Reading ancient texts in online environments can be an unsatisfying experience. Many applications are cluttered with too much information and are poorly designed. Some are more graceful, but provide language or interpretative help of a limited kind, usually focussed on word-based analysis. Language tools are often over-general, giving the broadest interpretation for a word, or giving all the possibilities for a word-form, but not helping a reader understand it in the context of the text in question.
I created vergil.co.uk as an online reader for Vergil’s Eclogues in an attempt to produce an answer to this challenge. It was first published in January 2023 with the first Eclogue. The second Eclogue was added in June 2026. I wrote a 5,000 word report on the development of the project in April 2024. This goes into depth on the inspiration and design for the reader.
Some key design points are:
- the reading environment should focus on the text and be pleasant to use (including responsive design to support mobile devices);
- information should be provided only when it helps a user read the text;
- the minimum information necessary should be provided;
- the project should be open-source (there is a repository on GitHub).