Your run a search by clicking the Results page button at the bottom of the Search form. This retrieves up to 30,000 records at a time.

An empty box matches anything in that field: running a search with all the boxes empty simply returns the first 30,000 lines in the database. In the drop-down boxes you can select entries; in the others you can enter search strings (sequences of characters). You can use as many boxes as you like. Click on the labels next to each box to go to the relevant information page for each section.

Filling in more than one box returns all (and only) the records matching all the entries in all the boxes filled in. For instance selecting 3a rima in the Metre box and 4 accents in the Even box and entering ITA in the Rhyme box produces all lines in terza rima with 4 accents on even syllables and a rhyme in ITA..

The default is for searches to match any part of the fields in question: you need only enter part of the field you are looking for, but you must match that part of the field exactly, unless you use wildcards. If you click the Match whole fields button at the bottom of the form, you must enter a string that matches the whole field you are looking for in the Search box.

You browse through the search results using the navigation buttons at the bottom of the Results page. This can be slow if your search has returned a large number of records. Narrow the search down as much as you can to speed things up. Click here for further Searching instructions, or for Browse texts to start searches from the text files, or for an example of the Results page.