In short: Repertories are classified by scope (general, clinical, particular), by the philosophy they were built on (Kentian or Boenninghausen–Boger), by arrangement (head-to-foot chapters, alphabetical, generals first) and by form (book, card, computer). Most repertories carry a label on several of these axes at once, so the same name can sit under different headings. The chart below gives every class a named example, and eight of those examples are free to open on Similia.
This is education for qualified homeopaths and serious students, not self-treatment advice.
A repertory is an index of symptoms, called rubrics, each listing the remedies recorded for it, graded by strength. Our complete guide to the homeopathic repertory covers rubrics, grades and how the major works differ. This guide sorts the types of repertory into classes and points each class at a real repertory, whether you are revising for an exam or want to know what kind of book you are holding.
Every scope and philosophy class has a free example you can open now. Kent and Knerr (general), Oscar Boericke's repertory (clinical), Ward's and Roberts' Sensations As If (particular) and Boenninghausen's Therapeutic Pocketbook, Boger's BBCR and Synoptic Key (Boenninghausen–Boger) are the eight classical repertories in Similia Free, with AI semantic repertory search across all eight: no download, no credit card. Open the free repertory library →
Classification of repertory: the chart
Read the chart one axis at a time; the same repertory turns up in several rows. The philosophy axis applies only to repertories built on Kent's method or the Boenninghausen–Boger method, so Boericke's, Knerr's, Ward's and Roberts' repertories have no row there.
| Axis | Class | What defines it | Examples | Open an example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scope | General | Covers the whole patient, every region from Mind to Generalities | Kent; Knerr's repertory of Hering's Guiding Symptoms; Complete Repertory 2026, Murphy's MetaRepertory, Saine Repertory 2025 (Pro); Synthesis | Kent, free |
| Scope | Clinical | Headings are named conditions and organ complaints, not single symptoms | Oscar E. Boericke's repertory in the Pocket Manual; the Clinical section of Murphy's MetaRepertory (Pro) | Boericke, free |
| Scope | Particular (also regional or special) | Indexes one kind of symptom or one region | Ward's and Roberts' Sensations As If; Degroote's Dreams Repertory and Sherr's Q-Rep 5 (paid add-ons) | Ward and Roberts, free |
| Philosophy | Kentian | Mental and general symptoms ranked above particulars | Kent | Kent, free |
| Philosophy | Boenninghausen–Boger | Complete symptoms; modalities generalised across the whole case | Boenninghausen's Therapeutic Pocketbook; Boger's BBCR; Boger's Synoptic Key; Phatak's Concise Repertory | Pocketbook, BBCR and Synoptic Key, free |
| Arrangement | Head to foot | Anatomical chapters from Mind to Generalities | Kent (37 chapters); Knerr (39 chapters) | Kent, free |
| Arrangement | Alphabetical | Chapters in alphabetical order, or no chapters and one alphabet of headings | Murphy's MetaRepertory, 49 chapters in alphabetical order (Pro); Phatak's Concise Repertory, one alphabet | No free example |
| Arrangement | Generals first | Time and modalities come before the regions | Boger's Synoptic Key | Synoptic Key, free |
| Form | Book | Printed volume, searched by hand | Kent, the BBCR and the other classical repertories as first printed | Kent, now on screen |
| Form | Card (mechanically aided) | One rubric per card; stacking the cards eliminates | Boger's Card Repertory; Kishore's (not on Similia) | No free example |
| Form | Computer | A database that searches repertories and totals the remedies for you | Repertory software, Similia among them | Repertory library |
In the chart, free means one of the eight classical repertories in Similia Free, Pro marks a Pro edition and paid add-on a one-time purchase. Works with no link are named as class examples, not as something you can open here.
Concordances are not a class of their own in this chart. They are chapters inside repertories: Boenninghausen's Therapeutic Pocketbook and Boger's BBCR list, for a remedy that has already acted, the remedies related to it, and Knerr's repertory carries Hering's relationship material. The remedy relationships guide explains how to read them.
Why one repertory sits in several classes
A repertory has several properties at once, so a repertory classification that gives each book a single heading has to pick one property and drop the rest. Kent's repertory is general by scope, Kentian by philosophy and head to foot by arrangement, and by form it is a printed book that software now carries: four labels, all correct.
The four axes are this guide's framework, a map rather than an official scheme. If your syllabus sets its own list of headings, answer with those headings and use the axes to check that you can place each repertory under the others. You will also meet labels such as puritan, regional and mechanically aided. Regional corresponds to the particular class under scope here and mechanically aided to the card class under form; for puritan, use the definition your syllabus gives.
For how repertories developed from Boenninghausen to the modern editors, read what repertorisation is and where it came from.
