Primary Sources
Primary sources make up the meat of historical research, being produced in the era itself or soon after. I have assembled a rudimentary list of sites with medieval texts, mostly in translation to English, though some sites retain the original language on its own or alongside translations. This page is in progress and lack of sources for a particular topic or language does not indicate disinterest on my part and is instead due to the resources I have at the time of the latest update.
The general list includes sites with a wide range of medieval documents. The second list, by language of origin, skews more literary than the others, hence subcategories of specific works and authors. The list of sources by region focuses on sources related to particular countries/cultures, and the fourth list is organized topically.
For secondary sources, visit the secondary sources page.
General
- Global Medieval Sourcebook (Stanford University)
- In Parentheses – translated texts in .PDF (York University)
- Internet Medieval Sourcebook (Fordham University)
By Language of Origin
Arabic/Persian
- Arabic texts on Perseus (Tufts University)
- Internet Islamic History Sourcebook (Fordham University)
- Islamic Medical Manuscripts at the National Library of Medicine (National Library of Medicine)
Czech
English
- Old English (Anglo-Saxon)
- Middle English
- General
- By Author
- Geoffrey Chaucer
- Margery Kempe
- William Langland
French (Old, Middle, and Anglo-Norman)
- General
- By Author
- Charles d'Orleans
- Chretien de Troyes
- Christine de Pizan
- Jean Froissart
- Marie de France
- Specific Works
- Aucassin et Nicolette Illustrated (Dominique Tixhon, in French and Anglo-Norman)
- La Chanson de Roland Illustrated (Dominique Tixhon, in French and Anglo-Norman)
- La Chanson de Roland (Bibliotheca Augustana)
- Le Voyage de Saint Brendan Illustrated (Ian Short and Brian Merrilees, designed by Dominique Tixhon, in French and Anglo-Norman)
- Partonopeus de Blois (University of Sheffield)
- The Romance of the Rose Digital Scriptorium (Johns Hopkins University)
- Medieval German sources (Medieavum.de, in German)
- Regesta Imperii of the Holy Roman Empire and Carolingians (Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Mainz, site mostly in German)
- General
- Specific Works
- General
- By Author
- Boccaccio
- Dante
- Petrarch
- General
- By Author
- Thomas Aquinas
- Lives and Works of the Troubadors (site in French)
- Medieval Occitan Collection (Indiana University)
- Troubadour & Early Occitan Literature (University of Tennessee at Martin)
- Germanic texts on Perseus (Tufts University)
- Heimskringla - Old Norse Prose and Poetry
- Icelandic Saga Database (Sveinbjörn Þórðarson)
- Medieval Nordic Texts Archive
- Old Norse E-Texts
- Skaldic prose texts with grammar (Tarrin Wills, University of Aberdeen)
- Byzantine Sources on the Internet (Fordham University)
- Resources for Byzantinists (Dumbarton Oaks)
- Translated Excerpts from Byzantine Sources: The Imperial Centuries, c. 700-1204 (Dr. Paul Stephenson)
- Cause Papers Database of Cases Heard between 1300 and 1858 in the Church Courts of the diocese of York (University of York)
- Conisbrough Court Rolls (Digital Humanities Institute)
- Domesday: Britain’s Finest Treasure (UK National Archives)
- England’s Immigrants Database – 1330-1550 (University of York)
- Internet Medieval Sourcebook Selected Sources: Anglo-Saxon England (Fordham University)
- Internet Medieval Sourcebook Selected Sources: England (Fordham University)
- The Lands of the Normans in England – 1204 – 1244 (University of Sheffield)
- Mapping the Medieval Townscape: a digital atlas of the new towns of Edward I (University of York)
- Open Domesday (University of Hull)
- Taxatio Database – valuation and related details of the English and Welsh parish churches and prebends listed in the ecclesiastical taxation assessment of 1291-1292 (University of Sheffield)
- York's Archbishops Registers Revealed (University of York)
- English Medieval Legal Documents: AD 600 - AD 1535: A Compilation of Published Sources (University of Southern California)
- English Medieval Legal Documents – Online Databases Available on the Web (University of Southern California)
- Catalogue of historical legal documents (British History Online)
- Medieval English Legal History: An Index and Paraphrase of Printed Year Book Reports, 1268–1535 (Boston University)
- Anglo-Saxon Charters (The British Academy)
- Henry III Fine Rolls Project (Arts and Humanities Research Council)
- Calendar of the Patent Rolls 1216-1225, 1272-1560, 1563-66 (HathiTrust)
- The Statutes of the Realm from Magna Carta to the end of the reign of Queen Anne (HathiTrust)
- Internet Medieval Sourcebook Selected Sources: France (Fordham University)
