The Research Project Musisque Deoque. A digital archive of Latin poetry, from its origins to the Italian Renaissance
was established at the end of 2005 with the main goal of creating a singular database of Latin poetry, supported by a critical and exegetical electronic apparatus.
At present, main collections of classical texts have been transferred onto digital device while resources,
mostly online, allow quick lexical searches. In most cases, however, search engine inquiry only provides results key-words
inside a fix and ‘authoritarian’ text.
Musisque Deoque set out to overcome this limitation, making it possible to find not only the
forms chosen and reported by the reference edition, but also the variants presented in the apparatus and selected under the responsibility of a 'digital editor'.
The MQDQ archive is a collaborative project developed through the
contributions of dozens of scholars, both Italian and international,
supported by PRIN grants in 2005, 2007, and 2011. Over time, it has
evolved into a true ‘galaxy’ of resources, culminating in the launch of
a dedicated initiative in 2019: MQDQ Galaxy,
which focuses specifically on the maintenance, expansion, and enhancement of the archive and its associated functions.
Today, this 'galaxy' comprises multiple text corpora, including the
original MQDQ,
Carmina Latina Epigraphica,
Musa Medievalis (integrated in 2025),
Italian Poetry in Latin,
Hellenica.
It is further enriched by specialised tools, such as
Pedecerto for metrical analysis
and advanced functions for identifying verbal and supra-verbal rhythmic
co-occurrences.
Since 2023, a new feature has enabled integrated searching across all
corpora, allowing users to explore the reception and transformation of
ancient poetry across an unbroken chronological arc from antiquity to
the Renaissance in innovative ways.
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