• Name of text
• Choice of texts
• Line
• Line reference
• Metre and Line position
• Linking the Liberata and Conquistata

You can select single texts in this box, or, by leaving it blank, all the texts in the database. By selecting 3a rima or 8a rima in the Metre box you can also select all the texts in either of these verse forms. The texts included in the database, and the editions used, are as follows:

• Dante, Divina commedia: La Commedia secondo l'antica vulgata, ed. G. Petrocchi, 4 vols. (Milan: Mondadori, 1966-7)
• Petrarca, Trionfi: in id., Rime, Trionfi e poesie latine, ed. F. Neri et al. (Milan-Naples: Ricciardi, 1951)
• Boccaccio, Amorosa visione: (Testo A), ed. V. Branca in Tutte le opere di Giovanni Boccaccio, III (Milan: Mondadori, 1974)
• Pulci, Morgante: ed. R. Ramat (Milan: Rizzoli, 1961)
• Boiardo, Orlando innamorato: ed. A. Zottoli (Milan: Mondadori, 1944)
• Ariosto, Orlando furioso: ed. C. Segre (Milan: Mondadori, 1964)
• Tasso, Gerusalemme liberata: ed. L. Caretti (Bari: Laterza, 1967)
• Tasso, Gerusalemme conquistata: ed. L. Bonfigli (Bari: Laterza, 1934)

When our version of the Orlando innamorato was prepared we did not have available the more recent edition by Antonia Tissoni Benvenuti and Cristina Montagnani: L'inamoramento de Orlando, in M. M. Boiardo, Opere, Tomo 1, parts 1 and 2 (Milan: Ricciardi, 1999), and have not taken it into account. In the case of both Pulci and Boiardo, however, a degree of textual editing was carried out: see Morgante and Orlando innamorato: the digital texts for more information on our versions of these texts.

Click here to browse any of the text files, and see below for details about a text resource linking the Liberata and the Conquistata.

The database includes all the great narrative poems, by most people's definition, of the Italian Middle Ages and Renaissance. The further inclusion of the Trionfi and the Amorosa visione is not a claim for their elevation to similar status, but, by adding two 14th-century poems in terza rima with significant affinities to the  Divine Comedy, is intended to supply an albeit limited comparative context for the study of Dante's poem. Unfortunately the considerable manual labour involved in preparing the rhythmical information in the database has precluded extending this comparative context any further.

You can search here for individual words or combinations of words in the texts, using wildcards as necessary.

Lines of verse are represented in the database and associated text files in the form in which they appear in the printed editions, except that a few changes have been made as follows:

• the insertion of a blank space between word-final apostrophes and the following word, except where the following word is enclitic (e.g. m' avea, but fa'mi);
• conversely, in a few cases we have removed the blank space between a word-final apostrophe and the following word where the latter is enclitic (e.g. fa' mi has been changed to fa'mi);
• generally our use of quotation marks follows the practice of the editions from which the database versions derive, but some minor adjustments to the system of quotation marks have been made: see in particular Morgante and Orlando innamorato: the digital texts.

The last point means that the system of quotation marks is not consistent across the texts. First-level quotation marks, notably, are represented by chevrons (« ») in Dante, Petrarch, Pulci and Boiardo, and by dashes (-- --) in Boccaccio, Ariosto and Tasso. In a very few cases single quotation marks (') are used for quotations, generally at third level; this may interfere to a small extent with searches for apostrophes, for which the same symbol is used.

Enter < and > to search for the chevrons « ».

Search for a particular line, or sequence of lines, in the database, by entering its reference number here. Line references to the texts are given in Arabic numerals, with a dot separating cantica or book (in Dante and Boiardo), canto (or each of the Trionfi), stanza (where applicable), and line. Thus 1.1.1 is the first line of Dante's Inferno, the first line of the first part of the first of the Trionfi, and the first line of the first stanza of the first canto of the texts by Pulci, Ariosto and Tasso; the first line of the Amorosa visione is 1.1, 1.1.1.1 that of the Orlando innamorato .

Remember to use Match whole fields where appropriate. Otherwise 1.1.1 will also produce 1.1.10, 11.1.1 etc. Remember also to use wildcards where needed. For instance

• Retrieve all the database entries for Canto XXXIII of Paradiso by selecting Divina Commedia and entering 3.33.% in the Line reference box, using the wildcard % and Match whole fields.

By selecting either 3a rima or 8a rima you retrieve all the texts in the verse-form in question. The position is that of the line within the verse-form: 1-3 in the terzina, 1-8 in the ottava. For instance:

• Selecting 3a rima in the Metre box and Line 3 in the Line position box will retrieve the last line of all the terzine in all the poems in terza rima.

A text resource containing parallel texts of Tasso's two poems, with links between the related passages and plot summaries, is available at http://www.italianverse.rdg.ac.uk/tasso/.