- Internet Medieval Sourcebook Selected Sources: The Carolingians and After (Fordham University)
- Early Christian Ecclesiastical Settlement in Ireland 5th to 12th Centuries (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies)
- Internet Medieval Sourcebook Selected Sources: Ireland (Fordham University)
- Europeana Collections – database of European art (European Union)
- The Middle Ages – Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
- The Web Gallery of Art – European fine arts from the 3rd to 19th centuries (Emil Krén and Daniel Marx)
- The Camelot Project (University of Rochester)
- The Princeton Charrette Project – Chrétien de Troyes's Le Chevalier de la Charrette (Princeton University)
- CODECS: Online Database and e-Resources for Celtic Studies (A. G. van Hamel Foundation for Celtic Studies)
- Internet Medieval Sourcebook Selected Sources: The Celtic World (Fordham University)
- Irish Script on Screen (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies)
- Early Church Documents (Internet Christian Library)
- The Franciscan Archive
- Internet Medieval Sourcebook Selected Sources: High Medieval Church Life (Fordham University)
- Internet Medieval Sourcebook Selected Sources: The Roman Church (Fordham University)
- Internet Medieval Sourcebook: Saints' Lives (Fordham University)
- Internet Medieval Sourcebook Selected Sources: Sex and Gender (Fordham University)
- People with a History: An Online Guide to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans* History Section II: Medieval Worlds (Fordham University, includes both primary and secondary sources)
- Internet Medieval Sourcebook: Medieval Legal History (Fordham University)
- Medieval legal documents 400-1399 (Yale University)
- The Bezalel Narkiss Index of Jewish Art (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
- Internet Medieval Sourcebook Selected Sources: Medieval Jewish Life (Fordham University)
- The Poetry and Prose of Yehudah ha-Levi
- Internet Medieval Sourcebook Selected Sources: Late Medieval States and Society (Fordham University)
- The Aberdeen Bestiary (University of Aberdeen)
- BNF Exhibits (National Library of France)
- Brut Chronicle (University of Michigan)
- Digitized Manuscripts (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, select century)
- Digitized Manuscripts (Heidelberg University)
- e-codices - Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland
- The France and England Project: Medieval Manuscripts between 700 and 1200 (National Library of France)
- Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts (New York Public Library)
- Hill Museum and Manuscript Library (St. John’s University)
- Manuscripts from the collection of the Duke of Calàbria (University of Valencia)
- Medieval Manuscripts Guide (Leeds University)
- Medieval Manuscripts in Dutch Collections (National Library of the Netherlands)
- Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts from Western Europe (New York Public Library)
- Medieval and Early-Modern Irish Language Manuscripts (Trinity College Dublin)
- Medieval manuscripts (Schøyen Collection)
- Medieval manuscripts at the National Library of the Netherlands
- Depictions of medieval life in manuscripts (British Library)
- Internet Medieval Sourcebook Selected Sources: Social History (Fordham University)
- Comprehensive site on Medieval and Early Music (Medieval Music & Arts Foundation)
- Images of Medieval musical notation (Schøyen Collection)
- The Thesaurus Musicarum Latinarum – corpus of Latin music theory from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (Indiana University)
- Averroes Edition – trilingual edition of commentaries and writings on the Aristotelian corpus by Ibn Bāǧǧa and Ibn Rušd (University of Köln)
- Primary Source Material in Religion and Politics (Baylor University)
- European State Finance Database
- Internet Medieval Sourcebook –Economic Life (Fordham University)
- Medieval and Early Modern Data Bank – economic databases (Rutgers University)
- Primary Sources on the Silk Road (University of Washington)
- General
- The Crusades
- The Crusades Project (University of Rochester)
- Crusades primary sources (De Re Militari)
- A Database of Crusaders to the Holy Land | 1095 – 1149 (The Digital Histories Institute, University of Sheffield)
- Internet Medieval Sourcebook Selected Sources: The Crusades (Fordham University)
- Letters of Crusaders (Hanover College)
- Epistolae: Medieval Women's Letters (Columbia University)
- Internet Medieval Sourcebook Selected Sources: Women’s Roles (Fordham University)
- Monastic Matrix – women's religious communities from 400 to 1600 CE – primary sources (Ohio State University)
- Other Women's Voices – Translations of women's writing before 1700 (Dorothy Disse and the University of Akron)