"The Iter Italicum by P.O. Kristeller constitutes the most comprehensive finding list available of previously uncatalogued or incompletely catalogued Renaissance humanistic manuscripts found in libraries and collections all over the world. Published by Brill Academic Publischers in six volumes between 1963 and 1992, it is an essential tool for any scholar working in the fields of classical, medieval and Renaissance studies.
In response to the demands of many users, Brill, in conjunction with Dr Luciano Floridi (Wolfson College, Oxford), is publishing a digital version of the "Iter Italicum on CD-ROM, providing full, quick and easy access to the vast body of invaluable information contained in Professor Kristeller's opus magnum. In the course of a few seconds, the user can search through the 6.000 pages comprising over 22 million characters to find the information they need.
The CD-ROM offers a wide range of search possibilities. Using Boolean operators, you can search not only on country, place, library and collection, but also on any key word or combination of key words. With this facility, you can obtain virtually instant access to a wealth of information on themes and subjects, MS titles, incipits, and persons (authors, translators, patrons and dedicatees) in the hundreds of collections and thousands of manuscripts listed and excerpted in the "Iter Italicum. You can save and load your queries, save the results of searches, and mark, edit and transfer information for use in your own documents or Windows databases. Other helpful features include contexts searches and a built-in dictionary of spelling variants of certain words (which is invoked during queries). You are also ableto add your own systems of bookmarks and notes to the text of the "Iter Italicum (and to save them to disk for use in later work sessions on the CD-ROM), so that even when used in library setting the "Iter Italicum on CD-ROM becomes a personalised research tool.
The "Iter Italicum on CD-ROM allows you to make full use of the potential of this mine of information. It offers access to types of information that were not easily available in the printed volumes. It therefore facilitates immensely the first state of independent study of the Renaissance and Later Scholasticism and the identification of sources, and as such provides the starting point for any research in the field.