HIS 110: Europe, 1000-1648: Finding Primary Sources

• The Lisle Letters by Muriel St. Clare Byrne (Editor)

  Call Number: DA335.L5 L57 v.1-6

  Publication Date: 1981-03-01

  "The Lisle Letters consist of the personal, official, and business correspondence of the household of Arthur Plantagenet, Viscount Lisle, the illegitimate but acknowledged son of Edward IV, during the years 1533 to 1540 when he was Lord Deputy of Calais. These seven critical years in English history were marked by the rise, ascendency, and fall of Thomas Cromwell and the letters reflect the mixture of passion, terror, and politics that was the court of Henry VIII. They also present the everyday concerns of the Lisle household. No other source provides such an abundance of detail about daily life - marriage, child rearing, education, clothing, food, and furnishing. The Lisle Letters are the Tudor world in microcosm." -- Publisher's summary
• The Plumpton Letters and Papers by Joan Kirby (Editor)

  Call Number: DA185 .P58 1996

  ISBN: 9780521573948

  Publication Date: 1997-01-16

  "This latest volume in the Royal Historical Society's Camden Fifth Series is a new and comprehensive edition of the only surviving northern medieval letter collection. Of particular value to social and legal historians, Joan Kirby's text contains a wealth of material unavailable to the editor of the previous edition of 1836. The collection offers a vivid day-to-day portrayal of a northern knightly family during a period of decline in the military function of knighthood. Parochial, proud, violent and litigious, as Percy tenants and feed officials their fortunes fluctuated with those of their patrons; loyalty to the Lancastrian cause in 1461, for example, cost both families loss of life, liberty and office. Two protracted lawsuits drew them deep into the complexities of the legal process and the political patronage on which they depended. The resulting correspondence with their lawyers constitutes a unique primary source for all scholars of medieval England." -- Publisher description.
• Letters and Orations (The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe) by Cassandra Fedele; Diana Maury Robin (Translator)

  Call Number: PA8520.F392 A27 2000

  ISBN: 9780226239323

  Publication Date: 2000-06-01

  "By the end of the fifteenth century, Cassandra Fedele (1465-1558), a learned middle-class woman of Venice, was arguably the most famous woman writer and scholar in Europe. A cultural icon in her own time, she regularly corresponded with the king of France, lords of Milan and Naples, the Borgia pope Alexander VI, and even maintained a ten-year epistolary exchange with Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain that resulted in an invitation for her to join their court. Fedele's letters reveal the central, mediating role she occupied in a community of scholars otherwise inaccessible to women. Her unique admittance into this community is also highlighted by her presence as the first independent woman writer in Italy to speak publicly and, more importantly, the first to address philosophical, political, and moral issues in her own voice. Her three public orations and almost all of her letters, translated into English, are presented here for the first time." -- Publisher's summary
• The Letters of Margaret of Anjou by Helen Maurer (Editor); B. M. Cron (Editor)

  Call Number: DA247.M3 A4 2019

  ISBN: 9781783274246

  Publication Date: 2019-08-16

  "Margaret of Anjou remains a figure of controversy. As wife to the weak King Henry VI, she was on the losing side in the first phase of the Wars of the Roses. Yorkist propaganda vilifying Margaret was consolidated by Shakespeare: his portrait of a warlike and vengeful queen - "a tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide" - became the widely-accepted view, which up until recently had been little questioned. However, Margaret's letters, here in their first full collection, in one place for the first time, have their own story to tell - and present a rather different picture. In her words and the words of her contemporaries, both friend and foe, they reveal a woman who lived according to the noble standards of her time. She enjoyed the hunt, she practised her faith, and she tried to help or protect those who called upon her for assistance, as was expected of a queen and "good lady". Henry's mental breakdown, the birth of their son and growing tensions among the lords of the land forced her to step outside the life she would have expected to live. This study of Margaret's letters establishes the scope of a late medieval queen's concerns, while providing a unique account of this extraordinary woman." - Publisher description

