Medieval and Renaissance Studies Resources: Primary Resources on the Web

The collection begins in the Ancient world (Athenian Constitution etc), continuing through the Medieval (Magna Carta, etc), 15th (privileges granted to Christopher Columbus), 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. The best selection of sources though is for the 18th century to the present.

A cool, interactive timeline that you can click-and-drag to move to a different period, and click to zoom in on a particular part. Not highly detailed, but covers the major events. [As of 2015, the page is no longer being updated.]

Read Beowulf in Old English or its translation to Modern English.

Includes digitized versions of works such as Festival Books 1475-1700, Canterbury Tales [Caxton's editions of ca. 1476 and ca. 1483], Gutenberg Bible, Magna Carta, and Shakespeare Quartos.

"Connected Histories brings together a range of digital resources related to early modern and nineteenth century Britain with a single federated search that allows sophisticated searching of names, places and dates."

Contains over 3,000 titles documenting the history of the Inquisition and the persecution of witchcraft, primarily in Europe.

A collection of about 300 Middle English primary texts from a widely diverse range of genres, times, and places.

"Almost a million images of rare books, manuscripts, and other treasures from the Bodleian Libraries and Oxford college libraries."

"Links to more than 165,000 full-text digital books from more than 1800 commercial and non-commercial publishers, universities, and various private sites. More than 140,000 of these books, texts, and documents are available free."

"Over the past 20 years, the study of medieval manuscripts has been revolutionized by digitization. This manuscript library celebrates this advancement in digital humanities by gathering volumes from libraries around the world to compare related manuscripts side by side in a digital environment."

"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."

"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."

Early Modern Resources is a gateway site for anyone interested in studying the early modern period (c.1500-1800 CE). It only lists resources that are free to access and are primarily concerned with the early modern and study of the period. Sites are checked for suitability but not rigorously evaluated.

Includes maps, timelines, source texts, and historic documents.

"European primary historical documents that are transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated."

"In Parentheses is devoted to distributing texts, translations, and commentaries from a wide variety of areas and disciplines in an elegantly presented form."

From the Fordham University Center for Medieval Studies.

"The object of ISOS is to create digital images of Irish manuscripts, and to make these images - together with relevant commentary - accessible on a WWW site."

"You can browse and compare the unabridged texts of the four editions of this massive work published in John Foxe's lifetime (1563, 1570, 1576, 1583). Each edition changed significantly as Foxe sought to incorporate new material, answer his critics, and adjust its polemical force to the needs of the moment. You can search and view modern transcriptions that keep as close as possible to the original texts."

"The Labyrinth provides free, organized access to resources in medieval studies."

"These bibliographies are intended to embrace all fields relevant to Lollard studies, broadly defined. We seek to include texts relevant to the literary, historical, cultural, and religious milieu of Lollardy as well as those specifically by and about Lollard writers."

Includes over 5,000 pages of Medieval, Renaissance, 17th century, 18th century, and Irish literature, plus an encyclopedia of notable people.

"Providing easy access to digital history sources, Manchester Medieval Sources Online brings essential texts from the Manchester Medieval Sources series to students and academics all over the world. From the terror of the Black Death to the drama of the Norman invasion, Manchester Medieval Sources brings alive the reality of life in the medieval world through these first hand accounts, many translated into English for the first time. The series is also unique in providing extensive introductory and explanatory material which will enable a beginner in the area to understand the variety of interpretations the sources have had, and any linguistic problems that have been controversial."

"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. Complete digital images are provided for some manuscripts."

A directory of websites and apps that provide access to medieval manuscripts.

This is the version freely available on the web. The most recent three years are not included in the free version, although those with access to a subscription through Brepols are able to use the most current volumes as well. As of September 2016, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries maintain the 2007 eMGH on a standalone computer on the west side of The Link in Love Library. Eleven print volumes are also available at Love Library.

The UK government's official archive, from the Domesday Book to websites.

"A collection of some of the most important literary works of Classical and Medieval civilization."

"Online texts that have been written by experienced medievalists and tested both in the classroom and on the internet."

The link in the title above will take you to the complete set on the web site Reformed Books Online. Many of these volumes are also available online through HathiTrust or Archive.org. Consult the very useful Index in Volume 55, which is available online through Archive.org. A number of the volumes are also available in print at the University Libraries; look up the author or title in the online catalog for locations and call numbers.

This site has an overwhelming Classics collection, but also a few works in Arabic and German, along with another large amount of items in 19th Century America and the Renaissance. They also have the Richmond Times Dispatch online, beginning with issues in 1860. At the bottom of the home page are links to three other digital sites. The site is run by Tufts University.

"A select database of digital books relating to the development of theology and philosophy during the Reformation and Post-Reformation/Early Modern Era (late 15th-18th c.). Late medieval and patristic works printed and referenced in the early modern era are also included. The PRDL is a project of the Junius Institute for Digital Reformation Research."

"A guide to the terms of classical and renaissance rhetoric."

"The goal of the TEAMS Middle English Texts 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."

The official website of the Vatican Apostolic Library.