LibGuides: Literature: Medieval & Renaissance sources, 1100-1550

Journals

The A-Z list of journals lets you search for specific journal titles and connect to the full text online.

Books and eBooks reprinting medieval sources

Lost Letters of Medieval Life by Martha Carlin (Editor); David Crouch (Editor)
ISBN: 9780812207569
Publication Date: 2013
Everyday life in early thirteenth-century England is revealed in vivid detail in this riveting collection of correspondence of people from all classes, from peasants and shopkeepers to bishops and earls. The documents edited here include letters between masters and servants, husbands and wives, neighbors and enemies, and cover a wide range of topics: politics and war, going to fairs and going to law, attending tournaments and stocking a game park, borrowing cash and doing favors for friends, investigating adultery and building a windmill.
Middle Ages series (LIST) by University of Pennsylvania Press
Browse list of 200+ books on medieval history from U Penn press- about half are print and half are ebooks.
Medieval Texts in Translation series (LIST) by Catholic University of America Press
Church history, including a manual for curates
Anthologies of Primary Sources (LIST)
Some print, some online
Manchester Medieval Sources series (LIST)

Microfilm research collections

Rerum Britannicarum Medii Aevi Scriptores; Or, Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland During the Middle Ages.

UNLV Libraries Microform Collection Finder This link opens in a new window
Discover microform research collections at UNLV Libraries.
Browse or search brief descriptions of the research collections available on microform at Lied Library. Use a very broad search term (for example, try "women and history" instead of "Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention") because this tool searches short summaries of very large microfilmed collection. The Microform Collection Finder does not search the microfilm itself.

Databases: Primary Source Collections, 1100-1550

Defining Gender This link opens in a new window
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1500s-1920
Primary sources selected to illustrate changing views about gender, themed around conduct, domesticity, consumption and leisure, education, and the body.
Drama Online This link opens in a new window
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Play scripts and scholarly works from Faber and Faber and Bloomsbury's Methuen Drama and Arden Shakespeare imprints.
Over 1000 full text plays, from Aeschylus to the present day, including modern classics from Tom Stoppard, David Mamet, Alan Bennett, Caryl Churchill, Edward Bond, Harold Pinter, Brian Friel, John Osborne, April De Angelis, and David Hare; contemporary writers include Polly Stenham, Katori Hall, D.C. Moore, James Graham, Rebecca Lenkiewicz and Lucy Prebble.

English Drama
1300-1900
3,900 plays in verse and prose from the late thirteenth century to the early twentieth.
English Poetry
700-1900
160,000 poems by more than 1250 poets from the British Isles.
English Poetry, second edition
700-1900
Poetry of the British Isles and the British Empire from the 8th century to the early 20th, representing more than 2,700 poets. The newly-added works illuminate both the literary heritages of Commonwealth and ex-colonial countries and the poetic legacies of English writers only recently brought back to scholarly attention.

The Grand Tour This link opens in a new window
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1550-1850
Firsthand travel accounts of British tourists visiting Europe.
Literary Print Culture: The Stationers Company Archive This link opens in a new window
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1554-2007
Collection of primary source documents related to the workings of the early book trade, the printing and publishing community, the establishment of legal requirements for copyright provisions and the history of bookbinding.
Medieval Travel Writing This link opens in a new window
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1200s-1500s
Manuscripts from journeys to central Asia and the Far East by European ambassadors, missionaries, and merchants like Marco Polo, Prester John, Sir John Mandeville, and Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo.
Perdita Manuscripts This link opens in a new window
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1500s-1600s
Manuscripts written or compiled by women in the British Isles during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

The full text of letters and diary entries, often from works that have been previously published as books containing collections of letters or diaries. Use the Browse indexes to find works about specific historical or life events.

British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
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1500-1900.
Searchable collection of women's letters and diaries.
Medieval Family Life This link opens in a new window
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1400-1500
Letters from the British Paston, Stonor, Cely, Plumpton and Armburgh Papers reveal the world of medieval family, business, relationships, trade, politics and community.

Collections of several types of primary sources curated around a topic or theme.

