Subject Guides: English and Related Literature: Renaissance

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Camden Society Series

This series comprises of 325 volumes in 5 series. The volumes are kept in the following locations in the JBM and RBL Libraries:
- Old Series, Vol. 1 (1837)-v.104 (1871) = RBL Special Collections
- New Series, Vol. 1 (1871) – v.61 (1899), = Q journal section in the JBM Library
- Third Series, Vol. 1 (1900) – v. 94 (1963) = Q journal section in the JBM Library
- Fourth Series, Vol. 1-44(1964-1992) = Q journal section in the JBM Library
- Fifth Series, Vol.1 (1993) - onwards = Q journal section in the JBM Library
The volumes of the Camden Society Series which are shelved in the journal section of 'Q' can be borrowed as an ordinary loan items. The Old, New and Third series are shelved under 'Camden'. The Fourth and Fifth series are shelved under 'Royal Historical Society'. All the titles can be searched for individually using the library catalogue.

Records of an English village: Earls Colne, 1400-1750
Alan Macfarlane. This is an attempt to reconstruct the lives of individuals from surviving documents. It also provides detailed background on the village, the project, and documents. The material includes church records, state records and estate records.
Sex and sexuality, 1640-1940: literary, medical and sociological perspectives
Sex and Sexuality seeks to make available a broad range of rare printed texts describing changing attitudes towards sex and the body.
The Tanner Manuscripts: church, state and politics in England 1550-1700
Includes a group of ecclesiastical papers from the fifteenth to the 18th centuries. Many papers deal with the procedures, powers and abuses of the ecclesiastical and episcopal courts. Among other ecclesiastical and religious material are documents on the Marian Martyrs, Speeches on the Act of Uniformity of 1559, debate on the infallibility of the Catholic Church and Sabbatarianism and discussions of titles, probate and the powers of the episcopacy.

Medical works on the body, sex and venereal diseases; Writings on sexual habits, such as Bienville's Nymphomania (1775) and accounts of James Graham's 'celestial bed' through which electrical currents were passed in order to give couples 'superior ecstasy'; Works on masturbation from Onania (1729) to Tissot's A Treatise on the Crime of Onan (1766).

Mirfield Collection
Contains much valuable early material. All the pre-1800 books, plus a few sets of the publications of historical record societies, such as the Royal Historical Society, and the Surtees Society, were deposited here on permanent loan in 1973.

There are several incunabula, including an edition of St. Augustine's De civitate Dei, printed by Nicolas Jenson in Venice, 1475. Although the books are predominantly theological, there are many interesting works in other subjects: for example, the first collected edition of the works of Sir Philip Sidney (1598).
Minster Library
The Minster Library holds the extensive historic printed collections of the Dean and Chapter of York, as well as a modern reference and lending library.

The library holds more than 120,000 books. Collection strengths include: local history, early York printing, Civil War tracts, theology, through the ages, church history and architecture. Modern books include theology, church history and the history of the Minster and city.

Databases

The following databases and websites can be used to find primary sources, secondary sources and journal articles.

Primary sources

17th & 18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers This link opens in a new window
A digitised version of the newspapers, news-books, pamphlets, ephemera, and other early forms of newspapers from the Reverend Charles Burney Collection held at the British Library. The collection includes almost 1 million pages from around 1,270 titles and while the majority of these originate from London, there are also some English provincial, Irish and Scottish papers, and a few examples from the colonies.

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British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries is a major collection of diaries and correspondence spanning more than 400 years and giving access to the personal experiences of nearly 500 women. It contains around 100,000 pages of published letters and diaries and over 4,000 facsimile pages of previously unpublished manuscripts. Letters and diaries of famous historic and literary figures can be found alongside the thoughts and experiences of ordinary women, including the unpublished letters and diaries of women who served during both world wars. The texts themselves are accompanied by biographies of the authors and bibliographic details of the sources.

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British History Online (Calendars of State Papers: Domestic, Scotland and Ireland) This link opens in a new window
The premium subscription content includes all the volumes of the Calendars of State Papers, Domestic and the Calendars of State Papers for Scotland and Ireland. British History Online also gives free access to digitised versions of a range of other primary and secondary sources for the medieval and early modern history of Britain.

