Archive of medieval art, describing and presenting iconographic subjects and images, without geographical limitation, from early apostolic times to the early modern era.
To search by date, select "Search" (not Advanced Search), enter a search expression (e.g., Mary), and enter dates into the date range filter.
The Shakespeare Collection contextualizes the legacy of this William Shakespeare (1564-1616), the English poet and playwright, containing a selection of over 200 print books (annotated working texts of stage managers and company prompters) from the 17th to 20th centuries, the First Folio and Quartos, editions and adaptations of Shakespeare's works from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, more than 80 works Shakespeare is thought to have been familiar with, as well as works composed by Shakespeare's contemporaries. Ensure that the primary source you have chosen is from the time period covered by the course.
Archive containing almost every play submitted for licence between 1737 and 1824, with documents that provide social context for the plays. Features primary source documents from the Larpent collection of plays and Anna Larpent's Diaries, the London Stage Database, and the Biographical Dictionary Database.
Interested in music?
The Marvin Duchow Music Library has medieval printed and manuscript music on microfilm as well as original documents. See the following guides:
Cantus is a database of the Latin chants found in manuscripts and early printed books, primarily from medieval Europe, although some are also early modern.
Contains page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America, as well as works in English printed elsewhere between 1473 and 1700.
Full-text searchable database including books, pamphlets, essays, and broadsides published in the UK and elsewhere during the 18th century. Primarily includes English-language works, but there are also some other language items included.
Works printed in Europe before 1701, regardless of language, fall within the scope of the project, as do all pre-1701 works in European languages printed elsewhere.
Includes content from the following libraries:
- The Royal Danish Library - Kongelige Bibliotek (Copenhagen, Denmark)
- The National Central Library of Florence - Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze (Florence, Italy)
- The National Library of the Netherlands - Koninklijke Bibliotheek (The Hague, The Netherlands)
- The Wellcome Library - The Wellcome Library (London, United Kingdom)
- The National Library of France - Bibliothèque nationale de France (Paris, France)
Contains access to original British source material for teaching and research on the history, literature, sociology and education from a gendered perspective.
A collection of British and Irish women's diaries and correspondence spanning from 1500 to the mid-20th century. Try selecting "Browse historical events". Some events that fall during the time period covered by this course include: Protestant Reformation, English Civil War, French Revolution, American Revolution, Irish Rebellion, and the War of the Austrian Succession.
Witchcraft in Europe and America is a comprehensive collection that offers a broad range of documents on an intriguing subject. Included are many rare and fragile manuscripts containing eyewitness accounts and court records of the trials of witches, including harrowing original manuscript depositions taken from the victims in the torture chamber. The earliest documents from the 15th century with the majority of the material from the 16th to 18th centuries. Ensure that the primary source you have chosen is from Europe and in the time period covered by the course (1350-1750).
A textbase comprising more than 8 million words of original scholarship about women writers’ lives, bodies of work, and cultures in a collection of author profiles, event entries, and bibliographic entries brought together for searching and remixing by the project’s bespoke tagging system.
Published from 1672, this influential periodical promised in its first issue to chronicle the activities of luminaries in metropolitan Paris, in the French provinces, and abroad, and to offer good literature to lovers of novels and stories.
Wide-ranging online collection of edited correspondence of the early modern period, linking people across Europe, the Americas and Asia from the early 17th to the mid-19th century.
Contains newspapers, periodicals, pamphlets and broadsheets from the Nichols newspaper collection held at the Bodleian library in Oxford. Covers the period 1672-1737 and charts the history of the development of the press in England.
Resource bringing together Domestic, Foreign, Borders, Scotland, and Ireland State Papers of Britain with the Registers of the Privy Council and other State Papers now housed in the Cotton, Harley and Lansdowne collections in the British Library. Searchable calendar entries of predominately papers of the Secretaries of State from the reign of Henry VIII to the end of the reign of Queen Anne.
Explore the history of the non-elite in London between the 17th and 20th centuries using the fully searchable court proceedings of the Old Bailey, London's central criminal court.
Gallica is the digital library of Bibliothèque nationale de France and its partners. Contains millions of digitized documents in a wide range of formats: books, newspapers, periodicals, scores, sound recordings, photographs, images, and maps. Excellent resource for accessing historical, mainly francophone materials that are no longer subject to copyright.
Interested in something you can see in person and online?
Explore some of what's held in the Special Collections library here at McGill! Digital Collections provide access to digitized versions of library materials as well as tools to browse, search, and analyze these materials online. You can also see these items in Rare Books and Special Collections (4th floor of the McLennan Library).
Early modern offerings include:
- Horae: Books of Hours (13th-16th centuries)
- The Feather Book of Dionisio Minaggio (created 1618)
- Chapbook Collection (18th and 19th centuries)
Find references to journal articles, book reviews and some dissertations about the history of all parts of the world from 1450 on, EXCLUDING Canada and the United States. In the search options, select "Peer Reviewed" and enter "Historical Period" (e.g., Start Year: 1450 To End Year: 1600).
Provides models for footnotes and bibliographic citations of the most commonly cited sources, including books, journal articles, book chapters, newspaper articles, and more.
Zotero is a free, open-source citation management system that will make it easier for you to write and cite throughout your undergraduate education and beyond! Get started early for the most benefits.
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The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition
