Medieval Studies and Research: Getting Started: Databases & Journals

Enluminures.  Offered in French only. Free access to more than 120,000 images, in the form of thumbnails and full screen, digital reproductions of illuminations and decorative elements from more than 5,000 medieval manuscripts kept in approx. 100 French municipal libraries.

The Internet History Sourcebooks Project.  This is a "collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts (...) Primary sources are available here primarily for use in high-school and university/college courses. From the outset the site took a very broad view of the sources that should be available to students and as well as documents long associated with a "western civilization" approach to history also provides much information on Byzantine, Islamic, Jewish, Indian, East Asian, and African history. You will also find many documents especially relevant to women's history and LGBT studies. "

Latin Place Names. Features Latin place names found in the imprints of books printed before 1801 and their vernacular equivalents.

Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law Vol. 30 (2013) through current issue

Digital Philology: A Journal of Medieval Cultures Vol. 1 (2012) through current issue

Early Modern Women Vol. 10 (2015) through current issue

Franciscan Studies Vol. 3 (1943) through current issue (with gaps in several volumes)

Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies Vol. 1 (2001) through current issue

Journal of Early Christian Studies Vol. 1 (1993) through current issue

Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies Vol. 1 (2013) through current issue

Journal of Late Antiquity Vol. 1 (2008) through current issue.

Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies Vol. 27, no. 1 (1997); Vol. 30 (2000) - vol. 34 (2004)

Manuscript Studies: A Journal of the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies Vol. 1 (2016) through current issue

Mediaevalia Vol. 32 (2011) through current issue

Parergon No. 1 (1983) through current issue

The Medieval Globe

Cahiers de Civilisation Mediévale. The Cahiers have been published by the CESCM since 1958. "Firmly multidisciplinary, they welcome contributions in the form of original synthetic articles as well as articles dedicated to more precise subjects in every discipline, the aim of which is to foster a better comprehension of the High Middle Ages (history, literature, art history, history of law, musicology, philology, philosophy, and so on) by promoting both interdisciplinarity and the specific features of each field."  Indexed in Persée for 1958 (vol. 1) - 2007.

Early Medieval Europe "Early Medieval Europe provides an indispensable source of information and debate on the history of Europe from the later Roman Empire to the eleventh century. The journal is a thoroughly interdisciplinary forum, encouraging the discussion of archaeology, numismatics, palaeography, diplomatic, literature, onomastics, art history, linguistics and epigraphy, as well as more traditional historical approaches. It covers Europe in its entirety, including material on Iceland, Ireland, the British Isles, Scandinavia and Continental Europe (both west and east). "

Exemplaria  Exemplaria is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering the Middle Ages and the Early modern period. It was established in 1989.

Gesta. The ICMA (International Center of Medieval Art) journal Gesta publishes original research on medieval art and architecture. The journal embraces all facets of artistic production from ca. 300 to ca. 1500 C.E. in every corner of the medieval world.

The Heroic Age: A journal of Early Medieval Northwestern Europe.  “The Heroic Age is dedicated to the exploration all aspects of early medieval Northwestern Europe, from a variety of vantage points and disciplines from the beginning of the fourth century through the beginning of the thirteenth. By bringing various points of view to the table, we hope to open new vistas of investigation and strengthen ties among early medieval studies and its popular bases.”

Journal of Early Modern History. The early modern period of world history (ca. 1300-1800) was marked by a rapidly increasing level of global interaction. Between the aftermath of Mongol conquest in the East and the onset of industrialization in the West, a framework was established for new kinds of contacts and collective self-definition across an unprecedented range of human and physical geographies. The Journal of Early Modern History (JEMH), the official journal of the University of Minnesota Center for Early Modern History, is the first scholarly journal dedicated to the study of early modernity from this world-historical perspective, whether through explicitly comparative studies, or by the grouping of studies around a given thematic, chronological, or geographic frame.