Scope: general, clinical and particular repertories
General
A general repertory covers the whole patient, every region from mind to generalities, so any symptom has a chapter to go in.
Kent. James Tyler Kent's Repertory of the Homoeopathic Materia Medica, first published in 1897, expanded the earlier repertories of Lippe and Boenninghausen into 37 chapters from MIND to GENERALITIES, with three grades of remedy; on Similia it holds about 68,000 rubrics. That structure became the standard for later repertories and the basis of Synthesis and the Complete Repertory. Our guide to Kent's structure lists all 37 chapters. Open Kent free →
Knerr. Calvin B. Knerr's Repertory of Hering's Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica runs head to foot like Kent, from MIND to GENERALITIES, then adds a last chapter, STAGES OF LIFE AND CONSTITUTION, for 39 in all. In Similia's data it is the largest of the eight free classical repertories, with 148,388 rubric rows, chapter headings included. It is general in scope but single-source: it indexes one materia medica, Constantine Hering's ten-volume Guiding Symptoms, published between 1879 and 1891, the final volumes after Hering's death in 1880. Each rubric therefore leads back to a remedy's chapter in Hering. Our guide to Knerr's repertory covers its chapters and grades. Open Knerr free, and read the Guiding Symptoms free in the materia medica library.
Pro examples. Three modern general repertories are Pro on Similia, not part of the Free plan. Roger van Zandvoort's Complete Repertory 2026 holds 247,334 rubrics covering more than 2,500 remedies in its October 2025 edition, each rubric traced to its original source with page numbers (the Complete Repertory explained). André Saine's Saine Repertory 2025 is an enhanced edition of Complete Repertory 4.5 with more than 150,000 additions. Robin Murphy's MetaRepertory (4th edition, 2018) is general in scope but alphabetical in arrangement (Murphy's repertory online). For how the large general repertories compare with Kent, read Murphy vs Kent vs Complete.
Clinical
A clinical repertory files remedies under named conditions and organ complaints rather than under single symptoms, even when those headings are grouped by body system. The free example is the repertory compiled by Oscar E. Boericke and added to the ninth edition (1927) of his brother William Boericke's Pocket Manual; on Similia it holds 8,360 entries in 26 sections, from MIND to MODALITIES. Open it free, read the Pocket Manual it was added to, and see the guide to Boericke's Clinical Repertory for how it is used.
Particular
A particular repertory indexes one kind of symptom, or one region, instead of the whole patient; you will also see the class called regional or special. Two of the free classical repertories belong here, both devoted to sensations described "as if":
- Ward. James William Ward's Unabridged Dictionary of the Sensations "As If". On Similia it holds 36,344 entries in two sections, Pathogenetic and Clinical, as an almost flat list only two levels deep.
- Roberts. Herbert A. Roberts' Sensations "As If": A Repertory of Subjective Symptoms. On Similia it holds 20,408 entries in 25 sections, from "Mind and sensorium" to "Generals", including "Sleep and dreams".
Two narrower repertories in Similia's catalogue are paid one-time add-ons: Filip Degroote's Dreams Repertory, with 207,639 rubrics, and Jeremy Sherr and Raphael Neu's Q-Rep 5, a thematic repertory of mental qualities.
Philosophy: Kentian and Boenninghausen–Boger
Kentian. Kent's Lectures on Homoeopathic Philosophy (1900) and Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica (1905) set out a method that ranks the mental and general symptoms above the particulars. His repertory is the reference example of the class.
Boenninghausen–Boger. These repertories are built for complete symptoms, assembled from location, sensation, modality and concomitant, with modalities generalised across the whole case rather than tied to one part. When that approach suits a case better than Kent's is a question of method, covered in the Boenninghausen–Boger repertory method. Four works belong to the class:
- Therapeutic Pocketbook. Boenninghausen's own compact repertory of 1846, built around the four parts of the complete symptom, is the parent of the class. It is free on Similia as TPB, alongside Boger's BBCR.
- BBCR. C. M. Boger (1861–1935) published Boenninghausen's Characteristics and Repertory in 1905, reorganising and expanding Boenninghausen's work. Similia's digital edition holds 30,070 entries in 57 top-level sections, from MIND, SENSORIUM and VERTIGO to CONDITIONS OF AGGRAVATION AND AMELIORATION IN GENERAL.
- Synoptic Key. A Synoptic Key of the Materia Medica, first published in 1915 and revised through 1931, combines a materia medica (322 remedies on Similia), a compact repertory and a summary of Boger's method in one volume. Its repertory on Similia has 3,173 entries in 79 sections. Open the repertory free or read the book free.
- Phatak. S. R. Phatak's Concise Repertory is a later, condensed work in the Boger line, described in our Phatak study guide. It is not on Similia.
