Literatures in English: Medieval Literature
Contents
The resources on this page can help you find secondary criticism and primary sources relevant to medieval literature. Please read through the rest of the English Literature guide for a full overview of the library's literary resources.
Contents:
Full Text for Articles and Books
A note on getting full text for articles and books:
By default, these databases include books and book chapters along with journal articles in their search results. Usually, you can quickly access full text for journal articles using a "find full text" button in the databases, which will direct you either to a copy of the article or to Interlibrary Loan if the article is not available through our library. If there is no "find full text" button, try looking up the journal name in our Journals A to Z list (usually most reliable) or search for the article title in Google Scholar (easiest).
Books, however, cannot be found this way. You must look up books in OneSearch. But be careful-- your database result might be for a chapter within a book, with its own title and author. You should be searching for the book as a whole. If the book is not in our catalog, you can most likely find it on Worldcat (which searches thousands of libraries worldwide) and request it through Interlibrary Loan that way.
Medieval Literature Resources
- Iter: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance This link opens in a new windowBibliography comprised of secondary source material pertaining to the Middle Ages and renaissance (400-1700). Citations for books and journal material (articles, reviews, review articles, bibliographies, catalogues, abstracts and discographies) are included, as are citations for dissertation abstracts and essays in books (including entries in conference proceedings, Festschriften, encyclopedias, and exhibition catalogs).
- International Medieval Bibliography (IMB) This link opens in a new windowThe discipline areas to which the IMB is relevant include Classics, English Language and Literature, History and Archaeology, Theology and Philosophy, Medieval European Languages and Literatures, Arabic and Islamic Studies, History of Education, Art History, Music, Theatre and Performance Arts, Rhetoric and Communication Studies. Dates of coverage: 1981 - .
- MLA International Bibliography (Modern Language Association) This link opens in a new windowThis bibliography covers literature, languages, linguistics, film and folklore from over 4,000 journals and series published worldwide between 1926 and the present.
- Feminae"Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index covers journal articles, book reviews, and essays in books about women, sexuality, and gender during the Middle Ages. "
Cambridge Companions
The Cambridge Companions series offers high-quality research overviews and bibliographies. These links are for full-text digital versions of the companions in the Cambridge Companions Online database. To find more research overviews in the library catalog, try a keyword search for a topic AND (companion OR handbook).
Other Libguides:
This library research guide is particularly relevant for this class. Review other guides or search for topics on the Libguides page.
Reference Resources
Library reference resources offer reliable introductions to unfamiliar topics.
Digital Reference:
- Brill's Medieval Reference Library This link opens in a new windowSearchable text and images from the Encyclopedia of Medieval Pilgrimage (published 2009), Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle (published 2010), and the Encyclopaedia of Medieval Dress and Textiles of the British Isles c. 450-1450 (published 2012).
- Cambridge History of Medieval LiteratureOffers searchable, narrative chapters giving an overview of literary works and context in the period.
- The Digital Atlas of Roman and Medieval Civilizations"DARMC allows innovative spatial and temporal analyses of all aspects of the civilizations of western Eurasia in the first 1500 years of our era, as well as the generation of original maps illustrating differing aspects of ancient and medieval civilization." From Harvard University.
- Dictionary of National Biography This link opens in a new window50,000 biographies of people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond, from the earliest times to the year 2000.
- Britannica Online Academic Edition This link opens in a new windowComplete Encyclopedia Britannica, as well as Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and Thesaurus, Britannica Student Encyclopedia and the Britannica Book of the Year. Also includes a directory of more than 300,000 websites vetted by Britannica editors.
- The Open Access Companion to the Canterbury Tales"The Open Access Companion to the Canterbury Tales (OACCT) is a volume of introductory chapters for first-time, university-level readers of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. The chapters have been created and edited by professional scholars of Chaucer."
- Oxford Companion to Chaucer"Entries provide information on Chaucer's life and times, his works and the characteristics of them, his language and metre, his reading and the creative uses he made of it, and his major moral and literary themes. Extensive reference is also made to the development of critical opinion about his works over the centuries."
- Oxford Reference This link opens in a new windowPremium Collection contains over 200 dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press. It is a fully-indexed, cross-searchable database of these books, giving subscribers unprecedented access to a comprehensive information resource. Includes added functionality and more detailed information across a broad subject range from titles in the world-renowned Oxford Companions Series.
Print Reference Books:
The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages by Call Number: D114 .O94 2010ISBN: 9780198662624Publication Date: 2010-07-29Shelved with the regular collection and able to be checked out.
Dictionary of the Middle Ages by Call Number: Reference D114 .D5 1982ISBN: 0684167603Publication Date: 1982-11-01Shelved with the reference collection on the library first floor, east reading room. Not able to be checked out.- The New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd Ed. byCall Number: Reference BX841 .N44 2003ISBN: 0787640042Publication Date: 2003-In the reference collection on the library first floor, east reading room. Not able to be checked out.
Primary Sources
These digital and print materials give you more direct access to texts of the period.
- ARTstorContent includes nearly 2 million images covering art, architecture and archaeology.
ARTstor's content has moved to JSTOR, and the ARTstor website was retired on August 1, 2024. More information here: https://www.jstor.org/artstor-move/ - British Literary Manuscripts This link opens in a new windowSearchable images of manuscripts, letters, diaries, drafts of poems, plays, novels, and other similar literary materials.
- Epistolae: Medieval Women's Letters"Epistolae is a collection of letters to and from women dating from the 4th to the 13th century AD. These letters from the Middle Ages, written in Latin, are presented with English translations and are organized by the women participating. Biographical sketches of the women and descriptions of the subject matter or the historic context of the letter is included where available."
- Facsimiles of Medieval Illuminated ManuscriptsThis library research guide lists print facsimiles and replicas of medieval illuminated books held by the library, as well as digital resources for these types of materials.
- Manchester Medieval Sources SeriesEach of the ~30 volumes of this mainly print series collects quotations and context from historical texts on a general topic. In OneSearch Advanced Search, select Series from the dropdown and search for "Manchester Medieval Sources" (or use the link above).
- Piers Plowman Electronic Archive"The Piers Plowman Electronic Archive, a collaborative open-access project, presents the rich textual tradition of Piers Plowman, a fourteenth-century allegorical dream vision attributed to William Langland. Three distinct versions of the poem (A, B, and C) survive in more than 50 unique manuscripts, none in Langland's own hand. The Archive enables instructors, students, and researchers to explore late medieval literary and manuscript culture through the many variations of Piers Plowman. The long-term goal of the project is the creation of a complete archive of the medieval and early modern textual tradition of Langland's poem."
- Digital ScriptoriumSearch and access digitized manuscript resources from numerous libraries and museums.