LibGuides: Medieval and Renaissance Studies: Reference Tools

Middle Ages Reference Tools

Abbreviationes™ Online – Medieval Abbreviations on the Web “Take a foreign language, write it in an unfamiliar script, abbreviating every third word, and you have the compound puzzle that is the medieval Latin manuscript.”¹ Solving this puzzle is both an art and a science. We can provide the science to the artist.
ARTFL Reference Collection Freely available French historical dictionaries and encyclopedias including Robert Estienne's Dictionarium Latinogallicum (1552). The Project for American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language (ARTFL) is a cooperative enterprise of the Laboratoire ATILF (Analyse et Traitement Informatique de la Langue Française) of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the Division of the Humanities, and Electronic Text Services (ETS) of the University of Chicago.
Bibliographie de civilisation médiévale - online (BCM-O) (Brepols, subscription) Comprehensive, current bibliography of monographs dedicated to the Middle Ages. The BCM has been established by the Centre d’Études Supérieures de Civilisation Médiévale (Université de Poitiers). The BCM is fully integrated with the International Medieval Bibliography and the International Bibliography of Humanism and the Renaissance. Together, they make up the cluster Brepolis Medieval and Early Modern Bibliographies.
Brill's Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages (Brill, subscription) Offers an accessible yet engaging coverage of medieval European history and culture, c. 500-c. 1500, in a series of themed articles, taking an interdisciplinary and comparative approach. Presenting a broad range of topics current in research, the encyclopedia is dedicated to all aspects of medieval life. This is an English translation of the second edition (2013) of the well-known German-language Enzyklopädie des Mittelalters, published by Primus Verlag / Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
Catholic Encyclopedia The Catholic Encyclopedia, as its name implies, proposes to give its readers full and authoritative information on the entire cycle of Catholic interests, action and doctrine. What the Church teaches and has taught; what she has done and is still doing for the highest welfare of mankind; her methods, past and present; her struggles, her triumphs, and the achievements of her members, not only for her own immediate benefit, but for the broadening and deepening of all true science, literature and art — all come within the scope of the Catholic Encyclopedia.
Handbook of Medieval Studies : Terms - Methods - Trends (De Gruyter, ebook) This interdisciplinary handbook provides extensive information about research in medieval studies and its most important results over the last decades. The handbook is a reference work which enables the readers to quickly and purposely gain insight into the important research discussions and to inform themselves about the current status of research in the field.
International Directory of Medievalists (Brepols, subscription) A directory listing names and addresses of approximately 15,000 medievalists and scholars in fields relating to the Middle Ages in 70 countries. This online title continues the print edition.
Middle English Compendium The Middle English Compendium contains three Middle English electronic resources: the Middle English Dictionary, a Bibliography of Middle English prose and verse, and a Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse.
The ORB: On-line Reference Book for Medieval Studies The ORB is an academic site, written and maintained by medieval scholars for the benefit of their fellow instructors and serious students. All articles have been judged by at least two peer reviewers.
Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages (Oxford, ebook) Essential new reference work covering all key aspects of European history, society, and culture from 500 to 1500 A.D., as well as the Byzantine Empire, Islamic dynasties, and Asiatic peoples of the era. It is designed both for medievalists, who need a detailed and reliable reference tool, and for students and general readers seeking an accessible guide to the period. Over 800 scholars have assembled thousands of comprehensive entries, lavishly supplemented by hundreds of illustrations and dozens of maps.
Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (TLIO) The first Italian historical dictionary which deals with all varieties of Old Italian language, including the so called dialects, provided that the national language do not exist as such before the XVI century; so the texts that are indexed in the Old Italian database are not only florentin and toscan, but also lombard, venitian, sicilian and so on.

Renaissance Reference Tools

ARTFL Reference Collection Freely available French historical dictionaries and encyclopedias including Robert Estienne's Dictionarium Latinogallicum (1552). The Project for American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language (ARTFL) is a cooperative enterprise of the Laboratoire ATILF (Analyse et Traitement Informatique de la Langue Française) of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the Division of the Humanities, and Electronic Text Services (ETS) of the University of Chicago.
Cappelli Dictionary of Latin Abbreviations Online A. CAPPELLI. DIZIONARIO DI ABBREVIATURE LATINI ED ITALIANI. Milano, 1912.
Catholic Encyclopedia The Catholic Encyclopedia, as its name implies, proposes to give its readers full and authoritative information on the entire cycle of Catholic interests, action and doctrine. What the Church teaches and has taught; what she has done and is still doing for the highest welfare of mankind; her methods, past and present; her struggles, her triumphs, and the achievements of her members, not only for her own immediate benefit, but for the broadening and deepening of all true science, literature and art — all come within the scope of the Catholic Encyclopedia.
Database of Latin Dictionaries (DLD) (Brepols, subscription) Starting in 2005 with only two dictionaries, the DLD has now grown into a large collection of 23 dictionaries. Every year at least one dictionary is added and various improvements are made to the existing ones. Because of its broad spectrum of dictionaries, it offers an immediate overview of Latin vocabulary that no isolated dictionary can give.
Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online (Brill, subscription) English edition of the German-language Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. This 15-volume reference work, published in print between 2005 and 2012 and here available online, offers a multi-faceted view on the decisive era in European history stretching from ca. 1450 to ca. 1850 ce. in over 4,000 entries.
RenDico - Renaissance Dictionaries (Dictionnaires de la Renaissance) Contains: Estienne, Thesaurus linguae latinae, 1531&1536 Estienne, Dictionarium latinogallicum, 1552 Grand Dictionnaire françois-latin, 1593-1614 Nicot, Thresor de la langue françoyse, 1606
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Open-source reference encyclopedia organizes scholars from around the world in philosophy and related disciplines to create and maintain an up-to-date reference work.
Thesaurus eruditionis - Camena & Termini CAMENA - Corpus Automatum Multiplex Electorum Neolatinitatis Auctorum TERMINI - Networked vocabulary of Latin knowledge literature from the early modern period