Medieval Studies – Resources

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Introduction to Medieval History

In the study of European history, one of the most exhilarating periods is undeniably set from the 5th to the 15th-century otherwise known as the middle ages. This period began immediately after the fall of the mighty Roman empire paving way for the Renaissance and what we now know as medieval Europe. Medieval history and the study of it gives us an opportunity to understand how Europe came to be what it is now. Mostly known for the Magna Carta, black death and countless wars between kingdoms. Medieval ages provide a very diverse and complex history field that can be divided into three sub-periods. There is the early medieval period from the 5th century to the 8th century followed by the high medieval period and

finally the late medieval age.

The Launch of Medieval Studies and Centres

Medieval history studies which are now regarded as medieval studies have given rise to a very important field of study that has seen so many centers for medieval studies open in the 19th century. The Institute of Mediaeval Studies at St. Michael’s College of the University of Toronto was the first center for medieval studies opened in 1929 and was soon followed by other centers like the Medieval Institute at the University of Notre Dame in 1946. The centers established a program of Medieval study by the use of miscellany volumes and past poem and manuscript writings written in the middle ages. This form of study otherwise known as Codicology and paleography provides impeccable insight into Medieval studies and medieval

history since the scholars are able to analyze historical documents and manuscripts to better understand European history. The miscellany volumes from the medieval period consist of religious texts, English laws, liturgical texts, creative poems and records of events and occasions.

Reasons to undertake Medieval Studies

Other than being a very interesting field of study many medievalists argue that the study of history especially medieval history gives scholars a chance of alterity. Alterity is the opportunity for exploration of the different ways in which different people (in the past) viewed and understood their lives and the world they lived in. It provides a gateway with which we can escape the modern world and travel into the past.

Going into medieval history teaches you to think outside the box. The simple meaning of this sentence is that unlike most history units with set parameters and sources in medieval studies the sources are not always apparent and you may have to ingeniously come up with new research methods to access them. The vital thing, however, is that the difficult-to-find original sources are so rich with information and are also equally fascinating to study.

You cannot limit yourself to secondary sources only in Medieval studies because that’s not the proper way of study of medieval history. Instead, dive into the original texts and manuscript sources, and enjoy analyzing writings done in another age.

Check our useful sources for Medieval Studies subject:

• • Gateways
    Academic Info Humanities Gateway: Medieval History

    http://www.academicinfo.net/histmed.html

    British Academy Portal: Medieval Studies

    http://www.britac.ac.uk/portal/bysection.asp?section=H8

    Intute: Humanities

    http://www.intute.ac.uk/humanities/

    Medieval and Renaissance Studies Web

    http://wess.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Medieval_and_Renaissance_Studies

    Netserf: the Internet connection for Medieval Resources

    http://www.netserf.org/

    sponsored by the History Dept at The Catholic University of America

    Voice of the Shuttle: Literature in English

    http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=3

    WWW-Virtual Library: History: Medieval England

    http://vlib.iue.it/history/europe/uk/medieval-uk.html
• • Discussion groups
    JISCmail

    http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/index.htm

    national academic mailing list service facilitating discussion, collaboration and communication within the UK academic community and beyond
• • Organisations
    Arts and Humanities Research Council

    http://www.ahrb.ac.uk/

    supporting research into the arts and humanities

    British Academy

    http://www.britac.ac.uk/

    the national academy for the humanities and the social sciences

    English Subject Centre

    http://www.english.heacademy.ac.uk/

    part of the Higher Education Academy – supports the teaching of English literature, language and creative writing in UK Higher Education

    London Medieval Society

    http://www.the-lms.org/

    meets regularly at the University of London’s Senate House. Membership of the society is open to anyone interested in the medieval period, both established scholars and students.
• • Other sites of interest
    The Aberdeen Bestiary

    http://www.abdn.ac.uk/bestiary/

    a collaborative effort between Aberdeen University Library, the Department of History of Art and the Centre for Computer Based Learning in Land Use and Environmental Sciences (CLUES).

    The Anglo-Norman online hub

    http://www.anglo-norman.net/

    a project of the University of Wales Aberystwyth and the University of Wales Swansea

    Anglo-Saxon Charters on the Web

    http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/chartwww/

    from the British Academy – Royal Historical Society Joint Committee on Anglo-Saxon Charters

    Anthology of Middle English Literature (1350-1485)

    http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/

    from Luminarium

    Beowulf: a new translation for oral delivery

    http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/Literature/subcollections/RinglBeowulfAbout.html

    from the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections

    British History Online

    http://www.british-history.ac.uk/

    from the Institute of Historical Research and the History of Parliament Trust

    The Camelot Project Based

    http://www.lib.rochester.edu/Camelot/cphome.stm

    at the University of Rochester, USA. Arthurian texts, images, bibliographies, and basic information in electronic format.

    EGIL (Electronic Gateway for Icelandic Literature)

    http://www.egil.nottingham.ac.uk/

    based at the University of Nottingham, the project aims to enhance support for research in Icelandic, Old Norse and Viking studies.

    Feminae: medieval women and gender index

    http://www.haverford.edu/library/reference/mschaus/mfi/mfi.html

    covers journal articles, book reviews, and essays in books about women, sexuality, and gender during the Middle Ages. From the Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship.

    Internet Medieval Sourcebook

    http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html

    located at the Fordham University Center for Medieval Studies. edited by Paul Halsall.

    The Labyrinth: Resources for Medieval Studies

    http://labyrinth.georgetown.edu/

    provides free, organized access to electronic resources in medieval studies from Georgetown University

    Links to Chaucer resources

    http://artsci.wustl.edu/~chaucer/links.php

    from the New Chaucer Society

    Literary Resources – Medieval

    http://www.andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Lit/medieval.html

    part of the Literary Resources collection maintained by Jack Lynch, English Department, Rutgers University, Newark.

    Mapping Margery Kempe

    http://www.holycross.edu/departments/visarts/projects/kempe/

    a guide to late medieval material and spiritual life, from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachussets, USA.

    Mapping Medieval townscapes

    http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/specColl/atlas_ahrb_2005/index.cfm?CFID=305361&CFTOKEN=27033328

    a digital atlas of the new towns of Edward I, from AHDS/National Library of Wales/Queen’s University, Belfast

    Marginalia

    http://www.marginalia.co.uk/

    the website of the Medieval Reading Group at the University of Cambridge

    Medieval & Renaissance Europe

    http://eudocs.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Main_Page

    Primary Historical Documents links to full text sites

    The Medieval Bestiary

    http://bestiary.ca/index.html

    animals in the Middle Ages

    Medieval Portal

    http://www.medievalsources.co.uk/portal.htm

    part of Medieval Sourcesonline – guide to Medieval history material available on the Internet

    Online Literary Criticism Collection

    http://www.ipl.org/div/litcrit/

    from the Internet Public Library (IPL), can be browsed by author, by title, or by nationality and literary period.

    Rose and Chess

    http://roseandchess.lib.uchicago.edu/index.html

    Le Roman de la Rose & Le Jeu des Échecs moralisés from the University of Chicago Library Special Collections Research Centre

    Sagñanet

    http://www.sagnanet.is/

    a cooperative project by the National and University Library of Iceland and Cornell University: Icelandic medieval literature – Images of manuscripts and books published before 1901

    TEAMS Middle English Texts

    http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/tmsmenu.htm

    are published for TEAMS (The Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages) in association with the University of Rochester