LibGuides: Primary Sources: Early Medieval (410-1066)

Early Medieval (410-1066)

Acta Sanctorum This link opens in a new window The Acta Sanctorum Database looks at the lives of saints and contains the entire Acta Sanctorum, including all prefatory material, original texts, critical apparatus and indices. Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina reference numbers, essential references for scholars, are also included. Latin language. Date range covered: 200-1216 A.D.
Archive of Celtic-Latin Literature This link opens in a new window Contains more than five hundred medieval Latin texts, all from Celtic areas of Europe or written by Celts abroad. The database ultimately aims to cover the whole corpus of Celtic-Latin literature from the period 400-1200 A.D. Transcriptions of text in original language.
Bloomsbury Medieval Studies This link opens in a new window High quality secondary sources (e-books), and visual and textual primary sources (including maps, manuscripts & incunabula, museum images and translated Medieval primary texts) The collection also offers a brand new reference work, and research and learning tools. Covering the 4th to 15th Centuries.
British History Online This link opens in a new window A collection of printed primary and secondary sources from the medieval and early modern periods of British history. Subject coverage includes biographies, religious history, local and parliamentary histories and urban history.
Discovery, the National Archives Catalogue This link opens in a new window Full catalogue of the holdings of the National Archives and thousands of other archives in the UK. The National Archives is home to millions of historical documents, which were created and collected by UK central government departments and major courts of law. Wide subject coverage.
Exeter Medieval Online This link opens in a new window Monographs, guides, collaborative studies, edited volumes, and translations of important texts - making available critical and contextual studies by leading scholars in the field.
Global Medieval Sourcebook This link opens in a new window A digital repository of Medieval texts developed by Stanford University. View medieval texts from around the world, dating from 600 to 1600, in their original language alongside new English language translations.
Monumenta Germaniae Historica This link opens in a new window Contains primary historical sources from Northwestern and Central Europe, but centring on Germanic countries, covering a time period of the end of the Roman Empire to around 1500.
Parker Library On the Web This link opens in a new window Digitised images of rare Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts and early printed books from the historic Parker Library collection at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge., including the oldest version of the Anglo Saxon Chronicle. Date range: 500 to 1800 A.D.
Patriologia Orientalis Database This link opens in a new window Full text of the series covering the writings of the Eastern Church Fathers. Texts are in Arabic, Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopian, Greek, Georgian and Slavonic, besides Syriac, published with a Latin, English, Italian or mostly French translation.
Patrologia Latina This link opens in a new window Full text online version of Jacques-Paul Migne's Patrologia Latina, including indices, Migne's column numbers and critical apparatus. Includes the works of the Church Fathers from Tertullian in 200AD to the death of Pope Innocent III in 1216.
Sources Chrétiennes Online This link opens in a new window Full text, cross-searchable complete collection of the Sources Chrétiennes series. Contains editions-with-translations of Christian texts in Greek and Latin, but also in oriental languages, such as Syriac, Armenian and Georgian.

Key Early Medieval texts

The Anglo Saxon Chronicle One of the key sources on Anglo-Saxon England. This version, held in the Parker Library, Corpus Christie College (University of Cambridge) is thought to be the earliest version of the nine Chronicles that still exist, as well as one of the Old English language sources. View digitised page scans of the original manuscript which is written in Old English. Date range: late 9th Century to 11th Century.
The Anglo Saxon Chronicle (English translation) Project Guttenberg ebook of Rev. James Ingram's translation (London, 1823), with additional readings from the translation of Dr. J.A. Giles (London, 1847). This translation not a translation of any one Chronicle; rather, it is a collation of readings from many different versions.
Asser's Life of Kind Alfred Project Guttenberg version of this 10th Century Anglo Saxon text, translated by Albert S Cook in 1906.
Bede's Ecclesiastical history of the English people A transcription of the original manuscript with Latin text with accompanying an English translation. E-book.
The Exeter Book The Exeter Book is a 10th-century anthology of poetry located in Exeter Cathedral Library, and one of only 4 known poetic manuscripts of the period. View digitised page scans of the original manuscript which is written in Olde English.