Advanced search help

When entering a search term in any of the forms, asterisks may be used to match any group of characters or none. For example, a search for mot*e*t* would find results containing the words motet, mottet, motets, mottets, motecta, motetti, and so on. Most records in the catalogue have additional entries under modern spellings of words, so this level of ingenuity is not often necessary.

When entering search terms in the Quick search box you can use the following punctuation to perform phrase searching and to exclude records containing particular words. This gives you many of the features of the Advanced search form. The same syntax may also be used in the printed books and manuscript pieces search forms above.

Phrase searching

Enclose the phrase to be searched for in double-quotes. The asterisk may be used to match many letters or words:
"primo libro* madrigali"

Excluding words

Prefix a word with a dash or minus sign if you want to exclude records containing that term from the results. The asterisk may be used to match several letters:
-mot*et* - exclude any records containing the words motet, motetti, etc.

These techniques can be combined in one search term. For example, to find the 'first book' of anything other than motets, you could enter the following in the title box of the printed music search form:
"primo libro" -mot*e*t*