Naming Latin Texts in the Thesaurus linguae Latinae Index of Sources

Abstract

This paper discusses a specific category of names in the Thesaurus linguae Latinae: names of ancient authors and works used as source citations. These names cover nearly all known ancient Latin texts until about 600 CE, including ca. 1,035 authors or text groups and ca. 2,880 identifiable works. They were most recently printed as the Index librorum scriptorum inscriptionum ex quibus exempla afferuntur (1990) and, in partly updated form, appear online. Currently efforts are underway to transform this into an open-access database as part of a larger digital transformation of the project. The Index includes information about the dates of authors and works, authority control data, modern editions, the existence of ancient translations into or out of Greek, sample citations, and other meta-data. The paper discusses theoretical and practical issues involving these names and their future data structure.