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HIS409H5: The Life Cycle in Medieval and Early Modern Europe

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.


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

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

LibrarySearch use Subject

 

☆ 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