Project profile & reader’s guide

About Agios

Greek and Latin hagiography, read in context.

Project profile

Agios is a research library for Greek and Latin Christian hagiography. Its aim is to bring a work’s text, manuscript witnesses, critical editions, scriptural references and literary relationships into one reading environment.

Purpose: To make hagiographical texts easier to read, compare, contextualize and verify.
Readers: Researchers and students of Christianity, classical and medieval literature, manuscripts and textual transmission.
Access: The project is intended as a freely accessible research resource. This research library is available through the published Agios website.
Interface: English. Source texts retain their original language; Both Greek and Latin are represented in the collection.
Contents: Selected Greek and Latin hagiographical texts, manuscript records, editions and commentary. Each record states its textual scope.

Purpose & tasks

The central task is to connect a readable text with the evidence needed to study it. A researcher should be able to move from a word to a lexical entry, from a passage to a manuscript image, and from an annotation to the source behind it.

Collect and identify works. Provide consistent titles, BHL/BHG and other identifiers, incipits, explicits and descriptions of recensions.
Document transmission. Connect manuscript records, digital images, sigla, published stemmata and the history of editions.
Support close reading. Offer lexical help, morphological analysis and a critical apparatus that can be consulted without losing the text.
Map relationships. Record scriptural citations, allusions, parallels and topoi with exact locations and an explicit evidence status.
Make research reusable. Provide references, downloadable bibliographies, witness data and places to keep research notes.

Start in five minutes

Each work now has Compare and History tabs. Compare available recensions, published variant loci or your own transcriptions. Catalogue-only witnesses remain labelled until text is available. Exact comparison preserves accents and spelling; normalization is optional. Transcription segments are paired by their supplied reference identifiers, not by an inferred genealogical relation.

History separates published edition history, recorded Agios revisions and your private editorial log. Add a dated decision with before/after readings, author, reason, source and review status. New transcriptions are recorded automatically, and replacing a transcription retains its previous text in the log. Unsaved editorial form contents are retained while switching works in this page session. Export and restore your work-specific JSON log; local records do not change the published edition.

Use Search Lexicon in the site navigation to find material across the entire collection. Choose All terms or Exact phrase, then filter by clavis, language, work or material. Results show a matching excerpt and a link to the relevant passage or dossier section. Normalization ignores Greek accents and equates Greek σ/ς and Latin u/v, i/j; it does not perform lemmatization. Copy search link preserves your query and filters.

Open Catalogue, choose a work, then select its Text tab. Montanus and Lucius is available in full, §§ 1–23, from Dolbeau’s 1983 edition.
Keep Lexicon enabled. Select a word to see local automatic analyses and dictionary entries. Reading notes are shown separately. The local lexicon can also analyze forms outside the current text and download full offline language packs.
Enable Scripture. Select the reference beneath the passage to open the explanation and its source. Try Ps. 118(119):105 at § 5.2.
Enable Apparatus. Select † Apparatus beneath a passage; the critical note opens below. Adjust its height or close it to continue reading.
Open Manuscripts, choose a witness and select Open facsimile to inspect its scan, then Work dossier for the work’s history, witnesses, stemma and bibliography.

The reading controls remain at the top while you scroll. The context panel follows the current paragraph; selecting a word or reference holds that detail open. Select Follow passage to resume the moving commentary. The complete Latin text is available; the intertextual index contains selected references.

Reading & research tools

Choose a starting mode

Mode	What it does
Reading	Removes research highlighting, keeps lexical help enabled and keeps the passage record available.
Study	Enables the lexical, scriptural, parallel and topos layers together.
Critical text	Keeps lexical help and enables the lower apparatus panel.

The modes are presets. Use the individual switches to combine layers in your own way. Clear all switches every layer off.

Lexicon: meanings and morphology

With Lexicon enabled, select any word. Prepared entries show an English gloss, lemma, word class and parse. An unprepared form offers external dictionary links instead of an invented analysis. Some forms have more than one possible parse; the displayed context matters.

Greek words link to Logeion and its Greek dictionaries. Latin words link to Logeion, Latin is Simple and the Corpus Corporum dictionary directory. They open external resources; Agios does not yet retrieve live results from their APIs.

Scripture, parallels and topoi

For BHG 1274, Include proposed biblical echoes reveals the less certain biblical comparisons. All statuses remain visible in the Reference index. Enable a layer to highlight its annotated expressions and reveal reference buttons beneath the text. Select a reference button to see the explanatory panel. The Reference index lists annotations across the whole work, each with a paragraph link.

