Library Research Guides: MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE STUDIES: Context & Overviews

Reference Collections

Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new window
Over 400 full-text academic encyclopedias, language dictionaries, books of quotations, and other sources. Includes subject-specific titles from art, classics, history, law, linguistics, literature, media studies, medicine, performing arts, philosophy, religion, science and technology, politics, and more.
Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Search 500+ reference works in all disciplines.

Gale Virtual Reference Library

Spotlight: English Handwriting

Having trouble reading early manuscripts? Renaissance handwriting got you down? Practice transcribing using online lessons!

English Handwriting 1500-1700: an Online Course
"The slate of course lessons offered below has been carefully structured around a selection of resources. Each lesson includes a central manuscript, for which the student is invited to supply a semi-diplomatic transcription in a workspace provided within the course. Alphabets of minuscule and majuscule letter-forms and of brevigraphs and other abbreviations are available, as are a zooming function."

Reference Materials

Provide a general overview of your topic
Often written by scholars in the field
Can lead you to other sources

Encyclopedia of the Renaissance
Surveys the historical period and cultural movement known as the Renaissance. Covers the period of 1350 to 1650 with biographical and topical entries on culture, philosophy, religion, economics, politics, science, and the arts, arranged alphabetically. For high school and college students, scholars, and general readers.

Wellesley owns volumes 1-6 in print and the resources is also available online here.
Encyclopedia of the Renaissance and the Reformation by Thomas Goddard Bergin; Jennifer Speake
The scope of this encyclopedia is the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries, during which time the pivotal events of the Renaissance and Reformation occurred, irrevocably changing the future's course. as well as general interest topics such as the role of women, drawing, families, food and cookery, literacy, libraries, and travel. Along with the addition of substantial new material emphasizing the recent findings of cultural historians, the text has been updated and revised throughout, taking into account the newest scholarship.
Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature [e-resource]
Articles on specific works, authors, historical figures, events, themes, and genres, by literary scholars. The period covered is from about 500 to 1500 AD, and the focus is on British literature though some entries consider concurrent literature from other major countries.
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church
It contains over 6,000 cross-referenced A-Z entries, and offers unrivalled coverage of all aspects of thisvast and often complex subject, from theology; churches and denominations; patristic scholarship; and the bible; to the church calendar and its organization; popes; archbishops; saints; and mystics.
Medieval science, technology, and medicine: an encyclopedia
Call Number: Clapp Reference Q124.97 .M43 2005
The entries address subjects pertaining to technology; the disciplines; geographical places; institutions; and scientific genres, theories, texts, and traditions. The fruitful reception of knowledge from the east to the west--specifically from China, Central Asia, India, and the Islamic world to Europe--is a repeated theme.
Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World
Rich historical content is partnered with coverage of the issues, countries, and people that are important in todays world, allowing for an assessment of Islams influence on all areas of human activity throughout the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas.
Classical Myths and Legends in the Middles Ages and Renaissance: A Dictionary of Allegorical Meanings by H. David Brumble
Call Number: Clapp Reference PN669 .B78 1998
This dictionary's entries are concerned with the allegorical traditions of Medieval and Renaissance Christians related to the gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines, and places of classical myth.