Canon Information & Display

Each search result reported by the search engine is accompanied by bibliographical information stored in a database known as the Canon of Greek Authors and Works. This information is displayed in navy, to set it apart from the text proper. For example, consider the following:

1. Heron Mech., Pneumatica. {0559.001}. Book 1 chapter proem line 202.

GA\R SFAI=RA PA/XOS E)/XOUSA TOU= E)LA/SMATOS, W(/STE MH\ @1
EU)/QLASTOS EI)=NAI, XWROU=SA O(/SON KOTU/LAS H#. STEGNH=S DE\
OU)/SHS AU)TH=S PA/NTOQEN TRUPH/SANTA DEI= SI/FWNA KAQEI=NAI

In this example,

The conventions for displaying each of these are explained below.


Author
The display of author names follows TLG Canon conventions. Author names are Latinized.
  • Normally, authors are displayed by name and abbreviated Generic Epithet.
  • Two author names are joined by et; more than two author names are comma-delimited, with the final author joined by et. Thus, author 0746 is Theophilus Protospatharius et Stephanus Atheniensis Med.; author 0728 is Theophilus Protospatharius, Damascus et Stephanus Atheniensis Med.
  • Epithets are similarly treated. Thus, author 1274 is Cleobulus Lyr. et Epigr.; author 0319 is Critias Phil., Trag. et Eleg.
  • Work collections are italicized. Thus, 'author' 0623 has the genre of Epistula, but is displayed as Cratetis Epistulae, not Cratetis Epistulae Epist.
  • Unlike the case for the CD ROM and printed TLG Canon, authors containing both eponymous and anonymous works are not formatted separately. Thus, Aesop is displayed as Aesopus et Aesopica Scr. Fab., and not Aesopus Scr. Fab. et Aesopica.

When the combination of name and epithet(s) is not enough to uniquely identify the author, additional information is appended.

  • First, Geographical Epithet (if any). Thus, the two tragedians known as Aeschylus are distinguished by birthplace: 0085 is Aeschylus Trag. Atheniensis, while 0321 is Aeschylus Trag. Alexandrinus.
  • Then, if the geographical epithets are the same, or if one of the authors does not have a geographical epithet, their date is used. Thus, the plethora of Apollonii Medici are disambiguated as follows:
    1. 0680: Apollonius Med. Memphiticus (3 B.C.)
    2. 0741: Apollonius Med. (3 B.C.?)
    3. 0660: Apollonius Med. Citiensis (1 B.C.)
    4. 0739: Apollonius Med. (1 B.C./A.D. 1?)
    5. 0789: Claudius Apollonius Med. (A.D. 1)
    6. 0792: Apollonius Med. Pergamenus (A.D. 1?)
    7. 0782: Apollonius Med. Tarsensis (ante A.D. 2)


Work Title

The title of a work is displayed following TLG Canon conventions. Supplementary title information (such as manuscript provenance of a redaction) follows the title proper in parentheses.

When two or more works by the same author bear the same name, they are disambiguated as follows:

  • First, the surname(s) of the editors are appended in parentheses. Thus, work 001 of Sappho is described as Fragmenta (Lobel & Page), while work 004 is described as Fragmenta (Page).
  • Then, the title of the edition is used. Thus, work 004 of Hesiod is described as Fragmenta (Merkelbach & West: Fragmenta Hesiodea), whereas work 007 is Fragmenta (Merkelbach & West: Hesiodi Opera).
  • If the editor and edition title are the same, the volume number of the edition is used, if present. The volume is formatted in boldface. Thus, work 013 of Aristophanes is Fragmenta (Kock: Comicorum Atticorum Fragmenta vol. 1), while work 017 is Fragmenta (Kock: Comicorum Atticorum Fragmenta vol. 3).
  • If the editor, edition, and volume are the same, the work number is used as a last resort. Thus, work 050 of John Chrysostom is De sanctis martyribus [050], while work 058 is De sanctis martyribus [058]. Such work titles are suffixed with a dagger, to indicate to the user that they should not use the work title alone in citing the work.


Citation system

The citation of a work may appear in one of two formats. In the abbreviated format, when a single line of context is displayed for each result, the citation levels are delimited by dots:

1. Heron Mech. 001: 1.proem.202. EU)/QLASTOS EI)=NAI, XWROU=SA O(/SON KOTU/LAS H#. STEGNH=S DE\

In other instances, each citation level is prefixed by the name of that citation level for the work:

1. Heron Mech., Pneumatica. Book 1 chapter proem line 202.

The citation levels themselves are in bold, to distinguish them from the preceding names. Thus, proem is the citation level, and chapter the name of the citation level.


Citation Rendering:

Within a text excerpt, citation tags are inserted in the text in olive, to avoid them being confused with the text proper and with Beta escapes. The presentation of the citation depends on its level. The lowest citation level (line number) is indicated in italics and parentheses to the right of the text line; unless there is a jump in line number, this is indicated every 5 lines. The next highest level is indicated at the start of the line it applies to, and is bold in parentheses. Any levels higher than that are accorded their own line, and appear in large bold font, without parentheses. To illustrate:

1. Joannes Chrysostomus Scr. Eccl., De sanctis martyribus [058]† . {2062.058}. Volume 50 page 705 line 40t.

50.
(705.) 