• English Historical Documents by David C Douglas (David Charles), 1898-1982, (Editor), Dorothy Whitelock (Editor), George William Greenaway (Editor), Harry Rothwell (Editor)

  Call Number: DA26 .E56

  Publication Date: 1953 - 1977

  "English Historical Documents is the most comprehensive, annotated collection of documents on British (not in reality just English) history ever compiled. Conceived during the Second World War with a view to ensuring the most important historical documents remained available and accessible in perpetuity, the first volume came out in 1953, and the most recent volume almost sixty years later."
  [...]
  "The print series, edited by David C. Douglas, is a magisterial survey of British history, covering the years 500 to 1914 and including around 5,500 primary sources, all selected by leading historians Editors. It has over the years become an indispensable resource for generations of students, researchers and lecturers." - Publisher website
• The St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre : a brief history with documents by Barbara B. Diefendorf

  Call Number: BR1610.F8 R38 2009

  ISBN: 9780312413606

  Publication Date: 2008-09-02

  "A riveting account of the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre, its origins, and its aftermath, this volume by Barbara B. Diefendorf introduces students to the most notorious episode in France's sixteenth century civil and religious wars and an event of lasting historical importance. The murder of thousands of French Protestants by Catholics in August 1572 influenced not only the subsequent course of France's civil wars and state building, but also patterns of international alliance and long-standing cultural values across Europe. The book begins with an introduction that explores the political and religious context for the massacre and traces the course of the massacre and its aftermath. The featured documents offer a rich array of sources on the conflict -- including royal edicts, popular songs, polemics, eyewitness accounts, memoirs, paintings, and engravings -- to enable students to explore the massacre, the nature of church-state relations, the moral responsibility of secular and religious authorities, and the origins and consequences of religious persecution and intolerance in this period. Useful pedagogic aids include headnotes and gloss notes to the documents, a list of major figures, a chronology of key events, questions for consideration, a selected bibliography, and an index." - Publisher description
• The trial of Jeanne d'Arc : a complete translation of the text of the original documents, with an introduction by Joan of Arc, Saint, 1412-1431, (Defendant), W P Barrett (Wilfred Phillips), 1906- (Ed. and tr.)

  Call Number: DC105.6 .B3

  Publication Date: 1931

  "A little over five hundred years ago there was a trial in the King of England's military headquarters and capital in France -- a trial that has become second in importance only to the Trial of Christ. The young woman who was examined, tried and condemned in that medieval, strong-castled town of Rouen has been the central figure of a whole literature of controversy. Shakespeare, Voltaire, Michelet, Schiller, Quicherat, Lang, Mark Twain, Anatole France, Frank Harris, Shaw, Paine and others far too numerous to mention have demonstrated by their writing about her that minds throughout the centuries from her time to the present find her as dynamic and challenging a figure as did the people of her own time."
  [...]
  "The Maid's followers believed that she came from God and adored her as a prophet, saint and military idol. The Burgundians and English were stricken with fear at her success and when she was captured condemned her as a witch and apostate. The Roman Catholic Church has canonized her as a saint. Mr. Shaw has hailed her as the first Nationalist and the first Protestant. Other interpretations of her personality are as completely far apart. Every book about her adds to the controversy. [...]The world had seen nothing like her since Christ. The judges and assessors at Rouen knew as they assembled there that the eyes of Christendom were upon them and that dynasties trembled in the balance. The Trial Record shows us, day by day, how they prosecuted the case, and what their individual decisions were. It is one of the most fascinating narratives in all history." - from the introduction

• A history of deeds done beyond the sea by William of Tyre, Archbishop of Tyre, approximately 1130-approximately 1190; Emily Atwater Babcock and A.C. Krey (editor and translator)

  Call Number: D152 .G78 1976

  Publication Date: 1976; 1943

  Translation of Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum.
  
  "If not the greatest, William of Tyre is at least among the greatest, of medieval historians. His Hisioria rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum, or Hisioria Hierosolymilana or Belli sacri hisioria covers the period between 1095 and 1184, and is the main authority for the history of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem between 1 127, where Fulcher of Chartres leaves off, and 1183 or 1184, where Ernoul takes up the narrative. [...] No medieval writer, except perhaps Giraldus Cambrensis, possesses William's power of delineating the physical and mental features of his heroes. Very few, moreover, had his instinctive insight into what would be of real value to future ages; genealogy, topography, archaeology, social life, both political and ecclesiastical, and military and naval matters all find due exposition in his pages. It is hardly too much to say that from his work alone a fairly detailed map of the Levant, as it was in the 12th century, might be constructed; and it is impossible to praise too highly the scrupulous fidelity with which he defines nearly all the technical terms, whether relating to land or sea, which he uses. His chief fault is in his chronology, where, indeed, he is often at discord with himself. In the later books of the Hisioria his information, even regarding events taking place beyond the Nile or the Euphrates as well as in Europe, is singularly exact." -- from "William, archbishop of Tyre" in the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Arab Historians of the Crusades by Francesco Gabrieli (Editor, Translator)

  Call Number: D151 .G313

  ISBN: 9780520052246

  Publication Date: 1984-06-18

  "The recapture of Jerusalem, the siege of Acre, the fall of Tripoli, the effect in Baghdad of events in Syria; these and other happenings were faithfully recorded by Arab historians during the two centuries of the Crusades. For the first time contemporary accounts of the fighting between Muslim and Christian have been translated into English, and the Western reader can learn ʻthe other side' of the Holy War. Seventeen authors are represented in the extracts in this work, which have been drawn from various types of historical writings. The excerpts are taken firstly from the general histories of the Muslim world, then from chronicles of cities, regions and their dynasties, and finally from biographies or records of the deeds of certain persons. The Arab histories of the Crusades compare favourably with their Christian counterparts in their rich accumulation of material and chronological information. Another of their merits is their faithful characterization, which they practised in the brief but illuminating sketches of enemy leaders: Baldwin II's shrewdness, Richard Coeur de Lion's prowess in war, the indomitable energy of Conrad of Montferrat, Frederick II's diplomacy. The chroniclers are generous, naturally, with their praises of the great champions of the Muslim resistance, especially of Saladin, who towers above all the other leaders in heroic stature. Altogether, this book gives a sweeping and stimulating view of the Crusades seen through Arab eyes."--Jacket.
• Memoirs of Philippe De Commynes by Philippe De Commynes; Samuel Kinser (Editor); Isabelle Cazeaux (Translator)

  Call Number: DC106.9 .C7323 1969 v. 1

  ISBN: 9780872491304

  Publication Date: 1969-01-01

  "COMMINES, PHILIPPE DE (c. 1445–c. 1511), French historian, called the father of modern history, was born at the castle of Renescure, near Hazebrouck in Flanders, a little earlier than 1447.[...] The Memoirs, to which Commines owes his reputation as a statesman and man of letters, were written during his latter years. The graphic style of his narrative and above all the keenness of his insight into the motives of his contemporaries, an insight undimmed by undue regard for principles of right and wrong, make this work one of the great classics of history. His portrait of Louis XI. remains unique, in that to such a writer was given such a subject. Scott in Quentin Durward gives an interesting picture of Commines, from whom he largely draws. Sainte-Beuve, after speaking of Commines as being in date the first truly modern writer, and comparing him with Montaigne, says that his history remains the definitive history of his time, and that from it all political history took its rise. None of this applause is undeserved, for the pages of Commines abound with excellences. He analyses motives and pictures manners; he delineates men and describes events; his reflections are pregnant with suggestiveness, his conclusions strong with the logic of facts." -- excerpt from "Commines, Philippe de" by Charles Bémont in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
• The chronicle of Froissart by Jean Froissart 1338?-1410., John Bourchier Berners Baron, 1466 or 1467-1533, (Translator)

