Research Guides: Medieval and Renaissance Studies: Full Text Primary Sources

Licensed Full-Text Resources

The following full-text resources are licensed and available to affiliates of New York University.

Acta Sanctorum
An electronic version of the complete printed text of Acta Sanctorum, from the edition published in sixty-eight volumes by the Société des Bollandistes. It is a collection of documents examining the lives of saints, organised by each saint's feast day.

CICLE (Corpus of Classic Latin Incunabula in Spain)
Relational database which is focused on the heritage of incunable editions of Latin classics produced in printing presses located in Spain from the 1470s till 1500, including printings in Latin and in translation. The database identifies the collection of editions and the surviving copies in Spain as well as elsewhere.
CICLPor database (Corpus of Classic Latin Incunabula preserved in Portuguese libraries)
Relational database that comprises the Portuguese heritage of copies of incunabula of Latin authors from the Archaic period until Late Antiquity, ending at the time of Isidore of Seville (ca. 560-636). Incunabula included in CICLPor were printed outside of Portugal since in this period no Latin classic texts were produced by printing presses located in the country. Editions in Latin as well as translations are included.

Early English Books Online (EEBO)
Early English Books Online (EEBO) contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700. Searchable full text is also available for a subset of the collection.

English Drama
A collection of more than 3,900 plays in verse and prose tracing the development of drama in English from the medieval mystery cycles onwards.

Library of Latin Texts
A database for Latin texts, including CETEDOC, contains texts from the beginning of Latin literature (Livius Andronicus, 240 BC) through to the texts of the Second Vatican Council. The link leads to the Brepolis home. Click the button for "Enter Databases" to access all of the online resources from Brepols Publishers, including the Library of Latin Texts.
MEMSO: Medieval and Early Modern Sources Online
Combines a wide range of printed sources for English, Irish, Scottish and Colonial medieval and early modern history with original manuscripts.
Middle English Compendium
An electronic version of the Middle English Dictionary, a HyperBibliography of Middle English prose and verse, based on the MED bibliographies, and a Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse.
Monumenta Germaniae Historica
A searchable full-text electronic version of the great German collection of medieval documents and texts. For reading the texts, however, the version below from the MGH itself is more useful. The link leads to the Brepolis home. Click the button for "Enter Databases" to access all of the online resources from Brepols Publishers, including the MGH.

Monumenta Germaniae Historica
This version, from the MGH itself, allows both searching and browsing through the text.

Patrologia Graecae
This is not a searchable version of the Series Graeca in Migne's great Patrologia Cursus Completus. But the full text is available here.
Patrologia Latina
A comprehensive electronic version of the Latin portion of Migne's massive Patrologiae Cursus Completus, including notes, glosses and indexes. The PL, though originally published in the 19th century, still offers the only editions of many texts.
Ut per litteras apostolicas
Ut per litteras apostolicas - the series of papal registers and letters of the 13th and 14th centuries preserved in the Vatican Secret Archives in Rome. The link leads to the Brepolis home. Click the button for "Enter Databases" to access all of the online resources from Brepols Publishers, including Papal Letters.