Primary Source Collections
- British Literary Manuscripts II, Medieval & Renaissance This link opens in a new window
Search this primary source database for manuscripts dating roughly from 1120-1660. It includes letters, poems, stories, plays, chronicles, religious writings, and more. (Gale)
- EuroDocs - Main PageCollection of open-access primary source collections from across the internet, broken down by country and time period.
- Hill Museum & Manuscript Library - Digital Reading RoomCollections of manuscripts from throughout European history. To see digitally accessible Italian sources, click on the Search bar, then from the filters menu that appears, set "Country" to "Italy" and de-select the "Microform" box at the bottom of the menu.
- Internet Medieval SourcebookHosted through Fordham University's Center for Medieval Studies, this features a collection of online resources all on Medieval history and its associated topics, some going as far back as 1996.
- Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts in the Archives and Collections of Milan 1385-1618Hosted through British History Online, this collection includes "semi-official reports from the envoys of the Duke of Milan in England."
- Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and EpidemicsThis online collection offers important historical perspectives on the science and public policy of epidemiology today and contributes to the understanding of the global, social–history, and public–policy implications of diseases.
- The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio (Il Boccaccio)Digital copy of "The Decameron" through Hathi Trust Library
- Decameron WebWeb companion to The Decameron with context and resources, created and hosted by Brown University Italian Studies faculty and students
- Avalon Project - Medieval Documents: 400 - 1399Links to primary sources, hosted by Yale Law School's Lillian Goldman Law Library.
- Carleton College - Medieval and Renaissance Studies Primary SourcesTranslations of medieval era primary sources in PDF form
- Opera del Vocabolario ItalianoThe production database contains 1960 vernacular texts (22.3 million words, 456,000 unique forms) the majority of which are dated prior to 1375, the year of Boccaccio's death. The verse and prose works include early masters of Italian literature like Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, as well as lesser-known and obscure texts by poets, merchants, and medieval chroniclers.
- World Digital LibraryCollection of primary sources and other material from the Library of Congress. Use the database filters to narrow down to specific time periods.
- Index of Medieval Art This link opens in a new window
Search an archive images and descriptive data of medieval art from late Antiquity to the sixteenth century. (Princeton)
Library Resources
While these books are not in and of themselves primary sources, they feature reproductions and translations of primary sources that could prove useful in your research:
A Corresponding Renaissance: Letters Written by Italian Women, 1375 - 1650 by Call Number: Boatwright Library - Level B2 - HQ1149 .I8 B67 2016ISBN: 9780199342433Publication Date: 2015"A Corresponding Renaissance" is divided into eight thematic chapters, featuring fifty-five letters that are newly translated into English - many for the first time ever. Each of the letters is annotated and includes a brief biographical introduction and bibliographic references.
Medieval Italy: Texts in Translation by Call Number: OnlineISBN: 1283897628Publication Date: 2011"Medieval Italy: Texts in Translation" gathers together, for the first time in one volume, newly translated primary sources critical to the study of the Italian Middle Ages, ca. 1000-1400 C.E.
The Towns of Italy in the Later Middle Ages by Call Number: Boatwright Library - Level B2 - DG443 .T69 2000ISBN: 0719052041Publication Date: 2000The towns of Italy in the later middle ages presents over one hundred fascinating documents, carefully selected and coordinated from the richest, most innovative and most documented society of the European Middle Ages.
Voices from the Italian Renaissance by Call Number: Boatwright Library - Level B2 - DG445 .B648 2024ISBN: 9781032256276Publication Date: 2023This book contains more than hundred selections of primary sources--the historian's raw material in the form of memoirs, letters, treatises, sermons, stories, poems, drawings, paintings, and sculpture. Here are eyewitness accounts of cold-blooded murders, lavish court pageants, the Sack of Rome, and the Black Death; first views of Michelangelo's Sistine frescoes and glimpses of the surface of the moon through Galileo's telescope.