  Call Number: D113 .F75 1967 v.1-6

  Publication Date: 1967

  "As for the character of his Chronicle, little need be said. There has never been any difference of opinion on the distinctive merits of this great work. It presents a vivid and faithful drawing of the things done in the 14th century. No more graphic account exists of any age. No historian has drawn so many and such faithful portraits. They are, it is true. portraits of men as they seemed to the writer, not of men as they were. Froissart was uncritical; he accepted princes by their appearance. [...] Let him be judged by his own aims. 'Before I commence this book,' he says, 'I pray the Saviour of all the world, who created every thing out of nothing, that He will also create and put in me sense and understanding of so much worth, that this book, which I have begun, I may continue and persevere in, so that all those who shall read, see, and hear it may and in it delight and pleasance.' To give delight and pleasure, then, was his sole design." -- from "Froissart, Jean" by Walter Besant in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
• The History of Italy by Francesco Guicciardini; Sidney Alexander (Edited and Translated by)

  Call Number: DG539 .G813 1984

  ISBN: 9780691054179

  Publication Date: 1984-07-21

  "In 1537 Francesco Guicciardini, adviser and confidant to three popes, governor of several central Italian states, ambassador, administrator, military captain-and persona non grata with the ruling Medici after the siege of Florence-retired to his villa to write a history of his times. His Storia d'Italia became the classic history of Italy-both a brilliant portrayal of the Renaissance and a penetrating vision into the tragedy and comedy of human history in general. Sidney Alexander's readable translation and abridgment of Guicciardini's four-volume work earned the prestigious 1970 P.E.N. Club translation award. His perceptive introduction and notes add much to the understanding of Guicciardini's masterpiece." - Publisher description

• John Leland's Itinerary : travels in Tudor England by John Leland (c. 1503 - c. 1550); John Chandler (editor)

  Call Number: DA610 .L4 1993

  ISBN: 9780862999575

  Publication Date: 1993-07-01

  An important early source of information about English geography, towns, and antiquities.
  
  "This itinerary gives an account of Leland's tireless travels throughout England between 1539 and 1545, and records his observations of places and buildings, landscapes and monuments. It gives a picture of crumbling monasteries, the proliferating parks, suburbs and stately homes, and the new self-awareness and nationalistic pride of Tudor England." - Publisher description
• Later Travels (I Tatti Renaissance Library) by Cyriac of Ancona; Edward W. Bodnar (Edited and Translated by)

  Call Number: CC115.C57 A4 2003

  ISBN: 9780674007581

  Publication Date: 2004-02-17

  "Cyriac of Ancona (Ciriaco de'Pizzecolli, 1391-1452), a merchant and diplomat as well as a scholar, was among the first to study the physical remains of the ancient world in person and for that reason is sometimes regarded as the father of classical archaeology. His travel diaries and letters are filled with descriptions of classical sites, drawings of buildings and statues, and copies of hundreds of Latin and Greek inscriptions. Cyriac came to see it as his calling to record the current state of the remains of antiquity and to lobby with local authorities for their preservation, recognizing that archaeological evidence was an irreplaceable complement to the written record." - Publisher description
  
  Also available: His Life and Early Travels
• The travels of Sir John Mandeville : the version of the Cotton manuscript in modern spelling, with three narratives, in illustration of it, from Hakluyt's "Navigations, voyages & discoveries." by by John Mandeville Sir., Alfred W Pollard (Alfred William), 1859-1944, (Editor)

  Call Number: View ebook or G370 .M29 1900

  Publication Date: 1900

  "Immediately popular when it first appeared around 1356, The Travels of Sir John Mandeville became the standard account of the East for several centuries—a work that went on to influence luminaries as diverse as Leonardo da Vinci, Swift, and Coleridge. Ostensibly written by an English knight, the Travels purport to relate his experiences in the Holy Land, Egypt, India, and China. Mandeville claims to have served in the Great Khan’s army and to have journeyed to “the lands beyond” and countries populated by dog-headed men, cannibals, Amazons, and pygmies." - Publisher description

