Classical Studies : Early Medieval Europe:
a guide to library resources

STARTING POINTS

If you need to consult an Atlas or Gazetteer on early medieval Europe try the following library searches:

In addition, the web-based Internet Medieval Sourcebook : Maps & Images contains a collection of public domain and copy-permitted maps & images available via the Web.

Dictionaries and encyclopedias will help if you need to define your topic and/or get an overview or biographical information. The following library searches will pinpoint both print & electronic sources

Medieval Europe

Anglo Saxon England

The Celts

Church history (also try the web-based Early Church On-Line Encyclopedia (Ecole) Initiative)

Researchers undertaking a literature survey may also want to consult the following:

American Historical Association's guide to historical literature (3rd edition, 1995) [print]

Annual bulletin of historical literature [electronic access from 1997; print access for earlier volumes]
[Provides an annual survey of recent books, journals & journal articles]

Guide to the study of medieval history [print]
[Guide to bibliographies, printed sources and secondary works. Supplemented by the publication Literature of medieval history 1930-1975]

Medieval narrative sources : a chronological guide [print]
[Lists a selection of narrative sources (sometimes called 'traditio') by genre & region in a roughly chronological sequence. It includes critical edition details & the language of translations]

PASE : Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England [web access]
[Access to information on all of the recorded inhabitants of Anglo-Saxon England from the late sixth to the end of the eleventh century]

Repertorium fontium historiae Medii Aevi [print]
[The most comprehensive guide to printed sources (excluding records) for the history of medieval Europe]

FINDING BOOKS

Books on Early Medieval Europe topics can be found by searching the library catalogue. The following are terms which can be browsed using the Subject Heading option

Art Medieval
Byzantine Empire Civilization
Byzantine Empire History
Carolingians
Celts
Church history Middle Ages 600-1500
Civilization, Medieval
Crusades
Economic history Medieval 500-1500
England Civilization to 1066
Europe History 392-814
Europe History 476-1492
Europe Politics and government 476-1492
Germanic peoples
Great Britain History Anglo Saxon period 449-1066
Middle Ages
Middle Ages Historiography
Middle Ages History
Normans
Vikings
Women History Middle Ages

Or construct your own keyword searches. Here are some examples:

topic: Celtic religions
suggested search: celt? and religion?

topic: the connections between the Carolingians and the Roman Empire
suggested search: Carolingians and (Rome or Roman)

topic: the role of women in Anglo Saxon England
suggested search: "Anglo Saxon" and Women

Click here if you need help with constructing searches using techniques such as truncation and Boolean operators

FINDING JOURNAL ARTICLES USING DATABASES & BIBLIOGRAPHIES

The following sources are primarily for locating journal articles on a topic, but many of them also include references to books as well.

The following databases are recommended for most topics:

Academic OneFile (Thomson Gale) & Academic Search Premier (EBSCO) are general-purpose databases which have some coverage of medieval topics.

JSTOR & Periodicals Index Online have full-text access to a range of 19th & 20th century scholarly journals

Other useful databases are listed in the Databases for Classics guide.

In addition to the databases, there are more specialised bibliographies such as the following:

International Medieval Bibliography. [print]
[An index to journal articles of the Medieval period]

Annual bulletin of historical literature [electronic access from 1997; print access to earlier volumes]
[Provides an annual survey of recent books, journals & journal articles]

Bibliographies for the study of Medieval Art [web access]
[includes a bibliography on Early Medieval Art (c.500-c.1000)

British & Irish Archaeological Bibliography [electronic]
[indexes the archaeology of Britain and Ireland]

Feminae : Medieval Women and Gender Index [electronic]
[An index to journal articles, book reviews etc. relating to women, sexuality and gender]

Anglo Saxon England [electronic from 2001; print access to earlier volumes]
[this journal has an annual bibliography of books, articles and reviews]

Additional bibliographic material can be identified through the following catalogue searches:

Carolingians bibliographies

Middle Ages bibliographies

The later Roman empire bibliographies

Anglo Saxon bibliographies

Crusades bibliographies

The Normans bibliographies

Viking bibliographies

PRIMARY SOURCES

The following searches of the library catalogue will identify translated primary source material:

Civilization, Medieval Sources
Europe History 476-1492 Sources
Middle Ages History Sources
Anglo Saxon
Carolingians
Celts
Crusades
Germanic peoples
Vikings

Some full-text sources via the Web are:

Eurodocs : Primary Historical Documents from Western Europe

[see the section on Medieval & Renaissance Europe as well as those of

individual countries]

Internet Medieval Sourcebook

[has collections of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts e-texts, maps, etc.]

ORB Text Library : Transcriptions and Translations

[publishes transcriptions and/or translations of important medieval texts]

Researchers may wish to note the following bibliography:

Bibliography of English translations from medieval sources [print]
[Two print publications covering bibliography up to 1967 which are supplemented by a web-based publication covering the period from 1968 to 1991]