New investigations of the inscriptions from Crete are highly desirable and expected by historians and epigraphists of ancient Greece. M. Guarducci, Inscriptiones Creticae, vol. I-IV, Rome, Libreria dello Stato, 1935-1950 (I.Cret.: the largest corpus of Greek inscriptions ever realized in Italy) lacks both of the fifth volume, which should have been devoted to the inscriptions of Cretan localities that are no longer identifiable, and of a supplement on inscriptions discovered in the last 90 years. Many of the 15 geographical corpora included in the Inscriptiones Graecae (IG: the most important project on Greek epigraphy), such as those from Attica or Boeotia, received an update after many decades. Because I.Cret. was independently published, Crete was not a priority for IG, and an update dedicated to the Cretan inscriptions never appeared. Therefore, a new edition of all inscriptions from Crete is strongly needed, but it is beyond the possibilities of a single scholar, requiring a very long time. Excluding the re-edition of those inscriptions already collected in I.Cret., the proposed project is consistent with the time scale of a MSCA and would be beneficial to several disciplines. Specifically, it aims at providing:
- a corpus of the Cretan inscriptions not included in I.Cret. A broad scientific impact can be expected, as this corpus will be in synergy with I.Cret. and with findings from other fields (e.g. prosopography).
- an open access digital database to make the result easily accessible. This digital database will help in improving the most popular open access epigraphic publishing projects for Greek inscriptions.
The open access database of epigraphic material will also be made palatable to a broader public, accompanying the collected inscriptions with photos, English translations, commentary, etc. Following the epigraphic tradition, a book edition in Latin will be printed, addressed to a specialised audience. Gender, social and environmental aspects, although not central to the project, are taken into account.
