Wikipedia:WikiProject Middle Ages/Resources
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This page is for sharing and discussing resources of Medieval history available online (or otherwise). Please add and share your knowledge!
[edit] Google
Description: Google and Google Scholar and Google Print.
Comments: See also JSTOR below for Google Scholar and Amazon "Search Inside" below for Google Print.
[edit] Encyclopedia Britannica Online
The full Encyclopedia Britannica (latest version) is available online for free. The trick is, you have to link to the EB article from an external site (explained here). EB encourages linking to it from Wikipedia articles. For example, The EB article on Wikipedia.
[edit] Encyclopedia Britannica 1911
Description: See 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. Scanned versions online and fully in the Public Domain (although your not supposed to cut and paste from online versions which are copyright). It is possible to find used hard copies for sale through Ebay or used book dealers-- the shipping is usually more than the cost of the books so your best off waiting for an area store.
Comments:
- I picked up a set from a local bookseller for $100. Fun to browse, but converting the Victorian language is tiresome and often unrewarding results in the end, YMMV. Nationalistic biases. There is little summation of significance and importance and context, rather a focus on events, dates and names. Old red leather books are impressive. --Stbalbach 09:13, 24 Jan 2005 (UTC)
[edit] The Cambridge History of English and American Literature
Description: See The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. Similar to EB1911 and fully available online.
Comments:
- Excellent resource to find significant and important authors and documents of Medieval literature and art. Again, nationalistic biases to watch out for. --Stbalbach 09:13, 24 Jan 2005 (UTC)
[edit] JSTOR
Description: See JSTOR. This is a pay service. Scanned archive in PDF format of 100s of Academic Journals going back decades. Access is often available online, from home, through your local library or University membership.
Comments:
- Indespensible. Academic journals are second only to books as source materials, many of the most important writings on subjects are only found in these Journals. I obtain access for free at home through a familys library membership in another city. If you (or someone you know) can get a library card, chances are you have access to JSTOR. --Stbalbach 09:13, 24 Jan 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Catholic Encyclopedia
Description: See Catholic Encyclopedia. An older version is available online, contains lots of Middle Ages articles.
Comments:
[edit] Dictionary of the Middle Ages
Description: A 14-volume Middle Ages Encyclopedia released in the 1980s by pre-eminent Medievalists. Found in the reference section of a library. Individual volumes can be bought for $40-$80 each through online used book dealers. 600-700 pages per volume. See Dictionary of the Middle Ages.
Comments:
- I recently read on a popular Medievalists list a discussion of Wikipedia and someone mentioned why bother when there is the Dictionary of the Middle Ages. In many respects this is what Wikipedia's Medieval section could be, covering over 100,000 people/places/things. An excellent reference. --Stbalbach 09:13, 24 Jan 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Scanned books online: Amazon, A9, Google and Archive.org
Description: A number of services are scanning books and making the full text (out of copyright) or partial text (in-copyright) available for searching and reading online.
- Amazon "Look Inside" allows one to read books online for free. This is combined with the Amazon search engine called A9 which allows full-text searches of books. 100s of thousands of books in Amazons inventory.
- Google books. 10's of thousands of books scanned. [1]
- Archive.org. 10's of thousands of books scanned. [2]
- Microsoft Live will be releasing a book scanning project similar to Google Books in late 2006 or early 2007.[3]
Comments:
- Very powerful, I have found amazing resources reading Amazons books online for free. I tis particularly helpful when finding the source of a quote: search on the quote in A9 and it usually shows up in a book somewhere complete with page number, great for the "Cite your works" movement going on in Wikipedia at the moment. --Stbalbach 09:13, 24 Jan 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Medieval Sourcebook
Description: Medieval Sourcebook at fordham.edu- A large collection of source texts from the Middle Ages, part of Fordham University's source book collection. External links are often outdated and broken, but still contains hundreds of source texts that are otherwise hard to find
Comments:
[edit] Oxford DNB
Description: See Oxford DNB and Dictionary of National Biography. Biography database. Subscription based but can be found for free through large university libraries. They offer a free email subscription called "Oxford DNB life of the day" with one new Biography sent via email daily.
- I have access; ask me by email from my page.DGG 05:02, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
Comments:
[edit] Library Reference Search
Middle Ages at the Library Reference Search are 100s of external website related to the Middle Ages. It uses data from the Open Directory Project, the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web created by volunteers.
[edit] Medieval academic discussion groups
Medieval academic discussion groups - Medieval listserves for community discussion groups.
[edit] RedLightGreen
RedLightGreen - Librarian resource; searches the descriptions of over 150MM books. Includes rare and old books, letters, etc..
[edit] Medieval Cyprus
The full text of Leontios Makhairas's chronicle, very useful source on the affairs of the Kingdom of Cyprus.
http://ptolemy.tlg.uci.edu/~opoudjis/dist/Makhairas.utf
[edit] University College Cork's CELT Project
The CELT Project: Annals of Ulster, Annals of Tigernach, Chronicon Scotorum, Annals of Innisfallen, Annals of the Four Masters, the Irish (or is it Scottish ?) version of Nennius, among others. There are also some papers by Donncha O Corrain on Vikings in Ireland and Scotland, pre-Norman Irish kingship, various papers from Celtica and other useful stuff. Even real historians use this, in preference to printed versions.
[edit] Persée
Persée is a database of various French-language journals. They have the journal which gave thae Annales School its name (1975-1993), the Bibliothèque de l’École des chartes (1979-2000), Mélanges de l’École française de Rome (1881-1961) and a lot of useful modern history resources.
[edit] Monumenta Germaniae Historica online
There are two ways to access the Monumenta Germaniae Historica online. The digital MGH website is one. The other is to download pdf files from Gallica, the Bibliothèque nationale de France website. Gallica has an incredible amount of C19th and earlier material in French, Latin, German and English, some very poorly scanned.
[edit] Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England
Inspired by the Prosopography of the Byzantine World - here - there is now a prosopographical database for Anglo-Saxon England available here. Very useful for finding primary sources to flesh out articles.
