Fall 2009 - Professor Welsh

Questions? Please contact Sara Swanson (704-894-2157).

Finding Primary Sources

Primary sources related to the medieval trade, commerce, and culture can be found using library catalogs, digital collections (both subscription-based and on the Web), and other resources, including reprints of original documents.

Library Catalogs

The Davidson College Library Catalog contains information about primary source materials owned by Davidson.  WorldCat lists primary source materials held in libraries around the world.  If Davidson does not have a copy of what you need, use Interlibrary Loan to request it.

Note:  Rare and archival materials cannot be borrowed on interlibrary loan.  You can sometimes locate microfilm or microfiche copies of these documents in WorldCat; try doing an advanced search, enter your keywords or subject terms, and then apply a “subtype limit,” choosing “Microform” as the format.

To locate primary sources in a library catalog, do a keyword search and add one or more of the following words:

• sources
• correspondence
• diaries
• personal narratives

Or, try a subject search using one of the following subject headings:

• Europe - History - 476-1492 - Sources
• Middle Ages - Sources

Digital Collections

• Early English Books Online (EEBO)
  (1475-1700) Includes over 125,000 books, pamphlets, broadsides, proclamations, almanacs, and other publications printed in Great Britain, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and British North America from the fifteenth through the seventeenth centuries.
  Note:  Includes only a small number of periodicals.
  To print more than a citation or one page of a document, you need to add a record to your marked list, then click on the “Marked List” button at the top of the page.  Click on “Download document image sets in PDF format.”  Then choose “Download entire document.”  Once the document is downloaded, you can print out a range of pages or the entire document using the print function in Adobe Acrobat Reader.
  
  
• Internet Medieval Sourcebook
  From the Fordham University's Center for Medieval Studies, this website contains texts of primary source materials related to the Middle Ages. It includes pages on medieval maps and economic life.
  
  
• The Labyrinth:  Resources for Medieval Studies
  From Georgetown University. Provides links to primary and secondary sources.
  
  
• Women Writers Online
  Contains the full text of over 200 works written by women in the period 1400-1850.
  

Note: Many libraries and archives are in the process of scanning materials and posting them on the Web. Some of these can be excellent materials. As always, be cautious about using materials that you find on the "Open Web"; remember to evaluate everything you find! For more information, see the Web Resources:  Evaluation guide.

Other Resources

• ARTstor
  A collection of over 900,000 images in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities, and the social sciences; covers a wide range of cultures and time periods.  Also includes tools to manipulate and analyze the images.
  
  
• The Medieval and Early Modern World: Primary Sources and Reference Volume. Comp. Donald R. Kelley and Bonnie G. Smith. New York: Oxford UP, 2005.
  Little Library Stacks 909.07 M4892
  
  
• Medieval Italy: Texts in Translation. Eds. Katherine L. Jansen, Joanna Drell, and Frances Andrews. Philadelphia: U. of Pennyslvania Press, 2009
  Little Library LC Stacks DG501 .M535 2009
  
  
• Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean World. Robert S. Lopez and Irving W. Raymond. New York: Columbia UP, 1955.
  Little Library Stacks 380.9
  L86m
  
  
• Medieval Worlds: A Sourcebook. Eds. Roberta Anderson and Dominic Aidan Bellenger. New York: Routledge, 2003.
  Little Library Stacks 940.1 M4895
  
  
• Those Who Worked: An Anthology of Medieval Sources. Ed. Peter Speed. New York: Italica Press, 1997.
  Little Library Stacks 306.3 T523
  
  
• Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History.  Philadelphia, PA:  Univ. of Pennsylvania Dept. of History, 1897-1907.  6 vols.  New York:  AMS Press, 1971
  Little Library Stacks 940 P77t
  
  
• The Voice of the Middle Ages: In Personal Letters, 1100-1500. Ed. Catherine Moriarty. New York: P. Bedrick Books, 1989.
  Little Library Stacks 909.07 V889
  
  
• Women's Lives in Medieval Europe: A Sourcebook. Ed. Emilie Amt. New York: Routledge, 1993.
  Little Library Stacks 305.4 W87215
  
  

Finding Secondary Sources

Books

Use library catalogs to find books, videos, government documents, journals, magazines, and newspapers.  The Davidson College Library Catalog contains information about materials owned by Davidson.  WorldCat lists materials held in libraries around the world.  If Davidson does not have a copy of what you need, use Interlibrary Loan to request it.