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British Literary Manuscripts Online, c. 1660-1900 This link opens in a new window
British Literary Manuscripts Online provides an insight into the lives and works of Britains major writers across two hundred years by giving access to complete facsimile copies of author manuscripts including poems, plays, and novels, private correspondence, diaries and journals, drawings and handwritten notes.

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British Periodicals Collection (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
The University has access to Collections I, II and IV.
British Periodicals provides access to the searchable full text of almost 500 periodicals published between the 1680s and the 2000s and covers a wide range of subjects from across the arts, sciences and social sciences.

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Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson Online This link opens in a new window
A gift of the Samuel Storey Family Charitable Trust
A fully searchable digital version of The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson, including all the introductions, collations and commentary available in the print version but with additional textual and contextual materials including old-spelling texts, contextual documents, essays, high-quality images, music scores, a database of stage performances, and a cross-linked bibliography with 7,000 items.
Cornell University Library Witchcraft Collection This link opens in a new window
A selection of titles from Cornell University Library's extensive collection of materials on Witchcraft digitally scanned from microfilm. The collection focuses on witchcraft as theology and as religious heresy and includes material about the earliest and the latest manifestations of the belief in witchcraft with works on canon law, the Inquisition, torture, demonology, trial testimony, and narratives.

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Early English Books Online [EEBO] (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Contains over 100,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640), Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700), and the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661).

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Early European Books Online (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
The University has access to Collections 1 to 4 and the Wellcome Trust Collection.
Early European Books Online aims to make available all works printed in Europe before 1701 together with all pre-1701 works in European languages printed further afield. Works are presented via high-resolution full-colour page scans and each work has been scanned in its entirety including covers, spines, edges, endpapers, blank pages and any loose inserts.

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Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) This link opens in a new window
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) is the most ambitious single digitisation project ever undertaken which offers wide access not only to a century of the nation's intellectual heritage, but also works from earlier periods which were valued and printed or reprinted during the eighteenth century.

A library of over 180,000 eighteenth-century printed books, with more than 33 million scanned facsimile pages. Each title has a full citation record from the English Short Title Catalogue and is fully searchable - including full-text and illustrations multi-disciplinary. A research resource for all disciplines.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

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Gerritsen Women's History Collection of Aletta H. Jacobs (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
More than 4,700 publications from continental Europe, the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand.

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Grand Tour This link opens in a new window
This collection of manuscript, visual and printed works gives an insight into the English abroad c1550 to 1850. The primary material includes letters, diaries and journals, account books, printed guidebooks, published travel writing, maps, paintings, sketches, and architectural drawings. Secondary sources include introductory essays; a searchable, full-text version of John Ingamells Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy, 1701-1800; a selection of digitised source material from the Brinsley Ford Archive at the Paul Mellon Centre, London, and an indexed collection of hundreds of modern photographs of Italy, providing a detailed visual source of all the historical sites, palaces and streets visited by tourists.

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Lexicons of Early Modern English This link opens in a new window
Lexicons of Early Modern English (LEME) is a database of books and manuscripts from 1480 to 1702 which document the English language. LEME has an index of over 1,200 lexicons, with 157 of these fully searchable, and contains over half a million entries composed by contemporary speakers of early modern English describing the meaning of words and giving their equivalents in a variety of languages.

Included in LEME are monolingual, bilingual, and polyglot dictionaries, lexical encyclopaedias, glossaries, spelling lists, and other lexically valuable linguistic treatises, encyclopaedic and topical works.
Literary Manuscripts: 17th and 18th Century Poetry from the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds This link opens in a new window
A collection of facsimile images of over 190 manuscripts from the major deposit of 17th and 18th century verse held in the Brotherton Collection at the University of Leeds.

The manuscripts include contemporary copies of poems by writers like Colvil, Dryden, Fairfax, Marvell, Pope, Rochester, Swift, and others, anonymous items, songs, riddles, popular tags and epitaphs. Many of the manuscripts have never previously been indexed and made available and much of the poetry is unpublished or appears with significant differences in manuscript.

Nearly all of the 6,600 poems within the collection have been fully indexed by first line, last line, attribution, author, title, date, length, verse form, content, bibliographic references, manuscript and record number.