Scripture identifies biblical references checked against the relevant edition or source index. For Philaret, all 79 BiblIndex records retain source classifications and locations; five locator corrections are labelled separately. Scripture and source links are distinct. Parallels compares places or motifs in other works, with BHL/BHG identifiers where verified. Topoi provides provisional thematic interpretation. The status label explains what kind of evidence supports each entry.

Apparatus: consult a reading without leaving the text

Enable Apparatus and select a passage’s apparatus button. The panel below displays a lemma, an editorial observation and its source. Use the height slider to make more room for either the note or the text.

The present records summarize selected remarks from the identified editions: Dolbeau for BHL 6009 and Delehaye for BHG 1274. They are not a complete apparatus or a new collation of the manuscript. The work dossier explains several differences between Musurillo and Dolbeau.

Search, text size and focus

The search field in Workspace highlights words containing your query, ignoring case and accents. Try lucern or domin. It searches the complete loaded text of the selected work and is not a lemmatized corpus search.

The Aa slider changes the Latin text size. Focus hides the side panels; select it again to restore the layout. Press Esc to close the apparatus. Selecting another word opens the lexical panel again.

Catalogue and work selection

Catalogue has separate BHL and BHG sections. Each record is headed by its clavis number; search by number, title or saint, and filter by text status. Montanus and Lucius has a complete Latin text, manuscript viewer and dossier. The Ten Thousand Martyrs remains a working epilogue sample, with an optional recension comparison. The BHG section includes the complete premetaphrastic Passion of Mercurius (BHG 1274), with its own dossier and witnesses. It also includes Philaretos the Merciful (BHG 1511z): full Greek working transcription, 79 included BiblIndex records, a work dossier, three manuscript records and selected comparison loci. The BHL section contains Latin records, organized by BHL number.

The pinned Work selector lets you switch works during reading. Each work has Overview, Text, Dossier, Manuscripts, Compare and History tabs. Unprepared sections show the status for that work instead of opening another work’s material. A clavis identifier is never supplied as a placeholder.

Manuscript viewer

In the reader, select Text + source for a companion pane. Adjust Text width on a wide screen. Switch between Facsimile and Commentary without losing the selected leaf. Karlsruhe folios can be enlarged and scrolled beside the Latin text; their selection is manual. For Mercurius, the printed edition can follow the current paragraph’s page. Greek manuscript witnesses open in their library viewers; catalogue-only witnesses are labelled.

Biblical comparison cards show the Passion excerpt alongside the available source excerpt, with shared word forms highlighted. Use Compare in wider columns for more room. Differences in spelling and accents are normalized for highlighting; morphological variants are not treated as identical. A source link and an evidence status accompany each comparison. Untranscribed literary parallels retain their source links and explicitly say that the comparison excerpt is pending.

The Manuscripts tab belongs to the selected work and lists its digitized witnesses. For Montanus and Lucius, select Open facsimile for Karlsruhe, Badische Landesbibliothek, Cod. Aug. perg. 32, ff. 105r–108r. The library’s images are accompanied by links to the original folios and catalogue.

Select a thumbnail or use the folio menu and arrow buttons to move between the seven pages.
Use + and − to magnify or reduce the image. Fit page shows the full leaf; Fit width makes it easier to read a larger image.
Drag an enlarged image with the mouse to move across it. On a touch screen, scroll within the image area.
Select Full screen for a larger view, where the browser permits it. The original-folio link remains available for checking the library’s viewer.

Key	In the manuscript viewer
`←` / `→`	Previous / next folio
`+` / `−`	Zoom in / out
`0`	Fit the full page

Keyboard shortcuts are ignored while you are using an input or folio selector. Manuscript images and the Latin reader are not yet synchronized at line level.

Work dossiers

Work dossier provides the identity, dating, structure, literary context and transmission of Montanus and Lucius, together with critical notes and a research bibliography.

Stemma. Adjust the scale and select a Latin siglum to jump to its witness record. The current graph redraws Dolbeau’s published 1983 reconstruction; it is not a newly calculated Agios stemma.
Witnesses. Filter by siglum, library or family. The table distinguishes medieval manuscripts from the later collation R.
Bibliography. Filter editions and types of scholarship. Download the references as plain text or JSON.
Critical notes. Open an entry to inspect a textual problem, its sources and the relationship between editions.
Notes and references. Save or export a personal note, copy the dossier reference, or print the dossier.

For scholarly citation, use the critical edition and its section or page numbers. Cite Agios separately when referring to this dossier, its organization or its research aids.

