Research Guides: HIS409H5: The Life Cycle in Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Finding Primary Sources

Digital Collections

The University of Toronto Libraries have extensive digital collections to provide access to primary sources.

Some of these are listed below, please ask if you need more details or help searching them.

English Historical Documents, 500–1914
[Taylor & Francis] Collection of documents on British history. English Historical Documents Online contains over 5,500 expertly indexed and fully searchable primary documents from 500-1914.
British Literary Manuscripts Online, c.1120-1660 & 1660-1900
— British Literary Manuscripts Online, Medieval and Renaissance
The original manuscripts of seminal literary, religious, and philosophical texts and trace the prevailing social and cultural attitudes of the times through important historical documents like the letters of Alcuin and Lanfranc and the chronicles of Waverly, Glastonbury, St Martin’s, and Lichfield.

— British Literary Manuscripts Online, c. 1660-1900
Literary manuscripts from the Restoration through the Victorian era
[AM Scholar] Medieval and Early Modern Studies
PERIOD COVERED: 15th to 18th centuries
— Crown Servants: Series One to Three
— Black Death: Sources concerning the European Plague: Series One
— Renaissance Man - The Reconstructed Libraries of European Scholars, 1450-1700: Series One
— Masculinity: Men Defining Men and Gentleman, 1600-1800
— Medieval and Early Modern Women
Medieval Travel Writing
PERIOD COVERED: from the 13th to the 16th centuries
This collection focuses on accounts of journeys to the Holy Land, India and China. Topics covered include: pilgrimage, the origins of global trade, travels to the Holy Land, the Silk Road, and the representation of the 'East' and the 'Other' in the Middle Ages.
Featured individuals include ambassadors, missionaries, merchants, fantasists and literary creations, including Prester John, John of Plano Carpini, Ascelin, William of Rubruck, and Marco Polo.
Medieval Family Life
The Paston, Cely, Plumpton, Stonor and Armburgh Papers
PERIOD COVERED: 1400-1490
Only five major family letter collections from this period survive and all are included here:
— The Paston letters document the life of a gentry family during the War of the Roses. Hundreds of documents and letters exchanged between different family members cover in microcosm the dilemmas of a nation beset by war, disease and legal disputes.
— The Celys were a merchant family, and crucial players in the wool trade between England and the Channel ports. This collection, which covers every aspect of their commercial dealings, will fascinate the economic and social historian.
— The Stonors were a well-established gentry family in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. These documents cover the longest time period of any of the collections and throw light on both business and domestic issues.
— The Plumptons were a dominant northern family. Their documents, which continue right through to the early sixteenth century, reveal a family entangled in the social and economic affairs of the region.
— The Armburgh family material is primarily concerned with a dispute over a family inheritance.
Early English Books Online (EEBO), 1473–1700
[ProQuest] EEBO contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700.
PART I, 1473-1640: Original printings of royal statutes and proclamations, military, religious, legal, parliamentary and other public documents are reproduced in this collection. Insight into the lives of ordinary people can also be gained through almanacs and calendars, broadsides and romances, as well as popular pamphlets like The Trail of Witchcraft, showing the true and righte method of discovery (1616).
PART II, 1641-1700: includes early editions of Aphra Behn, Anne Killigrew, and Margaret Cavendish, books by Newton, Boyle, and Galileo, and so forth.

The following page includes more comprehensive digital resources that you have access to.

UTM Primary Sources: Digital Collections

How to Find Primary Sources in the UTL LibrarySearch

The UTL LibrarySearch does not have a way to produce lists of primary sources. However, using one of the following words (Subject) in your search will help you find the source material you seek:

sources
biography
correspondence
diaries
personal narratives
interviews
pamphlets

☆ An Example of How to Search ☆

Go to LibrarySearch (Advanced Search) and tweak Search filters. Choose Subject and enter the most important concept/person/theme in a search box. Select Books under Format

☆ NOTE ☆

Take advantage of Bibliographies and Reference lists in books and journal articles. In addition, use Oxford Bibliographies Online, they may give you the title of a primary source you can start searching for.

Subject (Headings) for Primary Sources

Subjects (or Subject headings) are used to identify items on a specific topic and to collocate items on the same topic. The following Subjects can be used to find primary sources:

Subject Headings	What Does This Include?	Used with...	Example(s)
Autographs	Collections or discussions of the person's autograph or handwriting (H 1110)	Names of people Classes of persons	Francis, of Assisi, Saint, 1182-1226 -- Autogaphs
Biography	Biographical works focus on the personal aspects of the individual's life, critical works on the individual's professional, intellectual, or artistic achievements (H 1330)		Pakistan -- Biography Crusades -- Biography
Correspondence	Official correspondence or correspondence involving corporate entities, including heads of state acting in their official capacity, is not covered (H 1480)	Names of people Classes of persons Ethnic groups	19th century -- Correspondence
Description and Travel	Names of both cities and larger places for descriptive works and accounts of travel, including the history of travel, in those places (H 1530)	Places	Europe, Eastern -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800
Diaries	Registers or records of personal experiences, observations, thoughts, or feelings, kept daily or at frequent intervals (H 1538)	Names of persons Classes of people	Scott, F. R (Francis Reginald), 1899-1985 -- Diaries Gay men -- Sexual behavior -- United States -- 21st century -- Diaries
Early Works to 1800	Early printed works and manuscripts, editions, and post-1800 adaptations and reassembled works (H 1576)		Italy -- Early works to 1800
Sources	Collections of writings, such as legal documents, letters, diaries, family papers, etc., compiled for use by students, scholars, etc., in their research on the history of those topics, and for works discussing source materials of all types. It is also used under names of persons for works discussing the individual’s sources of ideas or inspiration for his endeavors or creative works and for collections of those source materials. (H 2080).	Countries Names of people Classes of persons Ethnic groups Topical headings not inherently historical	Reformation -- Sources Canada -- History -- Sources
Interviews	Transcripts of what was said during the course of interviews or conversations with one or more persons on one or more occasions, and works about those interviews (H 1678)	Names of people Classes of people	Artists -- Soviet Union -- Interviews Authors-20th century-Interviews
Manuscripts	Use for works discussing writings made by hand, typewriter, etc. by or about the person		Manuscripts, Medieval
Maps	Individual maps or collections of maps	Countries, etc. Corporate bodies Topical headings	Europe -- Maps Maps -- 19th century
Notebooks, sketchbooks, etc	Collections or discussions of the person's notebooks or sketchbooks (H 1110)	Names of people	Leonardo, da Vinci, 1452-1519 -- Notebooks, sketchbooks, etc
Pamphlets	Use under 16th, 17th, and 18th century period subdivisions of European and American history and under individual wars, for short, separately published, usually polemical, essays or treatises regarding controversial issues of contemporary interest, especially political or religious matters (H 1095)		20th century -- Pamphlets
Personal Narratives	Names of events and wars for collective or individual eyewitness reports and/or autobiographical accounts of these events and wars (H 1928)		Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Hungary -- Personal narratives Algeria -- History -- Revolution, 1954-1962 -- Personal narratives, Algerian
Pictorial Works	Works consisting primarily of pictures (H 1935)		Ruined buildings -- Pictorial works