Skip to Main Content
Research Guides
? Ask Us / FAQS

Medieval Studies and Research: Anthologies, Archives, Catalogues, Collections & Digital Projects

This research guide is co-owned and co-authored by Dr. Danielle Mihram & Dr. Melissa L. Miller

ANTHOLOGIES, ARCHIVES, CATALOGUES, COLLECTIONS & DIGITAL PROJECTS

This page of our Research Guide will provide a sampling of the online resources for anthologies, archives, catalogues, collections, digital projects, and more!

Be sure to scroll all the way down to see all this page has to offer

Incipit libellus De vita et moribus philosophorum et poetarum

ARCHIVES

Archives Portal Europe  - Provides access to information on archival material from different European countries as well as information on archival institutions throughout the continent.

The Domesday Book Provided by The United Kingdom National Archives,"Domesday: Britain's finest treasure. Domesday is Britain’s earliest public record. It contains the results of a huge survey of land and landholding commissioned by William I in 1085. Domesday is by the far the most complete record of pre-industrial society to survive anywhere in the world and provides a unique window on the medieval world."

ANTHOLOGIES & COLLECTIONS

Bodleian Library Illuminated Manuscripts "The Bodleian Libraries’ collections are extraordinary and significant—both from a scholarly point of view and as material that has an historic and aesthetic richness that holds value for non-academic users. In an effort to make portions of our collections open to a wide variety of users from around the world for learning, teaching and research, the Bodleian Libraries have been digitizing library content for nearly twenty years. The result is over 650,000 freely available digital objects and almost another 1 million images awaiting release.
 
Internet Ancient History Sourcebook A "classroom usable" sourcebook of copy-permitted material for Ancient history and civilization courses.
 
Internet Medieval Sourcebook  Provided by Fordham University, "the Internet Medieval Sourcebook is a large collection of internet resources"
 
The Labryinth Provided by Georgetown University, "The Labryinth 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. Each user will be able to find an Ariadne’s thread through the maze of information on the Web."
 

Luminarium: Anthology of Middle English Literature An anthology of Middle English Literature collected online and provided without subscription. Luminarium Encyclopedia is a project begun in 2001 to provide historical contexts for the people, places, and events featured Luminarium.

Online Resources for Medievalists "Although by no means comprehensive, this list offers a selection of websites that are highly useful for medievalists. General Resources; Specific Texts and Authors; Manuscript Studies and Palaeography; Language Aids and Dictionaries; Online Bookstores; Cambridge Sites; Cambridge faculties and Departments; Other Institutions and Organizations."

Virtual Monastic Library of Lorsch "Bibliotheca Laureshamensis - digital, gathers 300 medieval manuscripts from 68 different libraries."

COMMERCIAL BOOK TRADE IN MEDIEVAL PARIS 1200-1500

CATALOGUES

British Library Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts "Use this website to find and view descriptions and images of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the British Library, one of the richest collections in the world."

Catalogue of Digitized Medieval Manuscripts Provided by UCLA, "the Catalogue of Digitized Medieval Manuscripts offers a simple and straightforward means to discover medieval manuscripts available on the web.  Very much a work in progress, the database will initially provide links to hundreds of manuscripts, which we expect quickly to grow to thousands.  Basic information about the manuscripts is fully searchable, and users can also browse through the complete contents of the database."
 
Digital Scriptorium "is a growing consortium of American libraries and museums committed to free online access to their collections of pre-modern manuscripts. Our website unites scattered resources from many institutions into a national digital platform for teaching and scholarly research. It serves to connect an international user community to multiple repositories by means of a digital union catalog with sample images and searchable metadata. Many DS records also link out to the websites of our contributors, where users can discover further information."

SEVERAL DIGITAL PROJECTS

The Aberdeen Bestiary Project Provided by the University of Aberdeen, "The Aberdeen Bestiary (Aberdeen University Library MS 24) is considered to be one of the best examples of its type due to its lavish and costly illuminations. The manuscript, written and illuminated in England around 1200, is of added interest since it contains notes, sketches and other evidence of the way it was designed and executed. Its text and appearance are closely related to the Ashmole Bestiary, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 1511 which provides further insights into workshop practice."
 
The Crusades Project: A Robbins Library Digital Project Provided by the University of Rochester, “This bibliography (a partner site to the Camelot Project) will provide annotations of narratives that take their influence and inspiration from the historical crusades. The project is currently focused on English and American literature, but our long-term goal is to provide substantial annotated bibliographies and essay-based entries for other European (and eventually Middle-Eastern and Asian) countries as well. Our hope, in producing such a resource, is to encourage further research and discussion of the Crusades and their effect on literature at all educational levels.”
 

Visualizing Chaucer: A Robbins Library Digital Project  Provided by the University of Rochester, “This Robbins Library Digital Project seeks to capture postmedieval illustrated versions of Chaucer’s work. The project provides annotations for books containing illustrated versions of Chaucer’s writings and organizes these images by character/work for easy accessibility. Our intention is to make these images readily accessible, where copyright allows, for teachers, students, and scholars interested in the afterlife of Chaucer’s works.”

Islamic Heritage Project Provided by Harvard University Libraries and Museums, "Materials in the Islamic Heritage Project digital collection date from the 10th to the 20th centuries and represent many: regions, including Saudi Arabia, North Africa, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and South, Southeast, and Central Asia; languages, primarily Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish; also Urdu, Chagatai, Malay, Gujarati, Indic languages, and several Western languages; and subjects, including religious texts and commentaries; Sufism; history, geography, law, and the sciences (astronomy, astrology, mathematics, medicine); poetry and literature; rhetoric, logic, and philosophy; calligraphy, dictionaries and grammar, as well as biographies and autobiographical works."
 
MARGOT Project Provided by the University of Waterloo, "MARGOT is a long-term research project devoted to publishing fully searchable editions of either generally inaccessible texts from the French Middle Ages and the Early Modern period (the Ancien Régime) or of texts in connection with a specific project from the same time period."

De Officiis by Marcus Tullius Cicero

USC Libraries Call # Z105.5 C53 14—