Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss-Slaby

Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss-Slaby

 * http://www.manfredclauss.de/


 * Director: Prof Mannfred Clauss

Description
The Epigrafik-Datenbank Clauss-Slaby (EDCS) is a searchable resource providing texts and bibliographic citations (lemmata of editions) for “nearly all Latin inscriptions.” It is edited by Manfred Clauss, and is the revised edition (under continuous improvement) of a resource dating back to the 1990s that was previously described as “Manfred Clauss’ epigraphic database” or “Frankfurt Latin Epigraphic Texts”.

As of January 2009, EDCS contained texts for over 330,000 inscriptions previously published in print, together with over 19,000 images of inscriptions (some linked from other online databases, others hosted natively by EDCS). Crosslinking to corresponding epigraphic records in other databases (including EDH) is in the process of incorporation. The texts are simply regularized transcriptions drawn from previously published (print) editions.

The current database and its interface, developed by Barbara Woitas with the assistance of Bernward Tewes, permits users to discover content by searching on a combination of publication, Roman province, placename and one or two search strings. A separate search interface permits users to download a single page containing all texts and lemmata for the inscriptions recorded in an individual publication (e.g., all of AE 1986). A third search interface supports the discovery of texts containing misspelled words and searches that ignore the editorial expansion of ancient abbreviations.

The EDCS interface has been localized for German, Spanish, French, Italian and English readers. It provides various helps for users, including a table of epigraphic sigla and a list of the bibliographic abbreviations employed in the database records. The web interface employs forms, which unfortunately makes it difficult to provide links to individual components of EDCS. There does not seem to be any simple way to discover a stable URL that could be used to link to a single record.