Age of Exploration This link opens in a new window
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1420-1920
Primary sources like manuscripts, maps and illustrated documents, diaries and ship logs recording the experiences of Europeans as they explored trade routes, colonized the Americas and Australasia, and raced to the North and South Poles.
Americana This link opens in a new window
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1493-1975
Search all American history archival collections from Adam Matthew Publishers.
Combined search of American History, American Indian Histories and Cultures, American West, Everyday Life & Women in America c.1800-1920, Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975, Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, and Virginia Company Archives.
American History (Gilder Lehrman collection) This link opens in a new window
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1493-1945
Primary sources from the Gilder Lehrman collection about American history from the earliest settlers to the mid-twentieth century.
Indigenous Histories and Cultures in North America This link opens in a new window
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1400-1950s
Primary sources for American Indian history in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Manuscripts, artwork and rare printed books from pre-contact through the mid-20th century.
Defining Gender This link opens in a new window
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1500s-1920
Primary sources selected to illustrate changing views about gender, themed around conduct, domesticity, consumption and leisure, education, and the body.
Empire Online This link opens in a new window
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1492-1969
Primary sources about British colonies in Africa, North and South America, Australia, and South Asia, 1492-1969.
Global Commodities: Trade, Exploration and Cultural Exchange This link opens in a new window
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1500-present
Primary source materials that tell the story of global trade in chocolate, coffee, cotton, fur, opium, oil, porcelain, silver and gold, spices, sugar, tea, timber, tobacco, wheat, and wine and spirits.
The Grand Tour This link opens in a new window
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1550-1850
Firsthand travel accounts of British tourists visiting Europe.
Literary Print Culture: The Stationers Company Archive This link opens in a new window
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1554-2007
Collection of primary source documents related to the workings of the early book trade, the printing and publishing community, the establishment of legal requirements for copyright provisions and the history of bookbinding.
Medieval Family Life This link opens in a new window
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1400-1500
Letters from the British Paston, Stonor, Cely, Plumpton and Armburgh Papers reveal the world of medieval family, business, relationships, trade, politics and community.
Medieval Travel Writing This link opens in a new window
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1200s-1500s
Manuscripts from journeys to central Asia and the Far East by European ambassadors, missionaries, and merchants like Marco Polo, Prester John, Sir John Mandeville, and Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo.
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice This link opens in a new window
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1490-2007
Case studies documenting slavery in America, the Caribbean, Brazil and Cuba, along with material examining European, Islamic and African involvement in the slave trade.

Digitized collections of books published during different time periods.

Early English Books Online (EEBO) This link opens in a new window
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1475-1700
Books on all subjects published in England between 1475 and 1700.
Gerritsen Collection-Women's History Online, 1543-1945 This link opens in a new window
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1543-1945
Books and periodicals reflecting the evolution of a feminist consciousness and the movement for women's rights.
Hathi Trust This link opens in a new window
Access to nearly any public domain (pre-1924) book owned and scanned by a library. UNLV users can login with their ACE accounts and download entire "full view" books/documents.
Sabin Americana: History of the Americas, 1500-1926 (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
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1500-1926
Digital library of works written or published in the United States, as well as items printed elsewhere, that document the history of the Americas (North, Central, South and the Caribbean) from 1492 to the mid-1800s.
Primary sources that offer original accounts of exploration, settlement, military actions, Native Americans, westward expansion, European relations with Latin America and more. Based on Sabin's Bibliotheca Americana.

Digitized photos and art images.

ARTstor This link opens in a new window
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Art digital images and related data.
A repository of hundreds of thousands of digital images in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities, social sciences and related data; the tools to actively use those images; and a restricted usage environment that seeks to balance the rights of content providers with the needs and interests of content user.

ITER Bibliography This link opens in a new window
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Bibliography of the Middle Ages and Renaissance covering scholarship in archaeology, art, history, literature, music, philosophy, religion, and history of science for the years 400-1700.
It provides citations for books, journal material published since 1842 (articles, reviews, review articles, bibliographies, catalogues, abstracts and discographies), and citations for essays in books published since 1993.

These links allow you to search across multiple databases at the same time.

AM Explorer This link opens in a new window
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1493-1975
Search all archival collections from Adam Matthew Publishers.
Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
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Includes 19th Century UK Periodicals, Archives of Sexuality & Gender (LGBTQ History), British Library Newspapers, The Economist (1843-2014), Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Nineteenth Century Collections Online, Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers, Sabin Americana (1500-1926), China and the Modern World, London Times Digital Archive, and London Times Literary Supplement.

