Author Topic: Tracing down sources  (Read 216 times)

glossa

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Tracing down sources
« on: May 16, 2015, 02:01:46 pm »
Tracing down sources of the glosses in the Glossa Ordinaria can be very challenging and time consuming because there is no critical edition of the Glossa Ordinaria in which the sources have been cataloged (I recently talked with someone who is a part of an upcoming critical university edition of the Glossa Ordinaria, but its at least 10 years away).  This makes any translation project complex if one plans to provide the sources to the glosses.  Some sections of the Gloss are loaded with quotes from the Church Fathers, though not always word for word but rather condensed or paraphrased, which makes locating the source that much harder.  The average guy cannot afford a resources library nor have access to one courtesy of a seminary or university.  But there are some ways to track them down with online resources.

1) you can simply use the google search engine, copying and pasting a portion of the gloss.  Sometimes you can get some hits that lead you to a Latin text, usually found in a Migne source.  As for the Glossa Ordinaria goes, this could land you to a Patristic source, a later Medieval source that is quoting the Gloss (which doesn't provide you much help in locating the original source unless that quotation provides the source), or sometimes you find that your search inquiry only gives you another Glossa Ordinaria resource, which doesn't get you anywhere.

2) you can also search Google books search, which sometimes will provide you with more specific targets, whereas a simple google search engine may miss or provide too many things that are not specifically related to what you are searching for.  SOmetimes the google books search will help you locate your source though there will only be a snippet view, but it can be very beneficial to pointing you into the right direction.

3) There are a couple of very good Migne databases that you can search as well, such as http://mlat.uzh.ch/MLS/index.php?lang=0
This is a very handy resource which allows you to search for phrases or words found in the whole  Corpus Córporum library.

4) secondary sources such as those works that depended and quoted heavily upon the Glossa Ordinaira can be very helpful if those resources has the sources provided.  This in fact can be a treasure and a major time saver if you are fortunate enough to get a source that does this. 

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