Pedecerto
 
PedeCerto
digital latin metre
Pedecertois a program for the automatic analysing of Latin verses developed by the Università di Udine as part of the Traditio patrum FIRB project. Its application to the Musisque Deoque digital archive – containing Latin poetry texts from the archaic period to the 7th century AD – has enabled the scansion of nearly 259,000 dactylic verses.
On this site, a specifically developed search engine that draws upon the results of the scansion may be used to conduct metrical investigations of the corpus, through a variety of approaches.
The Free scansions page offers a simplified but immediately usable demo version of the scanning program.
Hide

Pede certo offers six different search systems for obtaining a selection of verses from the corpus. In all cases, the verses are presented with metrical notations (quantities, main caesurae, bucolic diaereses, synalephas, hiatuses).

Search for one or more forms
HOME > SEARCH > FORM

Search for verses containing one or more keywords, including wildcard symbols. On the results page, each verse will be shown with a symbolic representation of the position in which the form searched for occurs. On the same page, by clicking on the Statistics button, one gets a table showing all the positions and the frequency of each, as well as – upon request – their textual distribution.

View example

 

Search for a word-type
HOME > SEARCH > WORD-TYPE

Search the verses for words presenting a specific prosodic structure, which may be defined by selecting a sequence of long and short syllables within a grid. As with the previous search, the results page will provide a symbolic representation of the position in which the prosodic structure searched for occurs, along with a stats table. By clicking on the Alphabetical list button, one gets all forms with a prosodic structure within verses matching the search key.

View example

 

Search for the pattern of the verse
HOME > SEARCH > VERSE-TYPE

By typing or pasting a complete verse into the specific field, the system will provide a search for all verses with the same sequence of meters and pauses. For the latter, one can choose to include all the caesurae and the diaereses (also together with hiatuses and synalephas), or just the main ones.
A similar feature is also available in the Advanced Search (just clicking on the button Insert a verse in the grid); here, however, the key resulting from the scan can be changed, for example by considering indifferent some parts of it and thereby enlarging the field of research.

View example

 

Search for patterns and features
HOME > SEARCH > PATTERNS AND FEATURES

The page presents a list of predefined options for different verse features that may be combined (patterns for hexameters and pentameters, spondaic verses, synalepha with the following verse, etc.).

View example

 

Search for a metrical sequence (within a given metrical pattern)
HOME > SEARCH > ADVANCED SEARCH

Search for verses containing a chosen sequence of long or short syllables, caesurae, diaereses, synalephas and hiatuses – in a specific position within a hexameter or pentameter pattern. It is also possible to search for metrical sequences matching individual syllables, which may be inserted within specific fields below the quantity selected.

View example

 

Search for a metrical sequence (in any position)
HOME > SEARCH > ADVANCED SEARCH > SEARCH IN ANY POSITION WITHIN A VERSE

This search may be performed by selecting the Search in any position within a verse option in the same grid used for the previous search.
This is used to search for quantity sequences – including single syllables – regardless of their place within the metrical pattern of a verse.

View example

 

Pede certo provides three kinds of lists for the prosodic structures featured in the corpus. In all cases, what is meant by prosodic structure is not the “natural” structure that words possess outside a metrical context, but the structure they display within a verse after any sandhi changes have occurred.

Prosodic structures
HOME > PROSODIC STRUCTURES

This section may be accessed by clicking on a specific title on the menu page.
It consists in a complete alphabetical list of all prosodic structures. The prosodies may be accessed by clicking on the grey triangle before each form. These are ordered according to decreasing frequency and the positions in which they occur are also provided.

View example

 

Unica
HOME > SEARCH > UNICA

This may be accessed from the Search by form page.
It consists in a list of forms that occur only once in the corpus and which are presented together with their prosodic structures. The list also includes forms that are not one-offs, but occur only once with an exceptional prosodic structure: in this case, the entry will be marked by *.

View example

 

Alphabetical list of word-types    
HOME > SEARCH > WORD-TYPE > ALPHABETICAL LIST

This may be accessed after running a search in the Search by word-type page, by clicking on the Alphabetical list button on the results page.
The alphabetical list covers all forms whose prosodic structure in verses matches the sequence of syllabic quantities inserted as a search key. Each form is presented with the positions in which it occurs and their frequency.

View example

 

UNIVERSITÀ DI UDINE
UNIVERSITÀ CA’ FOSCARI VENEZIA

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Emanuela Colombi

RESEARCH PROJECT
Luca Mondin

ICT PROJECT
Luigi Tessarolo

SUPPORT ON METRE
Andrea Bacianini

MARKUP
Dylan Bovet (elegiac couplets in Carmina Epigraphica Bücheler-Lommatzsch)
Alessia Prontera (Carmina Epigraphica)

MQDQ Galaxy
Musisque Deoque
Poeti d‘Italia in lingua latina
Hellenica