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Search Help

The DEEDS corpus consists of medieval Latin charters. 

This page will help you understand how to search the DEEDS corpus.

There are two ways to search DEEDS:

  1. DEEDS Document Search
  2. DEEDS Context Search

The DEEDS Document Search will allow you to search for charters and cartularies in the DEEDS database:

 

Using the DEEDS Context Search will allow you to search for query terms within the full text of Charter documents in the DEEDS database. The Context Search will display the words before your query term and the words after your query term:

 

General DEEDS Search Tips

You can use Boolean Operators (AND, NOT, OR and quotation marks) to refine your search within the DEEDS Search:
  • Make your search more specific by using "AND" between query terms.
  • Narrow your search by using "NOT" before query terms that you do not want to find.
  • Use quotation marks if you want results for an exact phrase.
  • Expand your search by using "OR" between query terms.
You cannot use Boolean Operators within the Context Search.

Search Tools

Search Using Alternate Spelling

Both the DEEDS Search and the Context Search are set up to allow you to search for your query term with any possible alternate spelling. To search using alternate spelling, ensure that you click the "Also search for alternate spelling" button.

Searching Context Search - Punctuation?

Punctuation has been removed from all the text in the documents included in the DEEDS repository. However square brackets are used to denote missing text when used like this - [], or are used to surround word(s) denoting inserted text, for example da[tum] apud. [tum] is an editorial insertion in this example. When using Context Search, text that includes square brackets will only be found if square brackets are used in the search.

Searching Dates

You can search for Charters and Cartularies using the Date Span fields within both the DEEDS Search and the Context Search. Just enter the "start" date range in the first box, and the "end" date range in the second box.

Refine Your Search with Search Facets

Both the DEEDS Search and Cartulary Search will display search facets that you can use to refine (i.e. limit) your search results. The search facets appear on the left hand side of your search results page. 

To use the search facets, simply enter your search query and then click on the search facet that you would like to limit your search to. For example, under the "Restrict To" facet, you can choose to only return search results for Cartularies, and eliminate Charters from your results by clicking on "Cartulary", reducing your search results down to 435 results and also eliminating any other refinement options under the "Restrict To" facet. 

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Organizing Your Search Results

Once you have retreieved your desired search results set, you can organize your results.

Within the DEEDS Search you can switch between the "Detailed" view mode or the "Quicklist" view mode.

The default view mode within the DEEDS Search is the "Detailed" view, which will display all of the information associated with a Charter or Cartulary:

Within the DEEDS Search you can also view search results by "Quick List", which will give you only the Charter document number or Cartulary number, along with Charter date or Cartulary place:

The above "Quick List" is displaying a search result set for only Cartularies, organized by Cartulary number. When your search result set contains Charters, you will notice that the "Quick List" will display the search result set organized by Charter Document number and Charter date:

You can sort search results by the Charter Document numbers (sort by "Document") or Charter year (sort by "Date") in either the Detailed or Quicklist views. The sort functions do not apply to Cartularies.

Sort by Charter Document number:

Sort by Charter date:

Within the Context Search you can also organize your search result sets by toggling Charter information on or off as well as customizing the "Word Segment Length" displayed.

The Context Search default display is to hide the Charter information:

If you click on the "Show Charter info" button, the Charter information for each Charter in the search result set will display. You can toggle back to hide the Charter information by clicking the "Hide Charter Info" button:

You can also customize the word length returned in Context Search by updating the "Word Segment Length" and clicking "Update":

 

Need more help?

Contact DEEDS if you have any further questions.