*E*G*K*W*M*I*O*N (39t)
*EI)S TOU\S A(GI/OUS PA/NTAS TOU\S E)N O(/LW| TW=| KO/SMW| MARTURH/SANTAS.  (40t)
  A#. *)EC OU(= TH\N I(ERA\N PANH/GURIN TH=S *PENTHKOSTH=S  (41)
E)PETELE/SAMEN, OU)/PW PARH=LQEN H(MERW=N E(PTA\ A)RIQMO\S,
KAI\ PA/LIN KATE/LABEN H(MA=S MARTU/RWN XORO\S, MA=LLON
DE\ MARTU/RWN PAREMBOLH\ KAI\ PARA/TACIS, TH=S PAREM-
BOLH=S TW=N A)GGE/LWN, H(\N O( PATRIA/RXHS EI)=DEN *)IAKW\B,
@2  (45)
(706.) 
KAT' OU)DE\N OU)=SA XEI/RWN, A)LL' E)FA/MILLOS AU)TH=S KAI\  (41)
I)/SH. *MA/RTURES GA\R KAI\ A)/GGELOI TOI=S O)NO/MASI DIESTH/-
KASI MO/NON, TOI=S DE\ E)/RGOIS SUNA/PTONTAI: TO\N OU)RANO\N

The volume number at the start of the work, 50, appears on its own line. (If there were an even higher level, it would be juxtaposed and separated by dots; e.g. 2.50.) The page numbers, 705 and 706, appear to the left of the first line they apply to. Line numbers appear to the right; normally only lines 40 and 45 should appear, as line numbers appear every 5 lines, but the lineation jumps around in the Migne edition (two columns per page), and title lines (ending in t) lie outside normal line numbering.


Beta Code Rendering:

Besides Greek texts and citation tags, TLG texts contain codes (Beta escapes) indicating the formatting or meaning of passages of text. The TLG Web page provides a listing of Beta escapes.

To the extent that this is allowed by the browser and the current Greek font, Beta codes are rendered in the browser output, so that users will only infrequently see raw Beta escapes (codes which the browser could not render). Raw Beta escapes are displayed in their original ASCII form. In particular:

  • The font, font style, and font size commands (Greek font $..., Roman font &...) are consistently rendered as typographic commands. The user should only see Font Beta escapes when using a transliteration instead of a Greek font, so that Roman and Greek scripts are unambiguously distinguished.
  • Most fonts lack distinct characters for the missing letter dot (!) and the subscript dot (?). Many fonts also lack lunate sigmas (S3) and digammas (V). These characters will often appear as raw Beta escapes.
  • Some punctuation signs (%...) will be absent from the current font repertory; for example, we are not aware of a font containing the triple-stacked breve (%49).
  • Page Format codes (@...), other than the indentation marker (@), either cannot be rendered readily in HTML in its current state (e.g. columns), or denote missing content which thus cannot be represented (e.g. deleted graphs or tables). They are thus left as raw Beta escapes.
  • Some brackets ([...) will be absent from the current font repertory; for example, we are not aware of a font containing the hymn bracket ([14) (repeat sign) used in Romanus Melodus.
  • Quasi-Brackets (<...) indicate complex formatting, only some of which can be rendered in HTML and/or Cascading Style Sheets. For example, the sling below (<4), used to indicate synizesis, cannot be rendered straightforwardly by current browsers.
  • Non-Text Brackets ({...) properly do not indicate formatting, but meaning --- for example, that the current passage is not part of the main text because it is a title, or a stage direction. Although such passages are typically rendered in a distinct typographic fashion in the source edition, there is no consistent such rendering, and we have chosen not to attempt any such rendering. The exception is formed by the most frequent non-text bracket, the title ({1), which is rendered by indentation and (in some browsers) background color.
  • Text symbols (#...) incorporate a huge repertory of non-textual symbols (editorial signs, weights and measures, astrological signs, musical signs, etc.), the overwhelming majority of which are absent from any current font (including Unicode). Almost all of these will thus appear as raw Beta escapes.
The display of raw Beta escapes can be suppressed in search results.


Cascading Style Sheets (CSS):

Cascading style sheets, in conjunction with HTML 4, allow for more powerful and flexible formatting of documents. The search engine automatically determines whether your browser is compliant with CSS-2; as of this writing, Internet Explorer and Opera are adequately compliant, OmniWeb still has some gaps (notably the overbar), while Netscape 4's support of CSS-2 is still buggy (in particular, it has egregious problems with font sizing.) Netscape 4 and OmniWeb output is thus formatted in HTML 3, rather than HTML 4. Netscape 6's support of CSS-2 is also adequate.

Note that in HTML 3 output (i.e. Netscape 4 and below, and OmniWeb), the overbar (< >) is rendered as an underline. In addition, titles ({1 ... }1), rendered as indented paragraphs in HTML 3, are additionally presented against a bright yellow background in HTML 4.

Created: March 7, 2000
Last Modified: August 24, 2002
Authored by: Nishad Prakash
Maintained by tlg@ptolemy.tlg.uci.edu