When searching for books and other materials in a catalog, try searching by keyword, author, or title.  You may also search by Library of Congress subject headings.  To locate appropriate subject headings, do a keyword search and then browse records.  Helpful subject headings include:

• Cities and towns, Medieval
• Commerce - History
• Economic history - Medieval, 500-1500
• Economic history - 15th century
• Economic history - 16th century
• Europe - Terretorial expansion - History - To 1500
• Europe, Northern - Commerce - History - To 1500
• Food industry and trade - England - History - To 1500
• Industries - History
• International trade - History
• Spice trade - History
• Merchants - History
• Trade routes - History - To 1500
• Travel, Medieval

Articles

Core Resources

• EconLIT
  (1969 to present) Provides bibliographic citations and selected abstracts to journal articles from 326 journals; also indexes doctoral dissertations, books, and conference proceedings. Areas covered include economic theory and history, monetary theory and financial institutions, labor economics, and international, regional, and urban economics.
  
  
• Historical Abstracts
  (1450 to present [historical time period covered]; 1954 to present [publication date of articles and books indexed]) Indexes scholarly articles, review of scholarly books, and doctoral dissertations on world history, excluding the history of the U.S. and Canada.
  
  
• ITER:  Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance
  (400-1700 [historical time period covered]; 1842 to present [publication date of articles and books indexed]) Indexes scholarly articles and books on topics related to the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
  
  
• International Medieval Bibliography
  Reference R 016.914 I61
  (400-1500 [historical time period covered]; 1967 to present [publication dates of articles indexed] Indexes scholarly articles, essays, and conference papers on a wide range of topics related to the Middle Ages in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.  International in scope.
  
  

Other Resources

• Bibliography of Asian Studies (BAS) Online
  (1971 to present) Indexes articles, essays in edited collections, conference proceedings, and other materials on all subjects related to East, Southeast, and South Asia. Also lists books published between 1971 and 1992. International in scope; most citations are to works written in Western languages.
  
  
• Essay & General Literature Index
  (1985 to present) Indexes chapters and essays in edited collections.
  
  
• Humanities Abstracts
  (1907 to present [publication date of articles indexed]) Indexes journal articles and some book reviews on all humanities subjects, including history, classics, art, archaeology, literature, philosophy, and religion.
  
  
• Index Islamicus
  (1906 to present) Indexes articles from over 3,000 journals as well as books, conference proceedings, and book reviews. Covers a wide variety of subjects and topics related to Islam, the Middle East, and the Muslim world including art, economics, history, law, literature, philosophy, political science, and religion.
  
  
• JSTOR
  Includes PDF copies of scholarly articles from a core collection of journals; also includes book reviews.  Note:  JTOR does not contain articles from the most recent 3-5 years.
  
  
• Periodicals Index Online
  (c. 1665-1995 [publication date of articles indexed]) Indexes articles from humanities and social sciences periodicals from their first issues to 1995. Particularly useful for locating references to articles from the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. International in scope.
  
  
• Project Muse
  Includes PDF and HTML copies of journal articles published by university and scholarly presses.
  
  
• Web of Knowledge
  (c. 1900 to present) A multidisciplinary resource that provides citations to articles in over 10,000 journals in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences.
  

Reference Resources

Atlases, Dictionaries, and Encyclopedias

• Atlas of Maritime History. Richard Natkiel and Antony Preston. New York: Facts on File, 1986.
  Reference R 912 N278a
  
  
• Atlas of Medieval Europe. Donald Matthew. New York: Facts on File, 1983.
  Little Library Dewey Oversize F 911.4 M437a
  
  
• Atlas of the Medieval World. Roasamond McKitterick. New York: Oxford UP, 2004.
  Reference R 909.07 M158a
  
  
• A Companion to Medieval England, 1066-1485. Nigel Saul. 3rd ed. Stroud, England: Tempus, 2005.
  Reference R 942.03 S256c
  
  
• The Complete Atlas of World History; The Medieval and Early Modern World, AD 600-1783. Simon Hall and John Haywood. Vol. 2. Armonk, NY: Sharpe Reference, 1997.
  Reference R 911 C737
  
  
• Dictionary of the Middle Ages.  Ed. Joseph R. Strayer.  13 vols.  New York:  Scribner, 1982-1989.
  Reference R 909 D554
  Note: The Library also has the supplement to this set (Reference R 909 D554-s).
  
  
• Encyclopedia of Community: From the Village to the Virtual World. Eds. Karen Christensen and David Levinson. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2003.
  
