What is the Clavis Clavium?

Clavis Clavium, or ‘Key of Keys’, is the go-to database to access Late Antique and Medieval Christian literature. It incorporates the almost 8,000 pages of data found in six so-called claves: the Clavis Patrum Latinorum and the Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina, the Clavis Patrum Graecorum and the Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca, the Clavis Apocryphorum Veteris Testamenti and the Clavis Apocryphorum Novi Testamenti. Together, these six indispensable tools provide researchers (whether historians, theologians, philologists, or philosophers) working on the extensive field of Early Christian, Medieval and Byzantine literature with essential information regarding authorship, authenticity, chronological and geographical contexts, manuscript transmission, and editorial history.

Now, with the creation of the Clavis Clavium database, researchers can for the first time access this enormous mass of printed data in an integrated and accessible way. The database allows all six claves to be searched together, for maximum efficiency, and it offers huge versatility through search options that can combine different categories (e.g. title, incipit, desinit, author, or saint). Continuously updated (after peer review) with material brought together by specialists in the field, the Clavis Clavium is a dynamic research tool that will continue to be expanded and updated in the future as new claves and material are added, and by serving as a gateway to other (third-party) information and functionalities. And crucially, all of this information is freely available, brought to you by Brepols Publishers in Open Access.