Arrangement: head to foot, alphabetical, generals first
The arrangement decides where you look for a rubric.
Head to foot. Kent's 37 chapters and Knerr's 39 run from MIND to GENERALITIES, so you find a rubric by knowing which part of the patient it belongs to.
Alphabetical. This takes two forms. Murphy's MetaRepertory (Pro) keeps chapters but puts them in alphabetical order: 49 chapters across Mind, Body and Clinical sections, restructured from the 74 chapters of the third edition. Phatak's Concise Repertory has no chapters at all, only one alphabet of headings from "Abdomen, affections in general" to "Zygomae", so you need the word, not the chapter. Neither is among the free repertories.
Generals first. Boger's Synoptic Key opens its repertory with TIME, then CONDITIONS OF AGGRAVATION AND AMELIORATION, then GENERALITIES, then INTELLECT and MIND, and only then VERTIGO and HEAD. The materia medica half of the book follows the same logic. Its Nux vomica entry names the regions the remedy affects, then opens its WORSE list with time and cold:
EARLY MORNING.
COLD: OPEN AIR (Dry). Drafts. Seats. Wind. UNCOVERING.
— C. M. Boger, A Synoptic Key of the Materia Medica, Nux vomica (public-domain text on Similia)
To see head to foot and generals first side by side, browse a repertory by chapter in Kent and then in the Synoptic Key.
Card repertories
A card repertory puts each rubric on its own card, with every remedy in a fixed position on it. Lay the cards for the chosen symptoms on top of one another and only the remedies marked on every card stay visible, so the elimination is done mechanically; hence the label mechanically aided. The patented version described in our repertorisation sheet guide perforated each symptom card at its remedies, in colours that mark the grade.
That is also its weakness: a remedy missing from any one card drops out, so every card acts as an eliminating rubric, which shortens the analysis but fails if a rubric is chosen carelessly.
Boger's Card Repertory belongs here. Similia's biography of Boger records that "his General Analysis and Card Repertory extended the same method" as his Boenninghausen work. The cards are not on Similia, but General Analysis (1931, 263 remedies on Similia) is free to read, and each remedy page lists the general headings under which Boger placed that remedy. Kishore's card repertory is a separate work that Similia does not include.
Software does the same elimination on screen. The full steps of a repertorisation are in our beginner's guide to repertorisation.
Computer repertories
A computer repertory holds one or more repertories as a database that you search and filter, and it totals the remedies across the rubrics you add instead of leaving the counting to you. Similia is one example: its library covers 15 repertories across Free, Pro and add-ons, lets you compare rubrics from different repertories side by side, and turns the rubrics of a case into a repertorisation grid that scores remedies by the number and grade of matching rubrics. In Similia Free, AI semantic repertory search works across the eight classical repertories, so a symptom typed in plain language can find a rubric whose wording differs from yours.
Using the classification in an exam answer and at the desk
In an exam. A classification of repertory answer reads best when it names its axes first, then gives each class a definition and one example. An outline built from this guide:
- By scope. General: Kent (1897; 37 chapters, three grades) and Knerr (39 chapters, an index to Hering's Guiding Symptoms). Clinical: Oscar E. Boericke's repertory (Pocket Manual, ninth edition, 1927). Particular: Ward's and Roberts' Sensations As If.
- By philosophy. Kentian: Kent. Boenninghausen–Boger: the Therapeutic Pocketbook (1846), the BBCR (1905), the Synoptic Key (1915) and Phatak's Concise Repertory.
- By arrangement. Head to foot: Kent, Knerr. Alphabetical: Murphy (chapters in alphabetical order), Phatak (one alphabet). Generals first: the Synoptic Key.
- By form. Book: the classical repertories as printed. Card: Boger's Card Repertory. Computer: repertory software.
Close by placing Kent on every axis.
At the desk. Pick the class that fits the question you are asking:
| If your question is about | Reach for this class | Example on Similia |
|---|---|---|
| The whole case, from mind to generals | General | Kent; Knerr to follow a symptom back to Hering |
| A named complaint, for orientation before a full analysis | Clinical | Oscar Boericke's repertory |
| An "as if" sensation | Particular | Ward or Roberts |
| Modalities that hold across the whole case | Boenninghausen–Boger | BBCR or the Synoptic Key |
| A word you know when you do not know the chapter | Alphabetical | Murphy (Pro); on Free, AI semantic repertory search finds the rubric from plain language |
Similia Free includes the eight classical repertories with AI semantic repertory search, 21 classic materia medica books to read, and basic case management capped at 3 new cases and 3 analyses per month. Murphy's MetaRepertory, the Complete Repertory and the Saine Repertory are in the Pro editions; the Free vs Pro comparison sets out the rest.
Open the repertory library → Then choose which repertories and sources to search.