Journal of Medieval History. This is an international academic journal devoted to all aspects of the history of Europe in the Middle Ages. Each issue contains 4 or 5 original articles on European history, including the British Isles, North Africa, and the Middle East, in the time period between the Fall of Rome and the Renaissance.

Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. Published since 1941, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians is a leading English-language journal on the history of the built environment. Each issue offers four to five scholarly articles on topics from all periods of history and all parts of the world, reviews of recent books, exhibitions, films, and other media, as well as a variety of editorials and opinion pieces designed to place the discipline of architectural history within a larger intellectual context.

Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. "An interdisciplinary forum, uniting scholars specialising in cultural history including the history of art, and intellectual history including the history of ideas. It publishes articles based on new research, normally from primary sources. The subject matter encompasses intellectual themes and traditions, the arts in their various forms, religion, philosophy, science, literature and magic, as well as political and social life, from antiquity to the dawn of the contemporary era. Typically the subjects discussed either centre on or have some connection with Western, usually European cultures; therefore, too, the Journal provides a home for research into the many interconnections between those cultures and others which have flourished beyond European borders - particularly, but by no means limited to, the cultures and learning of the Near East. "(indexed in JSTOR)

Monastic Matrix. Monastic Matrix is an ongoing collaborative effort by an international group of scholars of medieval history, religion, history of art, archaeology, religion, and other disciplines, as well as librarians and experts in computer technology.  "Our goal is to document the participation of Christian women in the religion and society of medieval Europe. In particular, we aim to collect and make available all existing data about Christian religious women in Europe between 400 and 1600 C.E."

Manuscripta: A Journal for Manuscript Research.  "Manuscripta, published under the auspices of the Knights of Columbus Vatican Film Library, Saint Louis University, publishes articles, notes, and reviews in medieval and Renaissance manuscript studies. The journal focuses on the material aspects of the production, distribution, reception, and transmission of pre-modern manuscripts, including such topics as paleography, codicology, illumination, reading and literacy, textual editing and transmission, library history, catalogues, etc."

Medieval Encounters. "Medieval Encounters promotes discussion and dialogue across cultural, linguistic and disciplinary boundaries on the interactions of Jewish, Christian and Muslim cultures during the period from the fourth through to the sixteenth century C.E."

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality. This is an online, peer-reviewed journal of interdisciplinary scholarship on women and gender in medieval studies.

The Medieval Review. "Since 1993, The Medieval Review (formerly the Bryn Mawr Medieval Review) has been publishing reviews of current work in all areas of medieval studies, a field it interprets as broadly as possible. The electronic medium allows for very rapid publication of reviews, and provides a computer searchable archive of past reviews, both of which are of great utility to scholars and students around the world."

Medium Aevum. "Since 1932, the Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature has existed to advance education by the encouragement and dissemination to the scholarly community and wider public of research on medieval languages and literature. The Society does this primarily through its publications, Medium Aevum, and its Monograph Series.

New Medieval Literatures.  New Medieval Literatures is an annual of work on medieval textual cultures. Its scope is inclusive of work across the theoretical, archival, philological, and historicist methodologies associated with medieval literary studies. The title announces an interest both in new writing about medieval culture and in new academic writing. The editors aim to engage with intellectual and cultural pluralism in the Middle Ages and now.

Nottingham Medieval Studies. "Nottingham Medieval Studies is one of the leading interdisciplinary journals for European history and literature from Late Antiquity through to the Reformation. The journal builds on its traditional areas of strength - the literature an history of Western Europe - with articles in related fields such a archaeology, art history, linguistics, musicology and philosophy, as well as reviews of recent publications by renowned experts in the field. Nottingham Medieval Studies, established in 1957, is published as a single annual volume. 

