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INTERNET RESOURCESMedieval studies: Gateways, subject guides, and moreC&RL News, April 2005 by John Jaeger and Paul Victor Jr. This article attempts to introduce the reader to some of the excellent sites available on the Internet that relate to medieval studies. Some of these sites are gateways that link to a broad range of online resources. Other sites are large subject guides provided from large universities that have medieval studies programs. Additionally, there are subject-specific sites that focus on particular aspects of medieval study, such as history, literature, philosophy, or religion. These resources can be particularly helpful in locating precise information. Also, there are subscription databases, such as the International Medieval Bibliography, that give researchers access to a large collection of resources not freely available on the Web.
• The Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies (College of Staten Island: SUNY). The Online Reference Book (ORB), hosted by the College of Staten Island, is a peer-reviewed site seeking to aid instructors and students of medieval studies. The ORB Encyclopedia features links to other Web sites, as well as informative essays and bibliographies by scholars. It is divided chronologically (Early, High, and Late Middle Ages) as well as by topic. A related section, entitled "What Every Medievalist Should Know," contains 45 bibliographies browsable either by topic or alphabetically. The Reference Shelf section of ORB offers links to full-text translations of ancient and medieval works from reputable online sources (note: some broken links here). Next, the online Textbooks section mostly contains links to full-text excerpts taken from professor’s lectures. Finally, the E-Texts area has links to new transcriptions or translations of medieval texts. For the general public who may be intensely curious about this time period and want to learn more, be sure to explore the section entitled Medieval Studies for the Non-Specialist. This section of ORB strives to examine how the Middle Ages is represented in popular movies, television, and historical fiction. ORB provides lists of movies, bibliographies on topics and personages, as well as a list of historical fiction that will be of interest to both adults and younger audiences. Access: http://www.the-orb.net/. Subject guides • University of Florida (University of Florida Libraries). This subject guide is a large and ambitious one, not completely finished but en route to becoming one of the best medieval directories available. There are plans to have 25 different subject categories, though at present only 15 are hyperlinked and a couple of those are still under construction. The page where one selects among the subject categories is the Medieval Studies Resources page at http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/hss/medieval/Advanced.htm. To catch a glimpse of the impressive scope of this site, one should examine the category of Literature. This topic is subdivided into 12 different subtopics, such as bibliographies, companions to literature, databases, journals, reference works, research guides, and Web sites. Each of these subdivisions have detailed and thorough information. Most of them are fully annotated as well. Access: http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/hss/medieval. • Yale University (Yale University Library). This site seeks to guide students, faculty, and patrons to medieval studies resources. It contains some of the usual online resources, such as medieval gateways and a short list of specialized Web sites. Yale’s site also offers a list of indexes and abstracts, sources for book reviews, and names of some online journals. And for those seeking more information about the field of medieval studies, there are links to discussion lists, a few university programs, and associations and organizations. But probably the best feature of Yale’s site is the extensive bibliography of written sources. The main emphasis of this bibliography is on history resources and reference works. These sources are thoroughly annotated and also contain call numbers. The Yale bibliography is a great research tool that is geared more towards graduate students and faculty. Subscription databases • ITER: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance (Hosted by University of Toronto). Iter was created to advance the study and teaching of the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400-1700) through the development of online resources. Full subscribers to this database have access to the following information: bibliographic citations for more than 1,000 scholarly journals, 47,600 books, as well as essays from 1,600 scholarly collections dealing with the Middle Ages and Renaissance. This bibliography also contains harder to find materials, such as reviews, conference proceedings, and festschriften. For those who do not subscribe to the Iter bibliography, a watered-down version is available to search (consisting of five journal titles that cover the same time period). Academic libraries who have a medieval studies program may wish to purchase a subscription in order to give scholars access to a few of the specialized research tools (see their Web site for details regarding these online directories: Scholars of Early Modern Studies, the International Directory of Renaissance and Reformation Associations and Institutes; as well as these online projects Iter Italicum, Baptisteria Sacra, and the Electronic Capito Project). Access: http://www.itergateway.org/.
Subject-specific resources Literature • The Middle English Collection (University of Virginia). The Middle English Collection is part of the Electronic Text Collection, an electronic library of publicly accessible electronic texts made available through the University of Virginia. This collection of Middle English texts includes many anonymous works, such as the Anthology of Chancery English (241 texts), the York Plays (47 plays), and the Towneley Plays (32 plays). The collection also contains major writings of such medieval writers as Geoffrey Chaucer, William Dunbar, John Gower, Robert Henryson, William Langland, and Layamon. A particular strength of the Middle English Collection is the high quality of the texts as they appear electronically. The online texts retain the helpful features, such as line numbers and wide margins, found in scholarly printed works. Access: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/mideng.browse.html. • Online Medieval and Classical Library (University of California, Berkley). U.C. Berkley’s site is one of the best known and maintained online libraries on the Web. It has a huge archive that is browsable by title, author, genre, and language. Students and scholars will be pleased to know that a keyword search box is included that will search for terms throughout all of the texts in this collection. Works represented in this collection are available full-text and are downloadable. Each work lists what edition the electronic copy has been created from (most are older works in the public domain) and who has edited/translated it. Finally, each work is just straight text, but most include line numbers and endnotes. Access: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/. • Voice of the Shuttle: Anglo Saxon & Medieval (University of California, Santa Barbara: Alan Liu). The Voice of the Shuttle site focusing on Anglo Saxon and Medieval Literature is large, broad in coverage, and easy to search. In terms of size, the site is 21 pages long. It is a major gateway to literature links related both to general Philosophy • Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Stanford University). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has the usual advantage of online resources in that it tends to be able to incorporate new research and updates faster than paper resources. However, this encyclopedia attempts to solve the problem of the highly changeable online medium (and the citation problems it creates) by keeping fixed editions of past entries stored in a publicly accessible archive. As with any refereed work, all of the entries are written and maintained by experts in the field and must be approved by an editorial board. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is searchable by keyword (see the advanced search to access a Google powered search box of this site) or browsable by topic or author. Major medieval philosophers are included in the encyclopedia: Abelard, Anselm, Aquinas, Augustine, Duns-Scotus, Ockham, etc. There are also many philosophical beliefs and topics included here. For those interested particularly in medieval philosophy, see the entry of the same name written by Paul Vincent Spade (*Note: be sure to examine the "Related Entries" section at the bottom of this page for a nice, focused list of medieval topics contained within this encyclopedia). Access: http://plato.stanford.edu/.
Religion • New Advent Catholic Web Site. New Advent primarily is a site providing the full text of a very large and informative Catholic encyclopedia. When this encyclopedia was first published in 1914, it contained more than 11,000 articles in a 15-volume set. This resource was well received at the time and represented some of the best scholarship available. The limitations to this set now, of course, are that it fails to cover the most recent 90 years of Catholic history, and it also reflects the thinking prior to Vatican II. However, since our interest is in its usefulness for the medieval period, these liabilities are not so significant. This encyclopedia is particularly useful for providing helpful information on persons and movements related to the medieval period. A search on "Averroes," for instance, brings up a two-to-three page article with several hyperlinks to other pages and a good deal of factual information on the Arabian philosopher and astronomer. One can search the encyclopedia both alphabetically and through a search box by keywords. The New Advent site also has full-text links to Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica and to the writings of the Church Fathers, but the primary resource is the encyclopedia. Access: http://www.newadvent.org. Information about the field • Medieval Institute (Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo). The Medieval Institute has operated for almost 45 years as a center for learning and research in the Middle Ages. It offers an undergraduate minor program and a Master of Arts degree in medieval studies at Western Michigan University. The Medieval Institute also hosts the International Congress on Medieval Studies. This annual conference draws thousands of medievalists from the United States and around the world. The "Research Activities" section of this site contains bibliographic resources for those doing serious research on Anglo-Saxons, Old English, and other topics of the early Middle Ages. For more resources regarding this topic, see the link for the Richard Rawlinson Center for Anglo-Saxon Studies and Manuscript Research. Be sure to explore the "Relevant Links for Medievalists," located at the very bottom of the page, which offers great links to Internet resources for this time period. Access: http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/. Discussion groups Journals John Jaeger is reference librarian at Dallas Baptist University, e-mail: johnja@dbu.edu, and Paul Victor Jr. is reference and instruction librarian at the University of Florida, e-mail: pauvict@uflib.ufl.edu © 2005 John Jaeger and Paul Victor Jr. |
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• Labyrinth (Georgetown University). The Labyrinth is an excellent gateway to electronic resources made available through Georgetown University. Resources are carefully selected from the Internet and include primary texts, secondary texts and articles, course materials, bibliographies, images, maps, and other items. There are 45 subject categories that one can browse for information; also, there are category fields that can be highlighted in conjunction with a keyword search to create a specific query. Categories are quite specific, as indicated from these items selected from the middle of the alphabet: Feudalism, French (Old), Furniture, Gardens, Gender and Sexuality, Geography, and German (Middle High). The Labyrinth is one of the very best places to go to locate information related to medieval subjects. Access: 
• NetSerf. NetSerf contains annotated listings of Internet resources dealing with the Middle Ages. The online resources are arranged according to major topic with the sections for art and history containing the most extensive listing of resources. The literature section will be useful for students (see the works by author or title). Another valuable tool is an extensive glossary of 1,499 medieval terms (include some Latin words and phrases). Finally, the most well- developed part of the NetSerf site is the Research Center. It contains excellent resources for the following areas: associations and organizations, bibliographies, mailing lists and newsgroups, and maps. Access: 
resources as well as to specialized ones. Areas covered include authors, cultural and historical contexts, criticism, dictionaries, journals, electronic lists, manuscripts, and conferences. One can search through these resources by clicking on these subject areas as they are listed on the right side of the page. One also can enter a keyword in the search square at the top of the page to locate specific information. Access: 
major themes. Relevant quotations or related topics are hyperlinked directly into the entries and make for easy navigation/exploration. It even contains the correct way in which to site the article in a bibliography. The online version of this work offers three ways to find information on your topic: using a subject guide, browsing by a topic or philosopher’s name, or performing a basic or advance keyword search. Using the subject guides section is probably the easiest way for students to explore a topic, since it allows the user to search by philosophical themes, world philosophies, time periods, and world religions. The medieval time period section contains major philosophical themes and an alphabetical listing of article topics. The Medieval Philosophy article offers a great introduction to the historical background and major philosophical themes of this time period. When examining any entry, be sure not to miss the useful research tools linked in the top (blue) toolbar. Access: 
• Medieval Logic and Philosophy (Indiana University: Paul Vincent Spade, Professor of Philosophy). Spade’s research focuses on mediaeval philosophy, logic, and semantic theory. One of the most useful parts of his site is the large links page, which contains many of the well- known medieval gateways, as well as links for more focused topics. Students will be happy to know that there is a listing of online texts, course materials, bulletin boards, and scholar’s homepages. Furthermore, free downloads (PDFs) are available regarding the topics of medieval logic and philosophy (i.e., course materials and translations of texts). For those seeking more resources in this field, there is a section for journals, a list of relevant societies and institutions, and a large directory (names, affiliations, and e-mails) for those working in the field of medieval logic and philosophy. Access: