Tips
Encyclopedias are great for:
- choosing a topic
- quick self-education
- perspective on a topic
- variant spellings, vocabulary, terminology
- bibliography
Cambridge Histories Online
Excellent resource. Full text. Chapters as pdfs. Extremely high quality essays with rich footnotes and bibliography.
OED
English Language and its history
Oxford English Dictionary (OED) The dictionary that is scholar's preferred source; it goes far beyond definitions.
Recommended Medieval Encyclopedias
- Oxford Bibliographies OnlineOffers peer-reviewed annotated bibliographies on the Middle Ages.
- Ancient History EncyclopediaArticles on Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Project of the European Union.
- Brill's Medieval Reference LibraryA collection of scholarly encyclopedias focused on the Middle Ages.
Medieval Encyclopedias
- The Oxford History of the CrusadesPublication Date: 2002Written by a team of leading scholars, edited by Jonathan Simon Christopher Riley-Smith, this book presents an authoritative and comprehensive history of the Crusades, from the preaching of the First Crusade in 1095 to the legacy of crusading ideas and imagery today. Reflecting the recent developments in crusade historiography, it covers crusading in many different theatres of war. The concepts of apologists, propagandists, song-writers, and poets, and the perceptions and motives of the crusaders themselves are described, as are the emotional and intellectual reactions of the Muslimsto Christian holy war. The institutional developments - legal, financial, and structural - which were necessary to the movement's survival - are analysed. Several chapters are devoted to the western settlements established in the eastern Mediterranean region in the wake of the crusades, to the remarkable art and architecture associated with them, and to the military orders. The subject of the later crusades, including the history of the military orders from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, is given the attention it deserves. And the first steps are taken on to a field that is as yet hardly explored - the survival of the ideas and images of crusading into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
- The Oxford encyclopedia of medieval warfare and military technologyPublication Date: 2010From the Viking invasions to the Crusades to the Hundred Years War, wars were crucial agents of change in medieval Europe. This two-volume online encyclopedia examines all aspects of warfare and military technology in medieval times.
- Medieval Islamic Civilization: an EncyclopediaPublication Date: 2005Online:
Volume I : A-K, Volume II : L-Z Two volumes, illustrated. Covers fields such as Arabic languages, Arabic literature, architecture, art history, history, history of science, Islamic arts, Islamic studies, Middle Eastern studies, Near Eastern studies, politics, religion, Semitic studies, theology, and more. - The Oxford Dictionary of ByzantiumPublication Date: 1991Three-volume, comprehensive dictionary of Byzantine civilization.
- Medieval Iberia: an EncyclopediaPublication Date: 2002Focuses on the Iberian kingdoms from the fall of the Roman Empire to the aftermath of the Reconquista.
- Women and Gender in Medieval Europe: an EncyclopediaPublication Date: 2006
- Trade, Travel, and Exploration in the Middle Ages: an EncyclopediaPublication Date: 2000Covers the peoples, places, technologies, and intellectual concepts that contributed to trade, travel and exploration during the Middle Ages, from the years A.D. 525 to 1492.
- The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle AgesPublication Date: 2010Four volumes. Key aspects of European history, society, religion, and culture from 500 to 1500. Since neighbouring areas of Asia and North Africa impinged on and helped shape the civilization of the West, relevant aspects ofthe Byzantine Empire, the Islamic dynasties, and Asiatic peoples such as the Avars and the Mongols are included.
- Medieval Italy: an EncyclopediaPublication Date: 2003Online edition:
Volume I : up to K, Volume II : through Z Cross-disciplinary resource on literature, history, the arts, science, philosophy, and religion in Italy between A.D. 450 and 1375. - Medieval France: an EncyclopediaISBN: 0824044444Publication Date: 1995Covers the political, intellectual, literary, and musical history of the country from the early fifth century to the late 15th.
- The Oxford Handbook of Women and Gender in Medieval EuropePublication Date: 2013
- Medieval Jewish Civilization: an EncyclopediaPublication Date: 2002Medieval Jewish civilization, from the fall of the Roman Empire to about 1492.
- New Catholic EncyclopediaPublication Date: 2002
- The Oxford Dictionary of SaintsConcise accounts of the lives, cults, and artistic associations of over 1,400 saints.
- Medieval Scandinavia: an EncyclopediaPublication Date: 1993Religion, education, politics and law, culture and material life, history, literature, and art. A valuable and absorbing volume for students of the Norse sagas, the Viking age, and Old English history and literature, and more.
- Medieval Archaeology: an EncyclopediaCall Number: Olin Reference D125.M42x 2001+
- Medieval England: An EncyclopediaPublication Date: 1998All aspects of life and culture in medieval England-art, architecture, law, literature, kings, commoners, women, music, commerce, technology, warfare, religion, and many others.
- Dictionary of the Middle AgesCall Number: Olin Library Reference, D114 .D55 +Publication Date: 1982