How to enter search queries

For the sake of consistency, the texts used by this search engine always use u for v and i for j. If your search yields no results, check to make sure that your search doesn't include v or j.

To find parts of words, use an asterisk (*) to represent missing parts of the word. For example, if you enter "mund*" it will match "mundus", "mundi", etc. Similarly, "*que" would find "quisque", "atque", etc.

The search query can either be one or more words (a simple search) separated by spaces, or a boolean expression. All searches are performed in a case insensitive manner: for example, entering "DOMUS" is identical to entering "domus", "Domus" or even "DoMUs".

Boolean Searches

For more control over the search query, you can use a boolean expression. If you enter the word or between two search words (with a space between each word and the "or") it will find any line which contains either the first word, or the second word, or both. For example, "aeneas or dido" would find lines containing the word "aeneas" or the word "dido", or both.

If instead of the word or you entered and it would match only lines which contained both the word "aeneas" and the word "dido". Note that this would be the same as a simple search for "aeneas dido" because if the boolean commands are omitted, it defaults to assuming an and between each search word.

To find lines which do not contain a particular word, place the word not before it. For example, "not aeneas" would find all the lines which do not contain the word "aeneas". You can combine the "and", "or" and "not" commands, for example "aeneas and not dido" would find lines containing the word "aeneas" but not the word "dido".

For advanced use, you can use brackets to group the expression. For example, "aeneas and (euryalus or nisus)" would find all lines containing the word "aeneas" and either "euryalus" or "nisus" (or both). If the brackets are omitted, the and command has higher precedence, so "aeneas and euryalus or nisus" would find all lines contain "aeneas" and "nisus", and also lines containing "euryalus".

Perl Regular Expressions

If you want to use a Perl regular expression rather than a simple or boolean search, make sure you use a \char construct (eg \w or \s). Any search query which contains a backslash will be treated as a perl regular expression.

The Latin text of Virgil's works used here is that of Bucolics, Aeneid, and Georgics of Vergil (Boston: Ginn & Co., 1900), edited by J. B. Greenough and rendered into electronic form by Konrad Schroder and Flavio Nuvolone. The Latin text of Vegio's Supplementum is that of the editio princeps (Venice, 1471) as edited by A. C. Brinton, scanned and corrected by David Wilson-Okamura. The text of the Appendix Vergiliana is from an unknown source, and should therefore be used with special caution. The search engine used is htgrep, a public domain Perl script written by Oscar Nierstrasz. The instructions given above are adapted from the instructions that accompany that program. This tool has been prepared with care, but the parties who contributed to its implementation make no guarantee, expressed or implied, with regard to its accuracy or suitability for any given application. Please send comments to david@virgil.org. This page was last updated May 1, 2019.

If you would like to download the Latin texts of Virgil's works to your own computer, see the Other Virgil Sites page for pointers.