MQDQ Galaxy
Latin poetry in a sustainable open-access collaborative digital archive

Source: C2RMF. Public domain
Project Archives and tools Acquisitions Publications and events Team and contacts

Project
What is MQDQ Galaxy project?

MQDQ Galaxy is dedicated to the development and long-term sustainability of the open-access digital archives “Musisque Deoque”, “Musa Medievalis” and “Poeti d’Italia in lingua latina”, including “Pedecerto”, the tool for the automatic analysis of dactylic verse, along with all related functionalities. These archives offer access to the complete corpus of ancient Latin poetry (with critical apparatuses) as well as a substantial collection of Medieval Latin Poetry and Latin verses composed by authors active in Italy from the era of pre-Humanism through the Renaissance.
Established through four PRIN grants (1999, 2001, 2005, and 2007) and one FIRB grant (2008), the MQDQ archives have become indispensable tools for scholars and readers engaged with both ancient and modern Latin poetic texts. Like all digital humanities projects, however, they require continuous funding, maintenance, and scholarly commitment to ensure their growth and sustainability – whether in terms of critical-textual content, research functionalities, or technological infrastructure.

Therefore, a new sustainable model has been designed by Ca’ Foscari team in collaboration with the 'A. Zampolli Institute of Computational Linguistics' (ILC-CNR) in Pisa. All processes are now managed by a back-end infrastructure (www.mqdqgalaxy.it), which dialogues with the Github platform.

A new web-based platform (Wiki-MQDQ) allows easy data entry and the possibility of thus extending the audience of contributors: if you would like to propose adding a text or an apparatus to our archives, please contact us at mqdq-galaxy@unive.it.

Archives and tools

Digital archives of Latin poetry

MQDQ
Musa Medievalis
Poeti d'Italia in lingua latina

Text analysis tools

Pedecerto
Credits of the pictures
  • First and third picture ("MQDQ" and "Poeti d'Italia in lingua latina"): collection of Louvre Department of Paintings
  • Second picture ("Musa Medievalis"): Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 120 II
  • Fourth picture ("Pedecerto"): by Sailko

Acquisitions
What’s new?

Latest additions of texts/apparatuses and news (functions, information, etc.)

  • May 2025: Musa Medievalis is now available
    Discover the new archive www.musamedievalis.it [ITA]: Musa Medievalis offers a broad selection of medieval Latin poetry, covering texts composed between approximately 650 and 1250. The project builds upon and updates the work previously carried out for the two PoetriaNova CD-ROMs (2001, 2010²).
  • October 2024: cross database searching mask
    Try the new cross database searching mask [ITA]: it allows integrated searching within the Musisque Deoque and Musa Medievalis plus Poeti d’Italia corpora of texts, making it possible to investigate, in a new way, the legacy of ancient poetry within Latin versification produced VIth and 16th centuries.

MQDQ: latest additions (2023-)

  • Carmina Latina epigraphica [ITA], ed. A. Prontera
  • Ausonius, Opera, ed. A. Prontera; Palladius, De insitione, edd. F. Boldrer, A. Prontera; Carmen navale, ed. G. Cattaneo; Columella, De re rustica 10, edd. F. Boldrer, A. Prontera; Corippus, Panegyricus in laudem Anastasii, ed. G. Cattaneo; Germanicus, Aratea, ed. F. Feraco; Valerius Flaccus (ll. 1-4), ed. C. Laudani

Poeti d’Italia: latest additions (2024-)

  • Beroaldo il Vecchio, Filippo (ed. L. Mondin); Dati, Niccolò (ed. L. Mondin)
file pdf Additions 2015- 117 KB

Publications and events

Publications and papers

Dissemination

  • Mantua, October 2022 (Accademia Nazionale Virgiliana): La poesia di Virgilio. Archivi digitali e parole antiche (P. Mastandrea, M. Venuti)
  • Venice, October 2022 (VeDPH Maratona digital): La “galassia MQDQ” (A. Del Grosso, M. Venuti)
  • Milan, November 2021 (Bookcity): Memoria poetica, approccio filologico, prassi didattica. Gli archivi MQDQ e dintorni (P. Mastandrea, M. Venuti)

Events

file pdf Siena, 4-6 June 2025 - Workshop: Digital Latin II. International Workshop (ref. F. Stella, M. Venuti) 1 MB
file pdf Venice, 10 April 2025 - Seminar: Memoria dei poeti, filologia dell'intertesto (L. Mondin) [ITA] 1 MB
file pdf Venice, 9 April 2025 - Conference: Sulle tracce di parole antiche. Percorsi didattici e strumenti digitali per lo studio dei testi latini - Corso DLC, Rovigo (M. Venuti) [ITA] 229 KB
file pdf Losanna, 29 November 2024 - Paper, November 2024: M. Venuti, From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe: Latin Philology and Digital Tools within the MQDQ Galaxy Project. Seminar. 2 MB
file pdf Venice, December 2022 - Seminar: Poesia latina e risorse digitali. Il laboratorio di Musisque Deoque (ref. M. Venuti) 394 KB
file pdf Venice, September 2021 - Didactic project: Progetti digitali e poesia latina (ref. M. Venuti) (locandina allegata) 344 KB
file pdf Venice, June 2021 - Conference: Biblioteche digitali di testi latini in Italia. Per un progetto di archivio comune (ref. M. Venuti) 1,022 KB
file pdf Venice, May 2017 - Conference: Testi latini e strumenti digitali. Prospettive della ricerca (ref. M. Venuti) 567 KB