Online Reference Books

Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages
Articles on all aspects of life from the 5th through the 15th century.
Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World
Cumulative Bibliography of Medieval Military History and Technology
Women in the Middle Ages: An Encyclopedia
Rise of the Medieval World, a biographical dictionary
A handbook of Middle English studies
focus on Middle English literature

Online Primary Sources

British Library manuscripts
Some highlights include the Harley Golden Gospels, Beowulf, the Silos Apocalypse, Leonardo da Vinci’s Notebook, the Petit Livre d’Amour, the Golf Book and the St Cuthbert Gospel.
Camelot Project
Arthurian texts, images, and bibliographies.
Database of Middle English Romance
A guide to more than 80 verse romances from between c.1225 and c.1500. Provides details on date and place of composition (where known), verse form, authorship and sources, extant manuscripts and early modern prints, a full list of modern editions, and a plot summary.
Domesday Book Online
A highly detailed survey and valuation of all the land held by the King and his chief tenants, along with all the resources that went with the land in late 11th century England.
Enluminures
French medieval manuscripts (site is in French)
Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender index
Index of journal articles, book reviews, and essays in books about women, sexuality, and gender during the Middle Ages.
From Stage to Page: Medieval and Renaissance Drama
Morality plays, cycle plays, and select works of Tudor drama transcribed online.
Harry Ransom Center Medieval and Early Modern MSS
215 manuscripts dating from between the 11th and 17th centuries. Many have been digitized and are viewable online.
History of Medieval & Renaissance Europe: Primary Documents - EuroDocs
Primary sources in history linked from EuroDocs wiki.
Internet Medieval Sourcebook
From the Fordham University Center for Medieval Studies, this web site compiles and categorizes primary and secondary sources. Some sections may be outdated, but the categorization is solid and once a text is digitized you can probably find it online somewhere.
The Labyrinth
Directory of medieval resources from Georgetown.
Leeds Medieval Manuscripts
Manuscripts are in Latin unless otherwise stated. Many of the manuscripts are described in N.R. Ker, Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries, (5 volumes, 1969-2002): Vol. 3 for Brotherton Collection and non-Brotherton Collection manuscripts and Vol. 4 for Ripon Cathedral manuscripts. Half of the bound volumes contain illumination or similar decoration. The illuminated manuscripts can be searched with images
Medieval English urban history
The aim of the Medieval English Towns site is to provide historical information about cities and towns in England during the Middle Ages, with particular but not exclusive emphasis on medieval boroughs of East Anglia and on social, political and constitut
Medieval Europe Online
Judith Bennett compiles resources for studying medieval Europe and its neighbors.
Medieval Sourcebook: Full Text Sources
Long list of online full-text medieval texts from Fordham University.
Middle English Compendium
Combines an electronic version of the Middle English Dictionary, a HyperBibliography of Middle English prose and verse, based on the MED bibliographies, and a Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse, as well as links to an associated network of electronic resources.
The Online Medieval & Classical Library
The Online Medieval and Classical Library The Online Medieval and Classical Library (OMACL) is a collection of some of the most important literary works of classical and medieval civilization.
Patrologia Latina library
TEAMS Middle English Texts
The goal of the TEAMS Middle English text series is to make available to teachers and students texts which occupy an important place in the literary and cultural canon but which have not been readily available in student editions.
Thesaurus of Old English
A Thesaurus of Old English is conceptually arranged, and presents the vocabulary of Anglo-Saxon England within ordered categories. This allows the user to approach the materials of the Thesaurus by subject rather than through an alphabetic index.

Reference Works in Lied (in the stacks)

International Medieval Bibliography
Call Number: In LASR
1967-2012 volumes in LASR.
Greenwood guides to historic events of the medieval world
Timelines, annotated bibliographies, and an anthology of primary sources on various medieval topics: the black death, the Crusades, cathedrals, and science and technology.
Understanding Medieval Primary Sources by Joel T. Rosenthal (Editor)
ISBN: 9780415780742
Publication Date: 2011
The New Cambridge Medieval History by Paul Fouracre (Editor)
Call Number: D117 .N48 1995
ISBN: 9780521362917
Publication Date: 2005
The seven volume set represents both an invaluable conspectus of current scholarship and an expert introduction to the period.
Dictionary of the Middle Ages by Joseph R. Strayer (Editor)
Call Number: D114 .D5 1982
ISBN: 0684190737
Publication Date: 1989