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Loeb Classical Library This link opens in a new window
With over 530 volumes of Latin and Greek texts with English translations this resource gives online access to the full text of every Loeb volume in print including epic and lyric poetry; tragedy and comedy; history, travel, philosophy, and oratory; the great medical writers and mathematicians; and the Church Fathers who made particular use of pagan culture.

Loeb Classical Library is fully searchable and includes a Greek keyboard, it also allows single- and dual-language reading modes. With a My Loebs account you can manage bookmarks and annotations and save searches; you can also share these with other users.

The resource is regularly updated with new and revised volumes.

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Oxford Scholarly Editions Online This link opens in a new window
More than 1,300 scholarly editions of poetry, prose and drama from the Medieval period to the Renaissance and through the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries including the New Oxford Shakespeare. The editions cover a wide range of subjects including art, history, linguistics, literature, mathematics, philosophy, and religion.

Each title within the collection presents the full text of the work, as established by an authoritative editor, accompanied by the editors record of important variations in that text, and interpretative and explanatory notes. Most also have introductions placing the work and the author in a historical context, and explaining the editorial principles and the history of the text.

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Perdita Manuscripts: Women Writers, 1500-1700 This link opens in a new window
This collection has been produced in association with the Perdita Project and brings together complete digital facsimiles of nearly 270 original manuscripts containing little know material written or compiled by women in the British Isles during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The manuscripts represent a wide variety of womens writing and include account books, almanacs, diaries, notebooks, receipt books, sermon notes, speeches, and treatises. The types of writing include biography and autobiography, drama, history, prayers, psalms, meditations, advice, translations, travel writing, cookery and medical recipes, and poetry.

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State Papers Online This link opens in a new window
The Stuart and Cumberland Papers from the Royal Archives, Windsor Castle are on trial until 3rd March 2025.
This major archive gives access to the following collections:

- The Tudors, 1509-1603: State Papers Domestic
- The Tudors, 1509-1603: State Papers Foreign, Scotland, Borders, Ireland and Registers of the Privy Council
- The Stuarts and Commonwealth, James I - Anne I, 1603-1714: State Papers Domestic
- The Stuarts and Commonwealth, James I - Anne I, 1603-1714: State Papers Foreign, Ireland
- Eighteenth Century, 1714-1782, Part I: State Papers Domestic, Military, Naval and Registers of the Privy Council

The resource reproduces the original historical manuscripts in facsimile and links each manuscript to its corresponding fully-searchable Calendar entry.

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The Pulter Project
The digitised poems of Hester Pulter, 1605-1678.

Secondary sources

Bibliography of British and Irish History (Brepolis) This link opens in a new window
You can still access the legacy BBIH interface.
Previously known as the Royal Historical Society Bibliography this is a comprehensive guide to historical writing about the history of Britain, Ireland, and the British overseas from 55BC to the present.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.
European Views of the Americas: 1493 to 1750 (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
A bibliographic database of European printed records relating to the Americas, created from "European Americana: A Chronological Guide to Works Printed in Europe Relating to the Americas, 1493-1750".

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JSTOR This link opens in a new window
For alumni access please see the Virtual Library JSTOR section on Alumni Learning.
A digital archive collection of core scholarly journals starting with the first issues (many of which date from the 1800s). See JSTOR's online help guide for further information.

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LION - Literature Online This link opens in a new window
This resource is a searchable, online library of over 300,000 works of English and American poetry, prose and drama. It also provides access to a growing collection of online journals, reference works, author biographies and the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL).

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

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Oxford Dictionary of National Biography This link opens in a new window
An illustrated collection of 50,000 specially written biographies of the men and women who shaped all aspects of Britain's past, from the fourth century BC to the year 2000.

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Oxford English Dictionary Online This link opens in a new window
For access off-campus select the Sign in through your institution option on the OED site.
Search on words, definitions, etymology and quotations. The OED Online contains the complete text of the 20-volume Second Edition, first published in 1989, together with later additions. New and revised entries are added every quarter.

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Oxford Scholarly Editions Online This link opens in a new window
More than 1,300 scholarly editions of poetry, prose and drama from the Medieval period to the Renaissance and through the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries including the New Oxford Shakespeare. The editions cover a wide range of subjects including art, history, linguistics, literature, mathematics, philosophy, and religion.

