LibGuides: Primary Sources: Medieval

Medieval (1066 -1500)

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.
Age of Exploration This link opens in a new window Explore five centuries (1420 - 1920) of journeys across the globe, scientific discoveries, the expansion of European colonialism, new trade routes, and conflict over territories. Featuring rare manuscript and early printed material, highly illustrated maps and documents, diaries and ships' logs from some of the most well-known voyages in history. Note: Scanned documents are in original language and have not been translated.
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 The National Archives is home to millions of historical documents, which were created and collected by UK central government departments and major courts of law.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.
Manuscripts Online: Written culture 1000 to 1500 This link opens in a new window Cross-search online Medieval primary sources that relate to the written and early printed culture in Britain. Resources include literary manuscripts, historical documents and early printed books which are located on websites owned by libraries, archives, universities and publishers across the UK.
Medieval and Early Modern Studies This link opens in a new window The collection covers a range of subject over the time period including sources on the Black Death to the Restoration of the English monarchy and the Glorious Revolution. Date range: From 11th century to 19th century.
Medieval Family Life This link opens in a new window Primarily a collection of medieval letters from five prominent families (The Paston, Cely, Plumpton, Stonor and Armburgh Papers), but also including supporting material, such as wills, deeds, account books, etc., that help to round out the picture of life in a medieval family. Documents have been scanned and transcribed in the original language. Date range: 15th Century.
Medieval Travel Writing This link opens in a new window This collection presents manuscripts of some of the most important works of European travel writing from the later medieval period. The chief focus is on journeys to central Asia and the Far East. The collection also includes a number of important accounts of travels to or through the Holy Land. Date range: 12th century onwards
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.
Selections from the King's Manuscripts from the British Library This link opens in a new window This is a major British Heritage collection. Following the donation of the Old Royal Library to the British Museum by King George II in 1757, George III built up his own collection of printed books and manuscripts. These were in turn transferred to the British Museum after his death by George IV in 1823 and are known as The “King’s Collection”.
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.