Many resources are available on the WEB, and the only tricky part is sorting out the scholarly from the not-so-scholarly
•Basic Reference:
Guide
to Medieval Terms
Catholic
Encyclopedia On Line provides an extremely helpful reference for
medieval Christianity and ecclesiastical history. Please note that
the edition is from the early 20th c. (that is why it has now entered the
public domain and can be put on line) and is both outdated and rife with pre-Vatican
II perspectives.
JewishEncyclopedia.com Another
old but still extremely useful public domain reference work.
Judaism 101
not an academic source like the Jewish Encyclopedia, but for quick questions
easily accessed off the web it can be helpful.
The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
is a great resource for the history of philosophy and background on individual
philosophers or texts.
The Stanford Encyclopedia
of Philosophy has many good articles on ancient and
medieval topics written by experts in the field.
The Ecole Initiative is
a fantastic source for early Church History, extending into the Middle Ages
The Ecole Chronology
Project is extremely useful for sorting out historical context
Jim O'Donnell's Augustine
Page is a must-visit: valuable information and further reading for all
levels, and entertaining as well!
Jay Treat's
Internet Resources for the Study of Judaism and Christianity (U Penn)
Barbara R. von Schlegell has an extensive page of Islam
and Islamic History Web Resources,
including much medieval material and a great map section
•Bible
JPS (Jewish Publication Society) translation of Tanakh
Hebrew Tanakh, Mishnah, Babylonian
and Palestinian Talmud and other rabbinic texts
A searchable Latin Vulgate and English Douay-Rheims translation of the Latin
Vulgate is available here
Search multiple versions of the Christian Bible, including the medieval Vulgate,
the King James Version, RSV, and more with BibleGateway .
For Greek and Hebrew text as well, see Scripturetext.com
Professor Eliezer Segal maintains a helpful introduction to the Mikra'ot Gedolot
(Rabbinic Bible/Commentary) at Calgary University in Canada
Professor Felix Just, SJ has a great page on New Testament Resources.
•Exploring:
There are two excellent, comprehensive sites you should visit to begin any
exploration of things medieval:
Labyrinth
On-Line Reference Book for Medieval Studies (ORB) not only has a host of information, essays, maps, and other study materials, but also an extensive library of primary sources in English translation
A growing selection of primary source materials in English translation, in
both full text and selected excerpt format is available through the Medieval
Internet Sourcebook. This site is also linked to Jewish,
Islamic,
Indian, East
Asian, African,
and Women's
History Sourcebooks, among others
Thomas Head at Hunter College has compiled an excellent bibliography of printed
resources (both primary and secondary sources) in his Guide
to Research in Medieval Christianity. His pages on
hagiography
at ORB are invaluable
The Lollard Society maintains a site with much
information on Lollardy, English Bibles, and the controversy over vernacular
access to Scripture in medieval Christendom
View The Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Library of Congress
Don't miss Professor Eliezer Segal's page at the University of Calgary with its wealth of material related to Jewish history, rabbinics, and mysticism
Matrix
is a comprehensive database for current scholarship on medieval Christian women's
religious communities
For recent bibliography on women or gender issues, see the Feminae
(formerly the Medieval Feminist Index) at Haverford College
RAMBI, the Index of Articles on
Jewish Studies at Hebrew University is indispensable for tracking down articles
on Judaic Studies
For Byzantine Studies, including Eastern
Orthodox Christianity, see the site
maintained by Dumbarton Oaks
Rice University's Galileo Project has many good history of science links. See also James McNelis' History of Science page
August 15, 2007