Medieval Studies
Collection overview
Material related to the medieval period can be found across the Library’s collections.
It is important that you use the catalogue, as many early works are held in Special Collections or other closed stacks, and so will not be apparent from shelf browsing. If you cannot find a book published before 1980, please check the online card catalogue.
Collection strengths include:
- Modern editions of medieval texts in all major European languages, including Latin
- Major documents series, including: Patrologia Cursus Completus, Corpus Christianorum, the National Archives Lists and Indexes, and Publications of the Record Commissioners
- Secondary literature in all fields, especially art, history, literature and manuscript studies
- Range of periodicals dealing with the period: from specialist titles such as Yearbook of Langland Studies to more general titles, eg Speculum, many of which are available in print and electronic formats, eg via JSTOR
- Facsimiles of important manuscripts, often illustrated
- Online access to major bibliographic databases
Other libraries of particular interest in this area within the University of London Research Library Services (ULRLS) include the Warburg Institute and the Institute of Historical Research, which share a catalogue: http://catalogue.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/search~S24
Special Collections
Manuscripts:
Manuscripts can be located on Senate House Library’s Archive & Manuscript Catalogue: http://archives.ulrls.lon.ac.uk; or via AIM25 (Archives in London and the M25 Area): www.aim25.ac.uk.
The Library holds over 100 medieval manuscripts, many in fragment form. There are Books of Hours, a fifteenth-century bible, and two manuscripts of the C text of Piers Plowman. The complete list of the Library’s medieval manuscripts can be found at: www.shl.lon.ac.uk/subjects/guides/medievalmss/index.shtml
The Fuller Collection contains many medieval seals and a variety of documents.
Texts to assist with reading medieval handwriting can be found in the Palaeography Room, eg M.P. Brown (1990), Guide to Western Historical Scripts from Antiquity to 1600 and J. Roberts (2005), Guide to Scripts used in English Writings up to 1500.
Early Printed Books
The Library holds incunabula (books printed before 1501). These include early copies of Augustine of Hippo, Euclid, and Geoffrey Chaucer.
Reference sources for incunabula include:
IISTC (llustrated Incunabula Short Title Catalogue) and EEBO (Early English Books Online, 1473-1700)
Palaeography
The Palaeography Room, Special Collections, holds material relating to Western palaeography and manuscript studies. The collection is strongest in Latin and vernacular manuscripts, with some holdings in Greek and Hebrew.
Of particular interest to medievalists are:
- a complete set of Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile
- fascimiles of notable manuscripts such as the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Book of Kells and the Ellesmere Chaucer
- standard reference tools including Lowe’s Codices Latini Antiquiores, Migne’s Patrologia Cursus Completus (Series Latina and Graeca only) and the ongoing series Corpus Christianorum
The Palaeography Room also holds manuscript catalogues for major repositories and a near-complete set of Roxburghe Club publications.
There are eighty documents written between the twelfth to seventeenth centuries, mostly property deeds, which were collected by Prof Francis Wormald (1904-1972) to show the development of English documentary hands.
For further information on the Palaeography collection, see the Palaeography and Manuscript Studies web pages.
Bibliographies and Databases
Useful resources include:
Resource |
Location |
|---|---|
| BIAB: British and Irish Archaeological Bibliography, 1695- | Online |
| Bibliographie annuelle du moyen-âge tardif, (1991-) | Pal. Rm. [s] CC25.9 [Bibliographie] |
| Bibliography of the History of Art, 1973- | Online |
| History of Science, Technology and Medicine, 1975- | Online |
| In Principio, 1993- | Online |
| International Medieval Bibliography, 1967- | Online |
| MLA International Bibliography, 1963- | Online |
| Periodicals Archive Online and Periodicals Index Online, 1665- | Online |
| Philosophers’ Index, 1940- | Online |
| Royal Historical Society Bibliography, 1901- | Online |
Reference works
Include:
Resource |
Location |
|---|---|
| Dictionary of Art (1996) | Art V11 Dic |
| ... and Grove Art Online, 1998- | Online |
| Dictionary of the Middle Ages (1982-1989; 2004) | 909 [Dictionary] |
| Encyclopedia of Monasticism (2000) | 271 [Encyclopedia] |
| Medieval England: An Encyclopedia (1998) | 909 [Medieval] |
| Medieval France: An Encyclopedia (1995) | 909 [Medieval] |
| New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed. (2001) | ML Rapid Reference |
| … and Grove Music Online, 1992- | Online |
| Oxford Dictionary of National Bibliography, 2004- | Online |
| Women in the Middle Ages: an encyclopedia (2004) | 396 [Women] |
Contact Details
For further help, please contact the Information Desk (4th floor), tel: 020 7862 8461 or
8462, or email: shl.enquiries@london.ac.uk