Research principles

Traceable evidence: A reading, parallel or historical assertion should lead to its source, not merely to an unexplained label.
Clear distinctions: Separate text from interpretation; manuscript readings from editorial conjectures; thematic affinity from direct literary dependence.
Explicit uncertainty: Attribute disputed reconstructions and preserve the difference between a documented fact, a published argument and a provisional annotation.
Edition awareness: Identify the edition underlying each text and apparatus. Document normalization and avoid silently combining incompatible editorial systems.
Manuscript control: Use digitizations to check readings. An image on the site does not itself mean that its witness has been transcribed or collated.
Attribution & reuse: Credit libraries, editions and research. Availability of an online source does not establish unrestricted reuse rights; source-specific terms remain applicable. No blanket licence is asserted for third-party material.

Current scope & development

Area	Available now	Next development
Texts	BHL 6009, complete Latin text (23 chapters); BHL 20, working epilogue excerpts; BHG 1274, complete Greek edition transcription (13 chapters); BHG 1511z, full Greek working transcription (30 printed pages).	Additional Greek and Latin works; further transcription review.
Lexical support	Local Latin and Greek automatic morphology; full LSJ and Lewis & Short entries; separate notes and downloadable offline packs.	Additional late and medieval vocabulary; reviewed contextual analyses.
Annotations	Source-backed biblical and literary references, plus clearly marked provisional topoi.	Further source excerpts and more precise locations.
Critical text	Sample apparatus notes and a documented discussion of editions.	Complete apparatus and verified witness-level readings.
Manuscripts	Seven Karlsruhe images beside the Latin text; Mercurius edition pages, Philaret’s external book scan and work-specific Greek manuscript links.	More digitizations and passage-to-image alignment.
Research dossier	Witness records, published stemma, bibliography and browser-local notes.	Broader catalogue verification and more work dossiers.
Search	Collection-wide search across texts, catalogue records, witnesses, dossiers, references, apparatus and bibliography; filters, normalized spelling and links to passages.	Lemma-aware querying and further indexed source transcriptions.

This list describes direction, not a release schedule or a claim that external corpora are already connected.

Practical questions

Where are my notes saved?

Each work in Workspace has its own notes; the comparison view and Work dossier also retain separate notes. They are saved in this browser on this device. There is no account synchronization. The dossier’s Export note button downloads a plain-text copy you can keep elsewhere.

Why does a word have no analysis?

Local analyzers check every selected form and return possible analyses. Rare names, non-classical vocabulary and scribal spellings can remain unrecognized; no parse is invented. Open the full local lexicon or follow the source links to investigate.

Does an annotation prove a source or borrowing?

No. Read its status and explanation. A biblical allusion, verbal similarity and common narrative motif require different kinds of argument. Provisional topoi are reading aids, not established entries in a universal catalogue.

Can I propose a correction or contribute?

A submission form is not yet available. A useful contribution identifies the work, passage, proposed reading or interpretation, manuscript or edition, exact location and supporting evidence. Keep your observations in the dossier notes and export them for discussion with the project editor.

Is Agios a critical edition?

Agios is a research environment. Its current texts come from an identified edition or explicitly marked working excerpts. The manuscript images, dossier and annotations do not turn those samples into a newly established critical edition.

How do I return to the text?

Use the Text tab beneath the current work’s title. Overview returns to its catalogue record; Catalogue returns to the whole collection. Dossier and Manuscripts belong to that work and have their own addresses. You can keep a witness viewer open in another browser tab.

Reading the coverage record

Each work states separately whether its text, apparatus, witness transcriptions, facsimiles and references are complete, selective or not available. Choose “Coverage & fragments” for source access, exact excerpt boundaries and every available reading unit. A full edition text does not imply a full digital apparatus or fresh manuscript collation. Historical editions retain their own readings, notes and sigla.

Edition scans are available online separately from the offline language packs.

Reading and comparing editions

For Montanus and Lucius, choose Dolbeau or Gebhardt in the fixed Edition selector. The same passage remains visible. Each edition keeps its own wording, pages, annotations and apparatus. In Gebhardt, enable Apparatus to underline the lemmas; select † to open the printed note below. Ordinary word clicks still open the lexicon. Critical notes and Scripture notes are grouped separately. The abbreviation key identifies editors and editions, not Dolbeau’s manuscript witnesses.

Compare editions opens both full texts in paired passages. Choose exact spelling or normalized spelling, and enable Differences only to hide matching passages. Each column links to its own edition page and reader. Shared references are alignment aids; the XIV.3–4 boundary difference is explicitly recorded.