About Primary Sources

Primary sources provide first-hand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic under investigation. They are created by witnesses or recorders who experienced the events or conditions being documented. 

Click on this link to read more about finding Primary Sources at the University of Toronto

For the novice art historian, finding Primary Resources may seem daunting, especially when much of the early material is in Latin, Italian, German and French.  Fortunately, most of the important material has been translated into English.  For undergraduate students, it is perfectly acceptable to use English translations, printed facsimiles and digitized copies - as long as you cite them properly.
 

The following examples are types of documents that are important for the study of Art History and and can be found in the UofT Libraries Catalogue:

• Commentaries by contemporaneous authors and critics; i.e. Pliny on art and society ...
• Diaries, Letters and Contracts; i.e. The complete letters of Vincent van Gogh
• Inventories; i.e. Lorenzo de' Medici at home : the inventory of the Palazzo Medici in 1492
• Government Documents; i.e.  His Majestie's declaration to his city of London upon occasion of the late calamity by the lamentable fire
• Writings and Interviews; i.e. Robert Smithson, the collected writings
• Manifestos; i.e. The art of noise : destruction of music by futurist machines
• Building Plans; i.e. Giuliano da Sangallo
• Maps; i.e. Local maps and plans from medieval England
• Exhibition Catalogues; i.e. Entartete "Kunst" Ausftellungsfuhrer
• Manuscripts; i.e. Manuscript Collection at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library
• Visual Material (sketchbooks, prints, etc.); Inigo Jones's "Roman sketchbook"
• Biographies (written during the time of the artist); i.e. Vasari's Lives of the most eminent painters, sculptors and architects
• Autobiographies; i.e. Autobiography of a contemporary court artist / 周旭著
• Trade catalogues; i.e. World's Fairs and Expositions: Visions of Tomorrow
• Films; i.e.Le grand Cirque Calder 1927 [videorecording]
• Websites; i.e. ZhangHuan.com
• Social Media: Ai Weiwei's Twitter Account
• Photographs