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

fonte: C2RMF. Pubblico dominio, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15708772

Project

What is MQDQ Galaxy project?

MQDQ Galaxy aims at the development and sustainability of the open-access digital archives of Musisque Deoque and Poeti d'Italia in lingua latina with Pedecerto (the tool for automatic analysis of dactylic verses) and all their associated functions. These archives provide the entire corpus of ancient Latin poetry (with critical apparatuses) and a large number of Latin works in verse by authors active in Italy between pre-Humanism and the Renaissance

Based on four PRIN grants (1999, 2001, 2005 and 2007) and one FIRB grant (2008), MQDQ archives are undoubtedly a daily working tool for the entire community of scholars and readers dealing with ancient and modern poetic texts. However, as it happens for all DH projects, they need resources, constant maintenance, and commitment to subsist and grow, in terms of critical-textual content, research functions, and technological infrastructure. 

So, the big challenge was to create a sustainable and efficient model for the future. In 2018, thanks to the support of VeDPH, the MQDQ Galaxy was launched.

The main areas of intervention of the project are two:

  • The technological infrastructure, with the creation of a new sustainable model, 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. This workflow was made possible by a formal agreement with the ILC-CNR and Ca' Foscari DSU.
  • The archive of critical texts and apparatuses, and particularly
    • the implementation of a new web-based platform (Wiki-MQDQ) that allows for 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 (mqdq-galaxy@unive.it).
    • new research and analysis functions 

New acquisitions
What’s new?

Here below you can find the latest additions of texts/apparatuses and news (functions, information, etc.) in the archives, listed from newest to oldest.

New integrated searching function within MQDQ

October 2024: Musa Medievalis
A new function is now available: 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. Try the new cross database searching mask [ITA].

MQDQ: new apparatuses in progress 

  • Ps.Ovidius, Consolatio ad Liviam, ed. F. Boldrer
  • Vergilius, Georgica, edd. M. Venuti, G. Cattaneo

MQDQ: latest apparatuses added (2020-2024)

  • 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.

Poeti d’Italia: latest texts added (2020-2024)

  • Muzio, Macario, De triumpho Christi (ed. N. Jovanovic); Bonaiuti, Niccolò, Liber Epistolarum (ed. F. Porro)
  • (edd. M. Sartor et al. 2022-2023) Ariosto, Francesco Pellegrino, carmina; Ariosto, Malatesta, carmina; Balbi, Scipione, carmina; Bembo, Bernardo, carmina; Benvenuto da Imola, carmina; Calcagnini, Celio, carmina; Cantalupi, Girolamo, carmina; Carbone, Ludovico, carmina; Colonna, Vittoria, carmina; de' Ferreti, Ferreto, de invenienda sibi uxore; Emiliani, Iacopo, carmina; epitaphia Dantis (Giovanni del Virgilio; de' Ferreti, Ferreto; Guido da Pisa; Joannes Latomus; Mezzani, Menghino; Salutati, Coluccio; Scala, Bartolomeo; Scannabecchi, Bernardo; Tassino, Alberto); Fini, Daniele, carmina; Guarini, Alessandro, carmina; Guarini, Alfonso, carmina; Guarini, Battista, carmina; Guarini, Emanuele, carmina; Malatesta, Ariosto, carmina; Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni, carmina; Pittorio, Ludovico, carmina; Ripa, Luca, carmina; Sabinus, Angelus, epistulae; Sardi, Ludovico, carmina; Scipio Gentilis, solymeidos libri duo; Tassino, Alberto, carmina; Tebaldeo, Antonio, carmina.
  • (ed. K. Škraban 2020) Boiardo, Matteo Maria, epigrammata; carmina in Herculem; Epigrammata satyrica Venetorum contra Herculem I. Atestinum; Giovanni del Virgilio, Diaffonus; Negri, Francesco, Sylvula; Nuzio, Diaffonus; Sannazaro, Iacopo, Salices; Vegio, Maffeo, disticha; elegiae; rusticanalia; epigrammata; Vergerio, Pietro Paolo, carmen; Vergerio il Vecchio, carmina; Verino, Ugolino, Paradisus

 

MQDQ: new functions added (2015-2023)

  • Search function for detecting lexical co-occurrences (text source/text target)
  • Search function for detecting phonic and metrical co-occurrences (text source/text target)
  • Standard description for all manuscripts quoted in MQDQ archive as primary source (A. Prontera 2022)
  • Development of the editing platform Wiki-MQDQ (M. Venuti, L. Tessarolo 2023) 
  • Addition of instructions to the back-end panel, ITA-ENG (A. Prontera, M. Sartor 2022-2023)

Pedecerto: new functions added (2015-2023)

  • The Carmina Latina Epigraphica are now included within the corpus of texts scanned by Pedecerto [prototype by D. Bovet, A. Prontera 2023]
  • New functions 
    • Free download of single texts scanned (XML format)
    • Search function for echoic couplets 
    • Search function for unique metric patterns

Digital archives

Credits. First and second picture ("MQDQ" and "Poeti d'Italia in lingua latina"): collection of Department of Paintings of the Louvre. Third picture ("Pedecerto"): by Sailko

Publications and papers

Publications and events

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