Alim (Archivio della Latinità Italiana del Medioevo)

A Digital Library with text analysis tools (Lexicon)

Abstract

This article surveys the development of ALIM (Archivio della Latinità Italiana del Medioevo) from its origins in the 1990s to the present. Established under the auspices of the Unione Accademica Nazionale to collect Italian-area Latin texts for the prospective compilation of a dictionary of European Medieval Latin, ALIM has received sustained institutional support, including PRIN funding. The paper highlights the project’s defining features, including the integration of documentary and literary texts, curated Collections, and a sophisticated search syntax, as well as subsequent enhancements such as ALIM Plus, which enables users to include or exclude texts beyond the original chronological (7th–14th centuries) and geographical (Italian area) scope. As a digital library, ALIM provides open-access texts in multiple formats, including TEI-encoded XML, while also supporting advanced linguistic analysis. In particular, the Lexicon tool, designed by F. Stella and developed by L. Tessarolo, facilitates investigations of lexical overlap and exclusivity across corpora. Closely associated with the ALIM project is EVT (dev. R. Rosselli Del Turco), a tool that has become widely adopted for the creation of digital critical editions.