Dictionary of Early Christian Biography

[mscargill]

I hope this is the right forum or topic in which to post this question. I have already conducted a search against this resource detail. My question is how much hyperlinking there is in this $10 Dictionary? Are names referred to in one entry linked to the entry for those names elsewhere in the Dictionary? Looking at the screen shot for the Dictionary, I can see copious links attached to "bp.", "cf." (I think menat as "compare, rather than "confessor") or "AD" but wasn't sure whether, for example, the highlighted "bp." before a bishop's name would take you to that name and entry or just tell you "bp" - wherever it appears - is short for bishop.

 

I look forward to hearing from you.

 

Many thanks.

 

Michael

 

[Steve King]

Most of the links are of the type that explain what the abbreviation means (e.g. Bp is Bishop) However there are references to other biographies. (e.g. Cyril of Jerusalem is referenced under the entry for 'Acacius (2)' and links to the entry 'Cyrillus (2)') This is only for a few entries, not every name referenced is linked. For instance Pelagius appears a number of times under the entry for Augustine but it is only as a link on one occassion.

 

Scripture references are linked.

[mscargill]

Many thanks Steve. I guess that is quite understable considering the price of the Dictionary and I suppose it is still far more "navigable" than the free pdf copies you can find on the internet, as well as being capable of use in one's Accordance package/programme.

 

Best,

 

Michael

[David Lang]

To clarify, names in the dictionary are linked where there are explicit references to other articles, but for this dictionary we did not link every occurrence of a name to its corresponding article.

 

This dictionary is actually a great example of a little known feature of Accordance tools. All the entries use Latin names rather than English names (e.g.: Cyrillus instead of Cyril), but the article text often uses the English name (Cyril instead of Cyrillus). It's an easy thing to overcome this when creating links within a tool, but what if you select the name "Cyril" in another resource and then amplify to this tool? We actually made sure that amplifying from the word "Cyril" will find the entry "Cyrillus." In fact, you can even enter "Cyril" in the search box and find the entry "Cyrillus." That way, you don't get failed searches if you don't happen to know an individual's Latin name.

 

Finally, if you run across a name in an article which is not hyperlinked (such as Pelagius in the article on Augustine), you can simply select it and choose Search Current Resource from the Amplify menu. That will take you to the relevant article.

[mscargill]

Thanks very much David for thsi further clarification. I can see your rationale (and the sense) behind not going to the trouble of linking every single occurence of a name in the text. This certainly sounds like a resource I should (and will) be buying to add to my Accordance modules.

 

Best wishes,

 

Michael