Acta Sanctorum Database (review)

Reviews Acta Sanctorum Database, Cambridge, Chadwyck-Healey 1999-2002; W e b site and C D - R O M ; R R P £28,000. There is little need, for this review, to draw attention to the importance of th Acta Sanctorum. Its significance for research into almost every aspect of life for thefirst1600 years of the Christian era is well recognized. It is a series of thefirstimportance, not only for ecclesiastical study, but also for investigation into literature, society and culture from the end of the Apostolic period, through the Patristic and medieval periods, down to the Reformation. Directly and indirectly, it offers evidence in abundance about beliefs and values and practices from throughout the Christian world - not just the Latin and Western traditions. The Acta Sanctorum was originally published by the Societe des Bollandistes, in one of the longest miming ventures in publishing history: the final volume (including the Propylaeum to December) appeared in 1940, almost exactly 300 years after thefirstvolume in 1643. Given that timeframe, the speed with which the digitization has proceeded seems almost disrespectful (although the project is a little behind schedule); and, a fortiori, the speed and ease with which a reader can browse or search for information is positively indecent. But i t is an indency much to be welcomed and acclaimed. The electronic Acta Sanctorum, n o w almost complete, joins a substantial collection of electronic databases released by Chadwyck-Healey, including of particular relevance here - the Patrologia Latina. In keeping with many of these databases, the Acta are available both on the World Wide W e b and on CD-ROM. For those technically minded, the texts are encoded in S G M L , and users can perform Boolean, proximity and truncation searches. Some years ago, it was fashionable (if foolishly short-sighted) to predict the demise of the printed word. Databases such as these will never replace the printed text when one wishes simply to read a continuous passage, either for pleasure or for study. What they do provide, of course, are unparalleled opportunities to search across an entire database in ways that no individual reader could expect to do with the printed version. As such, they allow for accumulations and for comparisons ofevidence that have so far not really been practicable. In many ways, a database such as this stands or falls on two things: the accuracy of its texts, and the sophistication of its search engine. Typically, text- 170 Reviews based databases are created either by electronic scanning of original printed materials, or by 'double-keying' - essentially, a system of having two copy typists enter the same material, and then electronically comparing the results. Neither system can provide 1 0 0 % accuracy, but both have accuracy rates in the high 9 0 % range. Traditionally, Chadwyck-Healey have favoured the doublekeying method, although in this case texts in languages other than Latin and Greek (such as Syriac, Coptic, Slavic and Celtic) have been scanned as images, which, of course, cannot be searched as text. The Greek text also cannot be searched on the W e b version, although it can on the C D - R O M . Chadwyck-Healey have ample experience in the design of the 'user interface' for searching, and this is as simple and intuitive to use as their previous publications. It allows for simple searches by keyword, title, or saint; and i t allows for searching of the entire database, or limiting each search by, for example, gender or month (the publication follows the ecclesiastical calendar). As noted above, it also allows for more complex searches using Boolean or wildcard operators. One possible improvement that might be considered would be a 'search within results' function; in principle, a Boolean search should suffice, but in practice the additional function can be useful. As with all searchable databases, there are a few trips and traps. In this case, the searchable text is Latin, and keywords or strings must be constructed accordingly. For example, the pamphlet accompanying the Acta advertises that a user might create his or her own anthology with a theme 'such as dragonslaying '. Offhand, 1 can't think of a Latin term for dragon-slaying or...