Research Guides: HIST 190-2: Sex and Violence in the Middle Ages: Finding Primary Sources

Searching DiscoverE for Primary Sources

A primary source is a document, recording or other source of information created at the time being studied, by an authoritative source, usually one with direct personal knowledge of the events being described.

Primary sources include diaries, letters, family records, statistics, speeches, interviews, autobiographies, film, government documents, or original scientific research.

Try searching discoverE for primary sources. It will allow to you limit by language.

Marriage -- History -- To 1500 -- Sources

Sex -- History -- To 1500 -- Sources

Primary Sources

Biblissima Portal
"An entry point to the written heritage of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in Western Europe, from the 8th to the 18th century."
more...less...
"The Biblissima Portal provides unified access to a set of digital data on medieval manuscripts, incunabula and early printed books produced by the partners of the Biblissima consortium."
The Book of the City of Ladies
"Christine de Pisan (circa 1364–1430) was born in Italy and came to France at the age of four with her father. Arguably the first woman in Europe to earn a living as an author, she is widely regarded as an early feminist who spoke out for the rights of women and espoused female achievement. She wrote poems and prose texts that were often allegorical and philosophical and that reflected her own original and engaged personality."
De Re Militari: The Society for Medieval Military History
"De Re Militari: the Society for Medieval Military History is a scholarly society dedicated to the study of warfare, broadly construed, in the Middle Ages."
Digital Library of Medieval Manuscripts
"The Digital Library of Medieval Manuscripts (DLMM) currently encompasses the Roman de la Rose Digital Library and the Christine de Pizan Digital Scriptorium. It offers a research environment in which the 13th-century narrative of the Rose and the works of late 14th/early 15th-century author, Christine de Pizan, can be explored in their manuscript context."
Digital Scriptorium (UC Berkeley)
"Digital Scriptorium (DS) is a growing organization of institutional partners with collections of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts. DS provides an online union catalog of these collections and thus unites scattered resources from many institutions into an international tool for teaching and scholarly research." - Digital Scriptorium
Epistolae: Medieval Women's Letters
"Epistolae is a collection of letters to and from women dating from the 4th to the 13th century AD. These letters from the Middle Ages, written in Latin, are presented with English translations and are organized by the women participating. Biographical sketches of the women and descriptions of the subject matter or the historic context of the letter is included where available." - Epistolae
EuroDocs: History of Medieval & Renaissance Europe: Primary Documents
This is a portal to primary source collections from the European Countries. These documents focus on the medieval period.
Europeana Collections
The Europeana Collections portal provides access to wide variety or sources from various European librari
European History Primary Sources
European History Primary Sources (EHPS) is a joint initiative of the Library and the Department of History and Civilization of the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. It is also part of the WWW Virtual Library History Central Catalogue that is hosted at the EUI. The purpose of EHPS is to provide an easily searchable index of scholarly digital repositories that contain primary sources for the history of Europe.
The France and England Project: Medieval Manuscripts between 700 and 1200
"The programme titled “England and France, 700–1200: medieval manuscripts from the BnF and the British Library”, includes eight hundred manuscripts preserved in equal parts by the BnF and the British Library. These two libraries hold two of the largest collections of medieval manuscripts in the world."
Hanover Historical Texts Collection
"The Hanover Historical Texts Collection makes available digital versions of historical texts for use in history and humanities courses." - Hanover Historical Texts Collection
Internet Medieval Sourcebook (Fordham University)
This website provides access to a number of full text sources.
The Labyrinth: Resources for Medieval Studies
"The Labyrinth provides free, organized access to resources in medieval studies. The Labyrinth’s easy-to-use links provide connections to databases, services, texts, and images around the world."
Late Medieval Illustrated Manuscripts from the Bibliotheca Palatina (Heidelberg University Library and the Institute for Art History of Heidelberg University)
This project provides access to late medieval illuminated manuscripts.
The Making of the Queen's Manuscript
"The Making of the Queen's Manuscript focuses on London, British Library, Harley MS 4431, the largest surviving collected manuscript of the works of Christine de Pizan (1365-ca1431). Commissioned by Queen Isabel of France, the collection was planned, copied, decorated and corrected under Christine's direct supervision, before being presented to Queen Isabel early in 1414." - The British Library
Mapping Gothic France
"With a database of images, texts, charts and historical maps, Mapping Gothic France invites you to explore the parallel stories of Gothic architecture and the formation of France in the 12th and 13th centuries, considered in three dimensions:" - Mapping Gothic France
Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts Collection: Database and Digital Images
"The Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts Collection contains 215 medieval or Renaissance manuscripts that date between the 11th and 17th centuries. This database contains item-level descriptions for each of the manuscripts and enables keyword searching as well as several different ways to browse the collection contents." - Harry Ransom Center
Medieval Documents: 400 -1399: Avalon Project (Yale University)
The Avalon Project lists several primary source documents that relevant to medieval history.
Medieval Family Life-The Paston, Stonor, Cely, Plumpton and Armburgh Papers (Coverage: 1200-1500)
The Medieval Family Life database contains the only 5 major letter collections from fifteenth century England, the Paston, Stonor, Cely, Plumpton and Armburgh Papers.
more...less...
The Paston letters document the life of a gentry family during the War of the Roses. The Celys were a merchant family in the wool trade and collections contains commercial dealings for both the economic and social historians. Plumptons documents continue through to the early 16th century, and Armburgh family material is primarily concerned with a dispute over a family inheritance. It includes both the original medieval manuscripts and transcripts, as well as family trees, a chronology, a glossary, a and an interactive map.
Monastic Matrix
"The project draws on both textual and material sources, primary and secondary, although its basis is unpublished archival evidence. It addresses a variety of individuals and groups in medieval Europe, and a range of ecclesiastical institutions, including monastic houses of every size, affiliation, and rule. Our editorial intentions in selecting and presenting material are both scholarly and pedagogical."
Robbins Library Digital Projects (Univ. of Rochester)
"From University of Rochester. Projects: Camelot. Teams Middle English Texts. Robin Hood. Crusades. Cinderella Bibliography. Visualizing Chaucer. Overall search by keyword. Also search within each project. Names of women and topics of interest to them can be entered."

Databases

British History Online This link opens in a new window
Access primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles.
to records of commerce and trade, taxation, population and property; to art and architecture, science and the history of ideas; to historical and topographical sources relating to specific places; and to parliamentary history. Created by the Institute of Historical Research and the History of Parliament Trust.
Defining Gender, 1450-1910 This link opens in a new window
Contains primary source materials from British and European archives. Organized thematically, the documents were selected by academic consultants who also contributed essays.
Early English Books Online This link opens in a new window
Contains digital facsimile page images of a large collection of work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and British North America, and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700.
Medieval Travel Writing This link opens in a new window
Contains manuscripts of European travel writing dating from the 13th to the 16th centuries culled from libraries around the world. Topics include geography, exploration, trade, literature, and the new field of medieval postcolonial studies.
Perdita Manuscripts: Women Writers, 1500-1700 This link opens in a new window
Access early modern women authors who were "lost" because their writing exists only in manuscript form. Over 230 entries have been selected and digitized. Also includes biographical and bibliographical information and essays by specialists in the field.
Translated Texts for Historians E-Library This link opens in a new window
The renowned Translated Texts for Historians E-Library makes available historical sources from A.D. 300–800 translated into English, in many cases for the first time. This indispensable collection contains 68 volumes from the series that bring together a wealth of important early medieval texts in translation, with scholarship from leading academics.