Each title within the collection presents the full text of the work, as established by an authoritative editor, accompanied by the editors record of important variations in that text, and interpretative and explanatory notes. Most also have introductions placing the work and the author in a historical context, and explaining the editorial principles and the history of the text.

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Oxford Scholarship Online: Literature This link opens in a new window
Titles from Oxford University Press covering a wide range of topics, themes and periods in literature.

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Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Project MUSE, founded by Johns Hopkins University Press, is a database of over 380 full text scholarly journals in the arts, humanities and social sciences from over 70 (mainly university press) publishers.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

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Shakespeare Collection This link opens in a new window
Please see the sites below to access other content that used to be in the Shakespeare Collection:

Shakespearean Criticism volumes 26 to 143 - Gale Literature Criticism
Shakespeare Collection Periodicals - Gale Literature Resource Center
Twayne's English Authors Series - Gale Ebooks
William Shakespeare : A Documentary Volume - Gale Literature: Dictionary of Literary Biography
This collection gives access to over 200 prompt books (annotated working texts of stage managers and company prompters) from the 17th to 20th centuries, the diaries of Shakespeare enthusiast Gordon Crosse documenting 500 UK performances from 1890 to 1953, the First Folio and Quartos, editions and adaptations of Shakespeares 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.

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Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Web of Science provides access to the Science Citation Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

For help using this resource for bibliometrics see Bibliometrics: a practical guide.

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Journals

Exemplaria; a Journal of Theory in Medieval & Renaissance Studies Providing a forum for different terminologies and different approaches, it has included symposia and special issues on teaching Chaucer, women, history and literature, rhetoric, medieval noise, and Jewish medieval studies and literary theory. Providing a forum for different terminologies and different approaches, it has included symposia and special issues on teaching Chaucer, women, history and literature, rhetoric, medieval noise, and Jewish medieval studies and literary theory. Providing a forum for different terminologies and different approaches, it has included symposia and special issues on teaching Chaucer, women, history and literature, rhetoric, medieval noise, and Jewish medieval studies and literary theory. Providing a forum for different terminologies and different approaches, it has included symposia and special issues on teaching Chaucer, women, history and literature, rhetoric, medieval noise, and Jewish medieval studies and literary theory. Providing a forum for different terminologies and different approaches, it has included symposia and special issues on teaching Chaucer, women, history and literature, rhetoric, medieval noise, and Jewish medieval studies and literary theory.
Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies Fosters rigorous investigation of historiographical representations of European and western Asian cultural forms from late antiquity to the seventeenth century. Its topics include art, literature, theatre, music, philosophy, theology, and history, and it embraces material objects as well as texts; women as well as men; merchants, workers, and audiences as well as patrons; Jews and Muslims as well as Christians.
Cahiers Elisabethains Subjects have ranged from Chaucer to Restoration drama and beyond. The literature and drama of the Elizabethan period is, however, the focal point of interest.
Early Modern Literary Studies Examines English literature, literary culture, and language during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
English Literary Renaissance Devoted to current criticism and scholarship of Tudor and early Stuart English literature, 1485-1665, including Shakespeare, Spenser, Donne, and Milton. It is unique in featuring the publication of rare texts and newly discovered manuscripts of the period and current annotated bibliographies of work in the field.
Milton Quarterly Publishes in-depth articles, review essays, and shorter notes and notices about Milton's works, career, literary surroundings, and place in cultural history.
Milton Studies Focuses on various aspects of John Milton’s life and writing, including biography; literary history; Milton’s work in its literary, intellectual, political, or cultural contexts; Milton’s influence on or relationship to other writers; and the history of critical response to his workhistory.
Renaissance Forum Aims to provide an electronic forum for scholarly work in early-modern English literacy and historical scholarship and in the critical methodologies of these fields.
Renaissance News Information about the Renaissance Society of America's activities and projects, including its research grants, prizes, and annual conference.
Renaissance Quarterly Articles and reviews are written by authorities in the respective disciplines of history, literature, art, philosophy, music and other areas of study.
Renaissance Studies Renaissance Studies publishes articles and editions of documents on all aspects of Renaissance history and culture. The articles range over the history, art, architecture, religion, literature, and languages of Europe during the period.

English and Related Literature

Renaissance

Renaissance Resources

websites

Databases

Databases and Online Sources

Primary sources

Secondary sources

Journals