Major Online Collections by Subject

An increasing number of source texts of interest to researchers are becoming available in electronic format at various sites on the internet. Links to a number of these sites, organized according to language and/or subject (some sites are listed under more than one heading) are provided below. There are also references to specific texts, in particular for unusual languages and unusual texts. Users hoping to make use of them for any type of text analysis should be aware, however, that such public-domain texts may vary widely not only in format, but in quality and reliability as well.

References marked with (WWW) are World Wide Web pages, those marked with (Gopher) are normal gopher sites. A few, marked (TELNET), start up a telnet session where a login name should be entered, as indicated.

Major online text collections ordered by language

Major online text collections ordered by subject

Manuscript Studies
Medieval Studies
Philosophy
Religion
Women and Gender Studies

Manuscript Studies

The Hill Monastic Manuscript Library: The HMML houses a large collection of microfilms of medieval manuscripts. The collection is particularly strong on manuscripts in smaller libraries in Austria, Germany, and Spain.
Treasures from the Bibliothèque nationale de France: An exhibit at the Library of Congress. Contains several manuscript facsimiles.
The Age of King Charles V (1338-1380) (WWW): 1000 manuscript illuminations from the Bibliothèque Nationale.
Chrétien de Troyes, Le Chevalier de la Charrette: Includes beautiful color images of Princeton's Garrett manuscript, microfilm-quality images of four other manuscripts/fragments, and manuscript transcriptions as well as an on-line edition.
Koninklijke Bibliotheek: Seventeen images of medieval works, ninth through fifteenth centuries
Splendeurs de St. Martial de Limoges au temps d'Adémar de Chabannes: An exhibit of eleventh-century treasures at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
The Vatican Exhibit: Rome Reborn: Includes images of several manuscripts and A Library Takes Shape (documents relating to the history of the Vatican Library).
Columbia University Manuscripts: A collection of images of manuscripts in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Columbia University (only accessible to Columbia users).
Book of Hours, Illuminated for Marguerite de France: This manuscript was written and illuminated for Marguerite, Duchesse de Berry and daughter of King Francis I, at the occasion of her marriage in 1559 with Emmanuel-Philibert, Duke of Savoy. It now belongs to Spalding University.
Book of Hours, Illuminated for Mary of Burgundy: A selection of images of saints from a fifteenth-century Flemish Book of Hours.
Mystere dou jour dou jugement: These images are from a manuscript of the fourteenth-century mystery play, "The Day of Judgement," now located in the Bibliothèque Municipale de Besançon.
The Book of Kells: A collection of "carpet pages" from the renowned Insular gospel book.
Bodleian Library: A small selection of manuscript images from the collection of the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, including a remarkable thirteenth-century anatomical illustration.
The Piers Plowman Electronic Archive: Transcriptions, collations, and facsimiles of eight manuscripts of William Langland's fourteenth-century allegorical poem.
The Van Kampen Collection: A selection of illuminations from the collection of The Scriptorium Center for Christian Antiquities.

Medieval Studies

Columbia University's Ancient and Medieval Reading Room.: This homepage provides numerous links to web resources for medieval studies.
The Labyrinth (WWW): A global information network providing free, organized access to electronic resources in medieval studies through a World Wide Web server at Georgetown University.
Internet Medieval Sourcebook: A wide-ranging selection of primary sources from Late Antiquity through the Middle Ages, eastern and western, courtesy of Professor Paul Halsall at Fordham University.
Société des Bollandistes: The world's premier organization devoted to the history of the cult of saints.
WWW Medieval Resources: Links to many web-resources for medieval studies.
Medieval texts (ftp): A few medieval texts.
Rabanus Maurus, De rerum naturis: This site, which is maintained by William Schipper, contains a transcription of the text from two manuscripts, a list of known manuscripts and a bibliography.
Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae in English
Columbia University Medieval Guild: This local Columbia organization provides a few "essential" links.

Philosophy

Electronic Texts in Philosophy: This document is intended to provide a specialized index of electronic texts of importance for the history of philosophy, and a brief guide to finding them. There are many links to sites with philosophical texts.
The Philosophy section of the English Server at Carnegie Mellon University: This document contains links to canonical philosophical texts and to scholarly philosophical organizations.
William Ockham, Dialogus: Latin and English texts, under the auspices of the British Academy edited by John Kilcullen and John Scott for the series Auctores Britannici Medii Aevi. The work on this edition is in progress.

Religion

ICLNet: The Institute for Christian Leadership provides a number of resources concerning the early Christian church, including creeds, apostolic and patristic writings, and conciliar canons.
New Advent Catholic Supersite: This site offers, among other things, some articles from the New Catholic Encyclopedia.
Christian Classics Ethereal Library: Wheaton College provides a wide selection of works in translation, such as Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica, Augustine's Confessions, John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Julian of Norwich's Revelations of Divine Love, John Wesley's Sermons, and a host of others.
Search the Qu'ran (Y. Ali's and M. M. Pickthall's translations) (Gopher)
The Qu'ran (E.H. Palmer's translation) (Gopher)
Qu'ran (M.H. Shakir's translation) (Gopher) - Not currently available.
Avesta Web Server: Contains the scriptures of the Zoroastrian religion. - Not currently available.

Women and Gender Studies

A Celebration of Women Writers: A list of Women Writers with links to available texts on the net.
Diotima: Materials for the study of Women and Gender in the Ancient World.
Feminism and Women's Studies: This page is maintained by the English Department at Carnegie Mellon University and publishes women's studies and feminist works, particularly focusing on issues of sex, gender, sexual identity and sexuality in cultural practices.
Globale Fraueninformation: Links to many Women's studies sites around the world.
The Kassandra Project
Women's Studies Resources: Maintained at MIT.

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