Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae
Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae is a three-volume collection of Latin inscriptions that has guided scholars through the carved and painted records of ancient Rome for well over a century. Its editor, Hermann Dessau, shaped the work so thoroughly that researchers still cite it simply as "Dessau" or by the single letter D. What holds the collection together? How does a scholar locate one inscription among thousands? And why does a work published between 1892 and 1916 still sit at the center of how modern historians read stone?
Dessau released the work in five parts over more than two decades, beginning in 1892 and completing the final volume in 1916. That span was not a delay but a deliberate method: each part arrived with its supporting material and notes written entirely in Latin, the shared scholarly tongue that allowed researchers across Europe to use the same apparatus without translation. The three volumes eventually covered inscriptions numbered from ILS 1 all the way to ILS 9522, with the final volume also containing an index. Dessau organized the inscriptions not by geography or by date but by topic. Each thematic chapter, called a caput in Latin, gathered related material together: funerary inscriptions in one place, inscriptions tied to collegia in another. That grouping by subject made the collection a working research tool rather than a raw archive.
Every inscription in the collection carries its own identifying number, and that number became the standard shorthand in classical scholarship. A researcher citing a Latin inscription will often supply the ILS number alongside a reference to the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, the far more comprehensive corpus known as the CIL. A typical citation looks like this: CIL 12.2.774 paired with ILS 39. The dual reference is not redundancy. The CIL is the exhaustive scientific record; the ILS is the curated selection that most scholars can actually navigate. A concordance linking the two systems was published in Rome in 1950 and then again in Berlin in 1955, giving researchers a map between the two works.
The work has never gone out of use. Numerous reprints have kept it in circulation since the original Berlin publication ended in 1916. All three volumes are downloadable in full text from the Internet Archive. The first volume, covering ILS 1 to 2956, dates from 1892. The two parts of the second volume appeared in 1902 and 1906, carrying the numbering from ILS 2957 through ILS 8883. The third and final volume, completed across 1914 and 1916, adds ILS 8884 to 9522 and the index. The searchable online database Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss/Slaby now includes all of Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae under the abbreviation D, making the collection searchable in ways Dessau could not have imagined when he cut the first sheets in Berlin.
Common questions
What is Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae and who edited it?
Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae is a three-volume selection of Latin inscriptions edited by Hermann Dessau and published in Berlin between 1892 and 1916. It is standardly abbreviated ILS and is also cited as Dessau or D.
How many inscriptions are in Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae?
Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae contains inscriptions numbered from ILS 1 to ILS 9522, with the third volume also including an index. The collection was issued in five parts across three volumes.
How is Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae organized?
The inscriptions are grouped by topic within thematic chapters called capita (singular caput). Categories include funerary inscriptions and inscriptions pertaining to collegia. Each inscription carries its own identifying number.
How do scholars cite Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae alongside the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum?
Scholars typically give both references together, for example CIL 12.2.774 paired with ILS 39. A concordance linking the two corpora was published in Rome in 1950 and in Berlin in 1955.
When was Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae published and is it available online?
The work was published serially from 1892 to 1916 and has been reprinted numerous times. All three volumes are available as full-text downloads from the Internet Archive, and the collection is searchable through the Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss/Slaby under the abbreviation D.
What language are the notes in Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae written in?
All supporting material and notes in Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae are written in Latin, the shared scholarly language that allowed researchers across different countries to use the same apparatus.