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HPS 318 Research: History of Medicine from Antiquity to the Renaissance

Choosing a Relevant Text Collection

You can look in Text Collections for relevant primary sources.

The trick is to find a text collection that is relevant to your topic.

The Subject & Research Guides sometimes list relevant Text Collections.

If you happen to find a primary source publicly available on the web, verify its authenticity

Example: Early English Books Online (EEBO)

It is best to search EEBO when you have narrowed your topic a little bit and can provide specifics such as:

  • Limit by Date
  • Author Search
  • Title Search

But you can also see what happens if you type in good keywords:

  • Trotula

In the Results List, the number of hits on the keyword are listed at the end of the record under the heading FOUND

Subscription text collections like EEBO are reliable.

NOTE: terms, titles, and names might vary between time periods and translations. You might have to look for variants.