Medieval Europe : a short sourcebook by C. Warren Hollister; Marc A. Meyer; David S. Spear; Joe W. Leedom

Call Number: D113 .M4 2002

ISBN: 9780072417388

Publication Date: 2001-10-31

This collection of documents in medieval history is designed to accompany the recently revised MEDIEVAL EUROPE: A SHORT HISTORY by C. Warren Hollister and Judith Bennett. However the diverse selection of sources also makes it a useful supplement for courses in Western Civilization. As in previous editions, this reader continues to provide a lucid and approachable introduction to each of the documents and a special chapter devoted to visual sources in medieval history. In addition to these hallmark features, the fourth edition includes new Internet resources, thought questions at both the reading and chapter level, and a more geographically diverse range of readings.

• Civilization of the Italian Renaissance : a sourcebook by Kenneth Bartlett (Editor)

  Call Number: DG445 .C57 2011

  ISBN: 9781442604858

  Publication Date: 2011-06-30

  "The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance brings together a selection of primary source documents designed to introduce students to the richness of the period. For this edition, a new chapter on Dante and his time provides a useful transition to the Renaissance from the culture of the Middle Ages. There are also new selections on warfare, education, Florence, humanism, the Church, and the later Renaissance. The introductions to the readings are revised, and an essay on how to read historical documents is included." -- Publisher description.
• Medieval Writings on Secular Women by Patricia Skinner (Editor, Introduction by); Elisabeth Van Houts

  Call Number: HQ1143 .M335 2011

  ISBN: 9780141439914

  Publication Date: 2011-05-31

  "This remarkable collection brings together a host of writings from across different regions and cultures of the Middle Ages, from the ninth to the fifteenth century. They are arranged to follow the life stages of a Medieval woman living a secular existence, from infancy and girlhood, through marriage and motherhood, to widowhood and old age. Some women are captured in exceptional circumstances, such as the transcript from Joan of Arc's trial describing her rural childhood, or a letter written by Edward I's mother. Many others are anonymous or humble: an account of an abandoned baby in Italy, a disturbing description of a slave girl by a Baghdad diplomat, an epitaph for the female leader of a synagogue. Speaking across the ages, here are wry, moving voices that were written out of history. Containing many newly translated pieces, this selection is accompanied by an introduction discussing the Medieval woman's life and legal status. There are also separate introductions to each chapter and background information on each piece."--From publisher description.
• Woman Defamed and Woman Defended : An Anthology of Medieval Texts by Alcuin Blamires (Editor); Karen Pratt (As told to); C. W. Marx (As told to)

  Call Number: PR1912.A2 W65 1992

  ISBN: 0198710399

  Publication Date: 1992-11-19

  "It is impossible / That any clerk wol speke good of wyves." Behind the words of Chaucer's Wife of Bath lies a vast corpus of medieval misogynistic writings. These texts, which range from those of the Church Fathers to a rich array of vernacular literature, have had a profound effect on the status of women in the West. Despite the recent surge of investigations into women's situation, however, no one book has sought to collect the key voices of medieval antifeminism, let alone to present the voices sometimes raised, even at that epoch, in defence of women. This new volume meets the urgent need for a single and substantial sourcebook of these materials in modern translation, including an introduction, notes, and commentary. -- Publisher's summary
• Writings of Christine de Pizan by Pizan Christine De