  
• Encyclopedia of Food and Culture. Ed. Solomon H. Katz. 3 vols. New York: Scribner, 2003.
  Reference R 394.1 E56
  
  
• Encyclopedia of European Social History from 1350 to 2000.  Ed. Peter N. Stearns.  6 vols.  New York:  Scribner’s, 2001
  Reference R 306.094 E56
  
  
• Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages.  Ed. Andre Vauchez.  2 vols.  Chicago, IL:  Fitroy Dearborn, 2000.
  Reference R 909.07 E56
  
  
• Europe 1450 to 1789:  Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World.  Ed. Jonathan Dewald.  6 vols.  New York:  Scribner’s, 2004.
  Reference R 940.2 E89
  
  
• Historical Atlas: A Collection of Maps Illustrating Geographically the Most Significant Periods and Events in the Development of Western Civiliztion. C.S. Hammond & Company. Maplewood, NJ: Hammond, 1960.
  Reference R 911 H22h1
  
  
• Historical Dictionary of Late Medieval England, 1272-1485.  Ed. Ronald H. Fritze and William B. Robison.  Westport, CT:  Greenwood, 2002.
  Reference R 942.03 H6731
  
  
• The Longman Handbook of Early Modern Europe, 1453-1763.  Chris Cook and Philip Broadhead.  New York:  Longman, 2001.
  Reference R 940.2 C771L
  
  
• Medieval France:  An Encyclopedia.  Ed. William W. Kibler, et al.  New York:  Garland, 1995.
  Reference R 914.4 M489
  
  
• Medieval Germany:  An Encyclopedia.  Ed. John M. Jeep.  New  York:  Garland, 2001.
  Reference R 943.02 M489
  
  
• Medieval Iberia:  An Encyclopedia.  Ed. E. Michael Gerli.  New York:  Routledge, 2003.
  Reference R 946.02 M489
  
  
• Medieval Ireland:  An Encyclopedia.  Ed. Seán Duffy.  New York:  Routledge, 2005.
  Reference R 941.5 M489
  
  
• Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia. Ed. Josef W. Meri, 2006. New York: Routledge, 2006
  Reference R 909.09 M48
  
  
• Medieval Italy:  An Encyclopedia.  Ed. Christopher Kleinhenz.  2 vols.  New York:  Routledge, 2004.
  Reference R 945.03 M489
  
  
• Medieval Jewish Civilization: An Encyclopedia. Ed. Norman Roth. New York: Routledge, 2003.
  Reference R 909.04 M489
  
  
• Medieval Science, Technology, and Medicine: An Encyclopedia. Eds. Thomas F. Glick, Steven J. Livesey, and Faith Wallis. New York: routledge, 2005.
  Reference R 509 M489
  
  
• The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History. Ed. Joel Mokyr. 5 vols. New York: Oxford UP, 2003.
  Reference R 330.3 O98
  
  
• Trade, Travel, and Exploration in the Middle Ages: An Encyclopedia. Eds. Johon Blocok Friedman and Kristen Mossler Figg. New York: Garland Pub., 2000.
  Reference R 909.07 T763
  
  
• Women in the Middle Ages:  An Encyclopedia.  Ed. Katharina M. Wilson and Nadia Margolis.  2 vols.  Westport, CT:  Greenwood, 2004.
  Reference R 305.409 W872

 Bibliographies

• International Medieval Bibliography.  Leeds, Engand:  Univ. of Leeds, 1967-.
  Reference R 016.914 I61
  
  
• Medieval European History, 395-1500: A Select Bibliography. R.H.C. Daivs. 2nd rev. ed. London: Historical Association, 1968
  Reference R 016.94 D263m

Biographical Information

• Biography Reference Bank.  H. W. Wilson, 2003-.
  
  
• The Late Medieval Age of Crisis and Renewal, 1300-1500:  A Biographical Dictionary.  Ed. Clayton J. Drees.  Westport, CT:  Greenwood Press, 2001.
  Reference R 920.04 L351
  
  
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H.C.G. Matthew and Brian Harrison.  60 vols.  New York:  Oxford University Press, 2004.
  Reference R 920 N2111
  Note: See also the first edition:  Dictionary of National Biography, edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee (22 vols; 1885-1901; reprinted London:  Oxford Univ. Press, 1963-1965), shelved in Reference at call number R 920 N211.
  
  
• The Rise of the Medieval World, 500-1300:  A Biographical Dictionary.  Ed. Jana K. Schulman.  Westport, CT:  Greenwood Press, 2002.
  
  
• Who’s Who in the Middle Ages.  Mary Ellen Snodgrass.  Jefferson, NC:  McFarland, 2001.
  Reference R 920.04 S673w

Related Guides

• RefWorks:  A Guide
  
  
• Research Log
  
  
• Research Planner
  
  
• Scholarly Articles:  How to Identify Them
  
  
• Web Resources: Evaluation