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Medieval Studies

This is a guide to locating and using resources on the Middle Ages. It has been written for the MA Medieval Studies. If you are studying the Middle Ages in undergraduate modules, you may also find some of this material helpful.

Bibliographies

A bibliography is a list of books, articles, and/or chapters on a specific subject. Bibliographies can be made for a specific piece of writing (an essay) or developed around a particular subject. This subject can be a specific period of history (for example, the Middle Ages) or a specific geographic region (such as the British Isles and Ireland), or a specific theme (for example, LGBTQ* history). They do not always provide full text, so you may have to do a second search to find out whether the material you've found is available in the library. If it isn't, interlibrary loans are available.

Consulting a bibliography is a fast and convenient way to find appropriate secondary reading for your essay, assignment or dissertation. If you have any questions or feel like you're getting stuck, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Databases of Journals and Periodicals

These databases contain articles, papers, and abstracts (short summaries) on specific subjects. They should be used for searching for reliable writing about a particular topic and for when you need to conduct a more focussed search than the library search engine provides. The following are particularly recommended for medieval studies.

Dissertation Databases

The library subscribes to a number of PhD and MA dissertation databases which you may find useful when writing your own dissertation or exploring a topic in medieval studies.