  Call Number: PQ1575 .A27 1994

  ISBN: 9780892551880

  Publication Date: 1994-01-17

  "Christine de Pizan (1364-1429?), France's first woman of letters, is widely known for her Book of the City of Ladies (Persea, 1982), a classic work of revisionist history that seeks to show that women are the moral and intellectual equals of men. In recent years, Christine has taken her place within the canon of Western literature alongside Boccaccio and Dante, and yet very little of this writer's considerable oeuvre has been translated into English. The Writings of Christine de Pizan remedies this situation. In this volume, major scholars and acclaimed translators unite in a single endeavor: to make the full range of this important writer's work and thought widely known." -- Publisher's summary
• Pilgrimage in the Middle Ages : a reader by Brett Edward Whalen (editor)

  Call Number: BX2323 .P55 2011

  ISBN: 9781442601994

  Publication Date: 2011-09-21

  "Pilgrimage inspired and shaped the distinct experiences of commoners and nobles, men and women, clergy and laity for over a thousand years. Pilgrimage in the Middle Ages: A Reader is a rich collection of primary sources for the history of Christian pilgrimage in Europe and the Mediterranean world from the fourth through the sixteenth centuries. The collection illustrates the far-reaching significance and consequences of pilgrimage for the culture, society, economics, politics, and spirituality of the Middle Ages. Brett Edward Whalen focuses on sites within Europe and beyond its borders, including the holy places of Jerusalem, and provides documents that shed light upon Eastern Christian, Jewish, and Islamic pilgrimages. The result is an innovative sourcebook that offers a window into broader trends, shifts, and transformations in the Middle Ages." - Publisher description

• The Classics of Medicine Library series includes a number of facsimiles and/or translations of early modern medical texts (complete with grisly anatomical illustrations.)
• The I Tatti Renaissance Library series offers translations of many Italian Renaissance authors who could previously only be read in Latin.

Some databases include only the translated and transcribed text of the primary source documents. Others include scans of the original document (sometimes called a facsimile), which show the page layout and the typeface used. Some, like Britannica Original Sources, will show both views.

Both are acceptable to use, but you might prefer one over the other. Resources that have the text transcribed allow you to do a text search, and can be easier to read than some older typefaces. Those that show the original format allow you to see how the document looks, and imagine what it might have been like to read it during the time it was created.

Sometimes transcriptions will retain the original spelling of the document, which can be hard to read. Try reading the text out loud, it can take some time to get used to the differences from modern English.

Also, check our Guide to Primary Sources to find out how you can meet the primary sources "in person"!

Early English Books Online (EEBO)

WHO: ProQuest, a large publishing company that used to produce a very "vintage" technology called microform for universities, and now owns and licenses access to many databases.

WHAT: Digital facsimile images of nearly 100,000 books in English printed between 1473 and 1700 - virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America, plus works in English printed elsewhere.

Texts range from the first book printed in English by William Caxton through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare and the English Civil War. Included are works by Malory, Bacon, More, Erasmus, Boyle, Newton, Galileo; musical exercises by Henry Purcell; novels by Aphra Behn; prayer books, pamphlets, and proclamations; almanacs, calendars, and many other primary sources.

WHY IS THIS USEFUL: Want to read a book from the 15th to the 17th centuries? (And not just the text, but images of the actual pages of the books) For most people, EEBO is the easiest and fastest way. The site lets you download a PDF of entire books, or a selection of a book.

OBSTACLES:

1) ProQuest digitized straight from microform; think 1970s photocopier and you have an idea of the image quality.

 

2) You are looking at images of books that are hundreds of years old. Prior to the late 16th century, nearly all English books were printed in Gothic rather than Roman type. The spelling of English words was not standardized until the mid-17th century, and of course the meanings and usages of words have also changed over time.

 

3) Because the type is unusual, it is difficult to use optical character recognition (OCR) technology to create a machine-readable text.

Early English Books Online - Text Creation Partnership (EEBO-TCP)

WHO: A consortium of universities that partner with ProQuest to produce machine-readable texts of early English books on EEBO.

WHAT: A database of machine-readable texts, with 34,963 texts digitized as of 2020. The consortium prioritized digitizing primarily those texts listed in The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature.

WHY IS THIS USEFUL: Making the text machine-readable allows you to do a full-text search, among other things. You also don't need to be able to read gothic letters in order to read this.

OBSTACLES: The spelling/orthography of the text is as-is without any editing to modernize the spelling. Words will be spelled significantly differently than they are today. For example:

"Iohan Froyssart [...] Tra[n]slated out of frenche into our maternall englysshe tonge, by Iohan Bourchier knight lorde Berners." (link)

LUNA: Folger Digital Image Collection

LUNA is the home of the digital collection of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. The Folger Shakespeare Library contains one of the largest collections of manuscripts from early modern England outside of Great Britain. This is a great place to see letters, diaries, legal documents, recipes, and much more. You can also learn paleography -- the study of handwriting -- and volunteer to help the Folger transcribe manuscripts by participating in their monthly transcribathons.

Internet History Sourcebooks Project: Medieval Sourcebooks

A collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented cleanly (without advertising or excessive layout) for educational use. Primary sources are available here primarily for use in high-school and university/college courses. From the outset the site took a very broad view of the sources that should be available to students and as well as documents long associated with a "western civilization" approach to history also provides much information on Byzantine, Islamic, Jewish, Indian, East Asian, and African history. You will also find many documents especially relevant to women's history and LGBT studies.

Euro Docs: Medieval and Renaissance Europe

Links connect to European primary historical documents that are transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated. In addition you will find video or sound files, maps, photographs or other imagery, databases, and other documentation. The sources cover a broad range of historical happenings (political, economic, social and cultural). The order of documents is chronological wherever possible.

Britannica Original Sources

WHO: Britannia Group includes Encyclopedia Britannica, Merriam-Webster Dictionary, and more.

WHAT: This database includes primary sources on a wide range of topics. All are transcribed, and translated into English (if applicable). Search by author, topic, or event.

WHY IS THIS USEFUL: Documents are sorted by topic and author, so they are easy to find. Machine-readable text allows you to search within sources. Footnotes provide context. Some pertinent topics under the Topics section include English History: English Labor Force; English History: The Rise of the Jury; English History: Role of Parishes; European Colonization of North America, 1562-1753; Christian Writings from the Reformation to 1750; Christian Piety of the Middle Ages; Reformation Voices; Rise of Great Britain, 710–1777; and King John's Magna Carta, 1215.

OBSTACLES: Does not include images or the original source. If you use the search feature to find sources, be sure you are using a primary source; some sources in this database are compilations of primary sources and include explanatory secondary information.

HathiTrust

WHO: Initially a partnership among the Big Ten Academic Alliance, now a larger consortium of U.S. universities partnering with Google to reproduce machine-readable texts of millions of books.

WHAT: Digital facsimiles of millions of books, along with machine-readable text and tools for statistical analysis which serve an increasingly popular area of study known as the digital humanities.

WHY IS THIS USEFUL: For your purposes, if you find a reference to a scholarly book or translated text published any time from the beginning of the 19th century to the year 1925, there's a good chance it can be accessed either here or on Archive.org.

OBSTACLES: Books after 1925 (the current cut-off year for the public domain in the U.S.) can be searched but not viewed. The image quality is highly variable. One needs to be a member of a "partner institution" to download some materials.

Europeana

Europeana is a web portal giving access to digitized materials from over 3,000 libraries and museums across Europe.

The British Museum

The Museum’s collection online offers everyone unparalleled access to objects in the collection. This innovative database is one of the earliest and most extensive online museum search platforms in the world. There are currently 2,335,338 records available, which represent more than 4,000,000 objects. 1,018,471 records have one or more images.

Google Books

Google is in the midst of an ambitious project to digitize books from publishers and in libraries. Those that were published before 1923 are in full text; those still potentially under copyright can be searched, but not viewed in full. It offers an interesting way to locate very specific words, phrases, and citations, particularly in older books. Using the advanced search you can limit a search to books that are full text or published within a range of years.