Medieval History Research Guide

"CANTUS is a database that assembles indices of the Latin ecclesiastical chants found in early manuscript and printed sources for the liturgical Office, such as antiphoners and breviaries." - CANTUS

"The Christian Classics Ethereal Library is a digital library of hundreds of classic Christian books selected for edification and education. The online www.ccel.org server reaches several million different users each year." -CCEL

This website provides links to several sources that pertain to early medieval warfare, 10th/11th century warfare, the crusades, early medieval warfare etc.

Houghton Library's collection of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts represents a significant resource for the study of the literature, art, history, music, philosophy, and theology of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in Western Europe." - The Houghton Library.

"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

"The database has two sections: the introduction which contains general information about the project, and bio- bibliographical introductions to each of the saints of the 8th–10th centuries included in the project; and the database itself which in turn is divided into three sections, the Saints' list, the Author' list, and the search citations. The Greek texts that we have been permitted to reproduce either in their entirety or in sections may be accessed through the Saints' list (entire texts) or search citations (partial texts)." - Dumbarton OaksHagiography Database

" Thomas of Ireland's Manipulus florum ("Handful of flowers") belongs to the genre of medieval texts known as florilegia, collections of authoritative quotations that are the forerunners of modern reference works such as Bartlett's Familiar Quotations and The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. This particular florilegium contains approximately 6000 Latin proverbs and textual excerpts (provided in 5821 entries*) that are attributed to various classical, patristic and medieval authors. Compiled in Paris at the beginning of the 14th century (1306), it survives in nearly 200 manuscripts and was published in at least 50 editions between 1483 and 1887, making it by far the most widely-disseminated and, presumably, the most influential anthology of Latin quotations produced during the Middle Ages." - The Electronic Manipulus florum Project

"Epistolae is a collection of medieval Latin letters to and from women. The letters collected here date from the 4th to the 13th centuries, and they are presented in their original Latin as well as in English translation. The letters are organized by the name and biography of the women writers or recipients. Biographical sketches of the women, descriptions of the subject matter of the letters, and the historical context of the correspondence are included where available." - Epistolae

This is a portal to primary source collections from the European Countries. This set of documents focus on the medieval period.

The Europeana Collections portal provides access to wide variety or sources from various European libraries.

"The Hanover Historical Texts Collection makes available digital versions of historical texts for use in history and humanities courses." - Hanover Historical Texts Collection

This website provides access to a number of full text sources.

The Bodman Collection of Italian Renaissance Manuscripts is but a small part of the splendid collection of books, incunabula, and manuscripts assembled and given to The Claremont Colleges Library from 1956 to 1960, by Mr. Harold C. Bodman. On view in this digital collection are eleven autograph, signed letters written between members of the Medici family of Florence and others in their social and political circles, including Angelo Poliziano, the Sforza family, Palla Strozzi, and Francesco Guicciardini. Written between 1426 and 1522, the letters touch on a number of issues urgent to the House of Medici including military campaigns, political associations, and the trials of family life.

The Virtual Library of Medieval Manuscripts (BVMM) from the Institute for Research and History of Texts (IRHT-CNRS) provides access to reproductions of a wide selection of manuscripts from the Middle Ages to the sixteenth century.

This project provides access to late medieval illuminated manuscripts.

"The aim of the project is two-fold: The first aim is to offer a single, unified database framework for the extraction of prosopographical and socio-economic data found in early medieval legal documents. The second aim is to apply this framework to legal documents surviving from the reign of Charlemagne (25 September 768 to 28 January 814 AD). The reign of Charlemagne offers a particularly good case study, since it was a period of unprecedented expansion, leading to the absorption by the Frankish empire of many diverse regions within a short period of time." - Making of Charlemagne's Europe' Project

"Manuscripts Online enables you to search a diverse body of online primary resources relating to written and early printed culture in Britain during the period 1000 to 1500. The resources include literary manuscripts, historical documents and early printed books which are located on websites owned by libraries, archives, universities and publishers." - Manuscripts Online

"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

"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

The Avalon Project lists several primary source documents that relevant to medieval history.

"The long thirteenth century was characterised by a vernacular musico-poetic culture in which short fragments of text and/or music circulated within and between songs of various types (chanson à refrain, chanson avec des refrains, rondeau), the motet repertory, the romance and a host of other types that impinged on music, literature or both. REFRAIN provides a searchable database of this repertory, providing access through refrains themselves, motets, narratives, songs and other genres." - REFRAIN

"The RI-Opac is a freely accessible database, covering all disciplines of medieval sciences for the European language sphere. Within the context of the project Regesta Imperii Online, the RI-Opac is both an online bibliography of the literature quoted in RI publications and a freely accessible, comprehensive database for historical research. One of the system's main goals is the in-depth recording of non-independently published literature, such as essays and proceedings; brought together from myriad collected editions and magazines even of the most remote origin." - Regesta Imperii Online

This website provides access to images of medieval and early modern stained glass.

"The Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts (SDBM) makes available data on medieval manuscript books of five or more folios produced before 1600. Its purpose is to facilitate research for scholars, collectors, and others interested in manuscript studies and the provenance of these unique books." The Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts