Research guides: HPS318 History of Medicine I: Antiquity to the Renaissance (Winter 2020): Finding Secondary Sources

Background Reading Resources

British Library - The Middle Ages - Essays
Read articles written by expert Dr Alixe Bovey on the social history of the Middle Ages which explore the everyday lives of ordinary people as illustrated in illuminated manuscripts.
Science in the ancient world: an encyclopedia

Ancient Medicine by Vivian Nutton
ISBN: 0415086116
Publication Date: 2004-05-10
In the first large-scale history of ancient medicine in a single volume for almost 100 years, Vivian Nutton uses both archaeological and written evidence to survey the development of medical ideas from early Greece to Late Antiquity. The book takes a broad view, exploring the place of medicine in ancient society on many different levels. There is a particular focus on the life and work of doctors - the disease they faced, how they obtained their knowledge, and their relationship with local communities. Professor Nutton also investigates the connections between medicine and the religious beliefs of antiquity, asking if there were fixed boundaries between medicine and magic. Finally, he examines different approaches to medicine across the ancient world, from the great cities such as Rome to countries such as Egypt or Roman Britain. Many of the texts cited here are made accessible for the first times, as they have previously only been available in medieval translations into Arabic. The book does not just provide new evidence to back up the standard arguments; it also argues for a change of perspective. By refusing to take Hippocratic medicine as the universal standard of ancient medic

Secondary Sources

If you're not sure how to start your assignment for HPS318, you can start with STEP 1: find a secondary source and work backwards to a primary source.

If you already have your primary source for HPS318, you should be ready for STEP 2: jump into the secondary sources to find more information to contextualize your primary source.

STEP 1

Find a secondary source (book, journal article) on your topic and then see if that source references a primary source, and then look up that primary source in the library catalogue or by browsing relevant special collections of primary sources.

For example, let's say I'm interested in medicinal drugs in antiquity, and I know that an ancient medicinal drug is the mandrake. I might type the word "mandrake" into the L'Annee Philologique, because it's a database of secondary sources on ancient Greece and Rome.

When I find the article "Mandrake from Antiquity to Harry Potter", I read that the author is referencing an ancient text that contains early mentions of the mandrake's medicinal properties: De Materia Medica of Pedanius Dioscorides.

I type De Materia Medica of Pedanius Dioscorides into the library catalogue and see that there is an english translation available at Gerstein Science Information Centre: http://go.utlib.ca/cat/5946150. This is my primary source!

STEP 2

Now it's time to search for secondary sources to find information to help contextualize your primary source and complete your annotated bibliography.

For example, let's say I've found De Materia Medica of Pedanius Dioscorides. I would next start searching the name of that text, its author, the place it was written, etc in databases of secondary sources (JSTOR or L'Annee Philologique, the catalogue, etc) to be able to better understand the nature of this document, its creator, and why it remains significant to the history of medicine.

Use these databases to find journal articles

L'Année philologique This link opens in a new window
The primary database for classical studies. L'Année Philologique provides information on the history, language, literature, and civilization of ancient Greece and Rome from 500 BCE to 800. It is published by the Société Internationale de Bibliographie Classique in collaboration with the American Philological Association and the Database of Classical Bibliography.

Iter Gateway to the Middle Ages & Renaissance
An Open URL- and Zotero-enabled bibliography comprised of secondary source material pertaining to the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400-1700). Citations for books and journal material (articles, reviews, review articles, bibliographies, catalogues, abstracts and discographies) are included, as are citations for dissertation abstracts and essays in books (including entries in conference proceedings, festschriften, encyclopedias and exhibition catalogues).

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Collection of full text scholarly journals. You can limit your search to history journals only.
Project MUSE - Premium Collection This link opens in a new window
Collection of full text scholarly journals.
Historical Abstracts (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
The major database for world history from 1450 to the present.

History of Science Technology and Medicine
The History of Science and Technology file describes journal articles, conference proceedings, books, book reviews, and dissertations in the history of science and technology and allied historical fields. The History of Science and Technology comprises three bibliographies: the Isis Current Bibliography of the History of Science (HSS), the Current Bibliography in the History of Technology (Technology and Culture), and the Bibliografia Italiana di Storia della Scienza. Updated annually, the History of Science and Technology covers 1975 to the present, with more than 94,000 records as of June 1997.
MEDLINE - Pubmed
PubMed comprises more than 24 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.
Google Scholar
To find more:
Select "Subjects A to Z" on the library home page. Then choose a discipline, such as 'History-General' or 'History-by Topic.'Also find Historical Periodicals.

Find books in the library catalogue

Catalogue tips

1. Use the side menus in the library catalogue to focus your results: for example, you can choose the language, the library, the kind of material (eg., video), author (to find books on the topic by a particular author)

2. You may need to try your search a few times with different keywords to find everything.

3. If you have more than one keyword, try doing your search in two steps. For example:
Step one, enter:
residential schools
Step two, enter:
canada, click on 'within results,' and then click on search.

Other libraries and Interlibrary Loan

Can't find what you are looking for in our catalogue? Don't despair!

List of catalogues from other libraries

WorldCat (OCLC FirstSearch) This link opens in a new window
WorldCat is a union catalogue which combines catalogues from hundreds of libraries across the United States, Canada, and worldwide. Use it to identify additional books and other items in your area of interest, that are not in the University of Toronto collection. Use Interlibrary Loan to borrow the items.

Interlibrary Loan
Order books, journal articles and other items from other libraries using Inter Library Loan, via RACER<

Research Guides

HPS318 History of Medicine I: Antiquity to the Renaissance (Winter 2020)

Background Reading Resources

Secondary Sources

Use these databases to find journal articles

Find books in the library catalogue

Catalogue tips

Other libraries and Interlibrary Loan

Library links

Libraries

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