Background Information
Consult these sources to learn more about literary authors, periods, genres, texts, and their historical contexts.
- Dictionary of the Middle AgesLAU Pierce Reading Rm D114 .D5 1982 v. 1-13
- A New Critical History of Old English LiteratureLAU Stacks PR173 .G73 1986
- The Cambridge History of Medieval English LiteratureOnline and LAU Ref Stacks & LAU Stacks PR255 .C35 1999
- The Cambridge History of Early Medieval LiteratureOnline and LAU Stacks PR255 .C347 2012
Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Primary Sources
- 17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Gathered by Reverend Charles Burney, 17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers is a collection of the newspapers and news pamphlets primarily published in London, with some English provincial, Irish and Scottish papers, and examples from the American colonies. The original Burney volumes are now in a poor physical state and only available through restricted use.
- Bloomsbury Medieval Studies This link opens in a new windowBloomsbury Medieval Studies is an interdisciplinary digital resource with a global perspective which opens up the medieval world for students and scholars. It brings together high-quality secondary content with visual primary sources, a brand new reference work and material culture images into one cross-searchable platform, to support this rich field of study.
- British Literary Manuscripts This link opens in a new windowA digitized collection of manuscripts of British authors dating from roughly 1120 to 1900. Contains poems, plays, novels, diaries, journals, correspondence, and other papers from major library collections, reproduced in facsimile and searchable via detailed descriptive information.
- Corpus of Middle English Prose and VerseComprises 54 Middle English prose and verse texts from the University of Michigan faculty. The collection may be either browsed or searched using simple, proximity, Boolean, and citation searches.
- Database of Middle English Romance This link opens in a new windowA guide to more than 80 verse romances from between c.1225 and c.1500. Provides details on date and place of composition (where known), verse form, authorship and sources, extant manuscripts and early modern prints, a full list of modern editions, and a plot summary. Includes direct links to all of the available online modern editions.
- Early English Books Online (EEBO) This link opens in a new windowFeatures page images of almost every work printed in the British Isles and North America, as well as works in English printed elsewhere from 1470-1700. From the first book printed in English through to the ages of Spenser, Shakespeare and of the English Civil War, EEBO's content draws on authoritative and respected short-title catalogues of the period and features a substantial number of text transcriptions.
- Early English Books Online (EEBO) Text Creation Partnership (TCP) This link opens in a new windowA partner database to Early English Books Online. Provides a subset of fully searchable texts from the titles available in EEBO.
- The Labyrinth: Resources for Medieval StudiesServes as a guide to online Medieval resources, including primary texts, secondary texts, and bibliographie
- Leeds Medieval ManuscriptsA collection of digitized medieval manuscripts held at Leeds University Library. Every page with significant examples of illumination has been digitised, including miniatures, historiated initials and decorated borders.
- Luminarium: Anthology of English LiteratureProvides an online anthology of literature from Middle English, the Renaissance, & the 17th century. Includes essays, articles, and selected texts.
- Making of the Modern World This link opens in a new windowCollection of digital facsimile images of 61,000 works of literature on economics and business published from 1450 through 1945. Covers commerce, finance, social conditions, politics, trade and transport.
Includes:
Part I: The Goldsmiths'-Kress Collection, 1450-1850
Part II, 1851-1914 - Medieval and Early Modern Sources Online This link opens in a new windowMedieval and Early Modern Sources Online (MEMSO) is an essential resource for the study of Britain and its place in the world during the medieval and early modern period (c. 1100-1800).
- Medieval Family Life This link opens in a new windowMedieval Family Life contains full-color images of the original medieval manuscripts that comprise the Paston, Cely, Plumpton, Stonor, and Armburgh family letter collections, along with full-text searchable transcripts from printed editions. Also includes family trees, chronology, a map, and a glossary.
- Medieval Travel Writing This link opens in a new windowProvides an extensive collection of manuscript materials for the study of medieval travel writing in fact and in fantasy. The main focus is accounts of journeys to the Holy Land, India and China. The core of the material is a magnificent collection of medieval manuscripts from libraries across Europe and dating from the 13th to the 16th centuries.
- Renascence EditionsAn online repository for digital editions of works printed in English between 1477 and 1799.
- TEAMS Middle English Text SeriesProvides digital copies of Middle English texts.
- Thesaurus of Old EnglishAn online edition of A Thesaurus of Old English, first published by King’s College London in 1995.
Research Guides
Use the below guides to go deeper into your research.
Bibliographies & Indexes
- A Bibliography of Publications on Old English to the End of 1972A bibliography of books, editions, articles, notes, and reviews published from the 15th century through 1972 on Old English literature.
- Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-SaxonA descriptive catalog of more than 400 Old English manuscripts written before c. 1200.
- Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and CanadaLAU Ref Stacks Z6620.U5 R5 v.1-3
- Chaucer Bibliography OnlineIncludes materials from the Annotated Chaucer Bibliography published annually in Studies in the Age of Chaucer.
- Digital Index of Middle English Verse (DIMEV)The DIMEV provides transcriptions of the first two and last two lines of each witness of each Middle English verse text (i.e., for all witnesses for which this data has thus far been collected).
- Feminae: Medieval Women & Gender IndexCovers journal articles, book reviews, and essays in books about women, sexuality, and gender during the Middle Ages.
- Medieval Manuscripts in British LibrariesCatalog of manuscripts written prior to c. 1500 in Latin or Western European languages. LAU Ref Stacks Z6620.G7 K4 v. 1-5
- Old English NewsletterInclude events, reports, essays, and publications as well as a searchable bibliographic database comprising the OEN Bibliography from 1973 to 2002.
Browsing Areas
The following sections are good for browsing for books on Anglo-Saxon and Medieval literature, which are shelved on the 5th floor of Lauinger Library.
English Language
PE101-458 – Anglo-Saxon. Old English
PE501-693 – Middle English.
English Literature
PR171-236 – Anglo-Saxon (beginnings through 1066)
PR251-369 – Medieval. Middle English (1066-1500)
PR1490-1799 – Anglo-Saxon literature
PR1803-2165 – Anglo-Norman period. Early English. Middle English.
