more manageable for researchers. Moreover, works have a fixed order within a collection, which makes it easier for users to find texts in their expected order.

Why Introduce Collections?

Let us look at an example. Although researchers would expect to find a single entry for Cicero’s Epistulae ad Brutum, this was not the case in the previous version of the LLT. Given that the database only allowed for a single author to be assigned to a work, and that metadata structures were limited, one needed to search for:

1. M. Tullius Cicero – Epistulae ad Marcum Iunium Brutum;
2. M. Iunius Brutus – Epistulae ad Ciceronem seruatae cum Ciceronis Epistulis ad Brutum;
3. M. Iunius Brutus (dubium) – Epistulae ad Ciceronem et Atticum seruatae cum Ciceronis Epistulis ad Brutum.

Thanks to collections, users can now find the Epistulae ad Brutum in their expected form and order. Specific information, such as authorship, related persons, date information or reference work numbers, has been assigned to each particular epistula.

When Do We Not Create a Collection?

Strictly thematic or genre-related grouping of texts is supported by the ‘Studies and Reference Works’ section of the database and is generally not considered to be a reason for creating a collection within the Library of Latin Texts.

When multiple versions of the same text are included in the database, e.g. multiple translations of the same original work or versions transmitted in different manuscripts, they are considered as different works. Again, these will not be grouped as a collection.

Examples

(1) Common Literary Genesis: Eriugena’s Translation of the Ambigua ad Iohannem and Eriugena’s Dedicatory Letter

(2) Works of Different Origins That Have Historically Been Considered as One: The Old Testament

(3) Common Editorial Tradition: (a) The Exchange of Letters Between Ildefonsus and Quiricus

(3) Common Editorial Tradition: (b) Sermo 204D Within the Corpus of Augustine’s Sermones ad populum

A Continuously Evolving Dataset

We have started to implement the concept of collections with the most prominent corpora (e.g. the Sermones ad populum of Saint Augustine or the Registrum Lateranense of Gregory the Great). With each update, we will extend this effort to other dossiers, whether by splitting a collection presented as a single work into its components or by bringing together parts of a collection that were previously spread over the database.