Definitions
What makes a source
primary?
Depends on the topic;
it can be complicated.
Talk specifics with faculty.
Very basic, simplistic definition:
What is a primary source?
Selected Collections of Translated Sources on the Crusades
Crusade and Christendom:annotated documents in translation from Innocent III to the fall of Acre, 1187-1291Publication Date: 2013Provides translations of and commentaries on key original sources and up-to-date bibliographic materials.
Muslims and Crusaders: Christianity's wars in the Middle East, 1095-1382, from the Islamic sourcesPublication Date: 2020Muslims and Crusaders combines chronological narrative, discussion of important areas of scholarly enquiry and evidence from Islamic primary sources to give a well-rounded survey of Christianity's wars in the Middle East, 1095-1382. Revised, expanded and updated to take account of the most recent scholarship, this second edition enables readers to achieve a broader and more complete perspective on the crusading period by presenting the crusades from the viewpoints of those against whom they were waged, the Muslim peoples of the Levant. The book introduces the reader to the most significant issues that affected Muslim responses to the European crusaders and their descendants who would go on to live in the Latin Christian states that were created in the region. It considers not only the military encounters between Muslims and crusaders, but also the personal, political, diplomatic, and trade interactions that took place between the Muslims and Franks away from the battlefield. Engaging with a wide range of translated primary source documents, including chronicles, dynastic histories, religious and legal texts, and poetry, Muslims and Crusaders is ideal for students and historians of the crusades.
Published Medieval Primary Sources in English
- Internet Sourcebook: CrusadesSelected excerpts of sources translated into English full-text online arranged chronologically and geographically. Helpful for getting a sense of the types of medieval primary sources and for bibliography.
- Translated Texts for HistoriansClassical and Medieval primary sources in translation. Includes a series of texts titled Translated Texts for Byzantinists.
- Online Medieval Primary Source BibliographyA guide to translated sources. Geography and type features particularly useful.
Useful Tips for finding printed primary sources in library catalogs
Browse footnotes and bibliographies of books, encyclopedias, and articles for information about primary sources.
Search the Library Catalog for primary sources--both unpublished manuscripts and modern editions in print and online, sometimes in translation, of original primary sources. Use the "advanced search" with the terms for primary sources below as subjects, not keywords.
Library catalog/database terms for primary sources:
- sources
- bibliographies
Sources means primary sources in a library catalog. It can mean a printed, edited, modern edition of an archival source; or it can mean a collection of excerpted, translated sources which might have the words "reader" or "documents" in the title; or it can mean a book about primary and secondary sources. All are invaluable. The footnotes and bibliography of any of them will lead to more sources.
Bibliographies are whole books devoted to a topic, usually a broader topic such as "Vietnam War" or "Early Modern Europe." They are a list of sources, often primary and secondary, generally described and annotated. Extremely helpful for getting a handle on sources and the scholarly literature on a topic.