How to search this site

The site is designed to be simple to search and browse. Here is some brief advice to help you search the main catalogue. In addition, for POxBo, there are Search Tips specific to it.

There are two separate searches: one for ‘fragments and lost manuscripts’ (called simply 'Manuscripts' in the top bar) and one for ‘host volumes’.

If you wish to start by browsing all in one of these categories, leave the relevant dialog box empty and click ‘search’.

On the results page, all relevant items are displayed on the right-hand side of the screen. For 'Fragments and Lost Manuscripts', the Babel manuscripts are listed first, with fragments following. Note that these include the fragments constituent of a Babel manuscript but there are also some for which a Babel entry has not been made: the principle is that the Babel entry is only created at the point when there is more than one fragment known or that the lone fragment allows us to extrapolate from it a fuller reconstruction of the lost manuscript.

On the left-hand side of the screen, there are a series of pull-down menus allowing you to refine the results.

Tip: if you are hoping to identify a fragment with one in this database, you may want to search by dimensions. Useful diagnostics can be the measurements of space between the lines and height of minims. Note that we intend to develop further functionality of this feature.

We hope you find the facilities easy to use. If you have any suggestions for how to develop them further, do get in contact with us – we are keen continually to improve this site and your input will be helpful.