Peregrinations – Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture. Begun in 2002, Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture, is published periodically. Topics of research include: medieval art and architectural history, as well as medieval history and religion that pertain to medieval visual culture. It is open-access, peer-reviewed, and encourages more illustrations than a typical print journal. It also publishes photographs for non-profit teaching and research, as well as audio and video clips and 3-D models.  (Currently indexed in Directory of Open Access Journals and in Project Muse)

Postmedieval: A Journal of Medieval Cultural Studies. "postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies is a discipline-spanning, peer-reviewed journal that brings the medieval and the modern into productive critical relation. The journal advances a present-minded approach to medieval studies, which inspires new critical investigations of the Middle Ages by examining contemporary events, issues, ideas, problems, objects, and studies. The intent of this approach is to illuminate deep historical structures – mental, linguistic, social, cultural, aesthetic, religious, political, sexual – that underlie contemporary thought and life.

Scriptorium. Scriptorium is an international publication of mediaeval manuscripts studies that was founded in 1946 by Camille Gaspar (1876-1960) (B), Frédéric Lyna (1888-1970) (B) and François Masai (1909-1979) (B). It is a biyearly multilingual publication about codicology (material description of any aspect of manuscripts : supporting material, page-setting, binding, paleography, miniatures...) informing on cultural environment and offering a bibliography regarding mediaeval manuscripts through Western, Eastern and Central Europe.
It contains articles, notes and material or detailed reviews of books edited under the responsibility of an international scientific committee. "

Source: Notes on the History of Art. Source was founded in 1981 as a scholarly journal in art history. Its mission is to publish articles of 2,500 words or less, accompanied by a maximum of three illustrations. The range of articles spans antiquity to the present and includes western and non-western art.

Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies. Speculum, published quarterly since 1926, was the first scholarly journal in North America devoted exclusively to the Middle Ages. It is open to contributions in all fields studying the Middle Ages, a period ranging from approximately 500 to 1500. European, Arabic, Byzantine, Hebrew, and Slavic studies are included. Speculum is the most widely distributed journal of medieval studies. (Indexed in JSTOR)

Studies in Iconography. "Studies in Iconography is an annual publication, housed at the Index of Medieval Art at Princeton University since October 1999. It is dedicated to publishing innovative work on iconography and other aspects of visual culture of the period up to 1600. Past articles have dealt with subjects as diverse as Byzantine fresco programs, Carolingian architectural diagrams, Jewish ritual images and the iconography of Raphael. These topics are approached from an interdisciplinary, theoretical or critical perspective by a range of established and emerging scholars. Reviews of published studies in iconography and art history are included in every volume."

Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies . First published in 1971, Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies publishes articles on the Middle Ages through the Renaissance (roughly 350-1650 AD) with an emphasis on research that fosters intercultural or interdisciplinary studies. This focus on crossing between frontiers, centuries, methods, and disciplines makes this journal an appealing publication for scholars researching all aspects of culture between ate antiquity and the mid-seventeenth century. This annual publication is facilitated by the Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies at the University of California. Viator is published three times a year.

Vigiliae Christianae. Vigiliae Christianae contains articles and short notes of an historical, cultural, linguistic or philological nature on early Christian literature written after the New Testament, as well as on Christian epigraphy and archaeology. Church and dogmatic history are dealt with as they relate to social history; Byzantine and medieval literature are treated as far as they exhibit continuity with the early Christian period. (Indexed on JSTOR).

Vivarium. "Vivarium (VIV) is an international journal dedicated to the history of philosophy and intellectual life from the early Middle Ages to the early-modern era. It is widely recognized as an unrivalled resource for the history of logic, semantics, epistemology, and metaphysics. It welcomes articles on medieval, Renaissance and early-modern thinkers, their ideas, arguments, and writings, as well as the institutional and intellectual life of this period."

Word and Image: A Journal of Visual/Verbal Inquiry. "Word & Image concerns itself with the study of the encounters, dialogues, and mutual collaboration (or hostility) between verbal and visual languages. It provides a forum for articles that focus exclusively on the special study of the relations between words and images from all historical periods and perspectives, both theoretical and practical. Themed issues, guest-edited by specialists in the field, are an occasional feature of the journal. "