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Internet Medieval Sourcebook

Paul Halsall, ORB sources editor

The Internet Medieval Sourcebook is now part of
ORB, the Online Reference Book
for Medieval Studies.

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Last Modified: May 12, 1996


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INTRODUCTION: Historians teaching medieval history surveys almost always want to combine a textbook, a sourcebook, and additional readings. Textbooks, as an ever-evolving form, are probably worth the cost, but sourcebooks are often unnecessarily expensive. Unlike some modern history texts, the sources used for medieval history have been around a long time. Very many were translated in the 19th century, and, as a rapid review of any commercial source book will show, it is these 19th century translations which make up the bulk of the texts. Indeed the genealogy of such texts is a minor area of possible historiographical research. Although publishers need make no copyright payments to use these texts, there is no real cost reduction, compared with sourcebooks for modern history surveys. Many of these 19th century texts are now available on the Internet, or are easily typed in to etext form.

GOAL: The goal here then is to construct a Internet Medieval Sourcebook from available public domain and copy-permitted texts. [A few short extracts -abiding by the standard 300 word "fair use" rule may be posted.] The problem with many of the Internet available texts is that they are too bulky for classroom assignment. For instance, all of Pope Gregory I's letters are available, but in one 500 page document. The Sourcebook then is in two parts. The first is made up of fairly short classroom sized extracts, derived from public domain sources or copy-permitted translations, the second is composed of the full documents, or WWW links to the full documents.

DOCUMENT SIZE: The size of documents for teaching purposes is an issue. Some commercial selections are composed of very small - paragraph long - snippets from many sources [see for example Deno John Geanakoplos, Byzantium]. Sometimes the documents are short, but for the most part the choice here has been for texts which would be three or more printed pages in length, Such documents allow students to see a larger context, and to escape from being spoon fed.

COVERAGE: At the moment, the texts available still address elite governmental, legal, religious and economic concerns. The similarity of the texts in a book like Tierney's The Middle Ages and the collections of ninety years ago is striking. A desiderata here is to expand the number of texts addressing women's history, the history of sexuality, lay and popular religion, the history of marginalized groups such a Jews along with more texts on Byzantine and Islamic culture.

SELECTION: The main principle of selection here has been availability of texts. Since it is foreseen that there will be a variety of uses for this sourcebook, the principle of exclusion - necessary for printed material - does not operate. Although many survey classes do not include much discussion of Byzantium and Islam, I have been eager to include material which would be useful for classes which gave these two other successor civilizations of Antiquity equal billing. This is especially the case for Byzantium, which, apart from its own intrinsic interest, provides a parallel case for many western developments.

TEXTS Since these texts come from a variety of printed materials, translators, and sources, they will vary in quality. In particular there may be better modern translations available [for instance for the works of Bede, Froissart, or Joinville.] More modern translations offered with copy permission by modern translators have not been checked, and in some cases could not be, by the compiler of these pages. All the texts are, it seems, suitable for class purposes, but check printed material for any intended publication usage. Caveat emptor!

USAGE: This Sourcebook is specifically designed for teachers to use in teaching. There a several ways that this might be done:-

All such projects are specifically allowed, permitted, and encouraged. Not all the documents here are out of copyright, and copyright inheres in specific electronic forms also. What is asked is that reference to the source of the material is included, and that no commercial use be made of the material. If you feel a need to pay up, do so by contributing texts you have made available in etext form.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Throughout this sourcebook., I have made special reference to

These books were used to orient me as to what is needed in a sourcebook, and what problems there are with current books. Tierney and Geary are probably the most frequently used sourcebooks in the US, although I have not checked sales figures, and so I have indicated equivalents for all the documents in those books, and their availability in etext form. Tierney tends to reproduce the selection criteria, and often the texts, of older sourcebooks and includes excerpts from medieval literary works. Geary focuses on much longer excerpts of historical documents and historiography, tends to use more recent [and hence less available for etext] translations, and has virtually no literary texts. Neither book provides much material on Byzantine and Islamic cultures, and in both women's history is underrepresented and more recent studies of gender and sexuality avoided. Selections within larger documents have been suggested by these and other published texts. Please note that although I have been influenced by the selection criteria of these authors, I have accessed the texts independently, have not always used the same translations as they, and have added other texts, or longer selections, as I think useful. Note also that the arrangement and selection of texts, while reflective of basic chronology as in all such collections, is also independent of any published collection.

The now out of copyright sources for documents include:

In some places, essential texts used to illustrate important points are copyrighted versions. In these cases I have first tried to find alternate, non-copyrighted, versions. Secondly, I have tried, and will continue to try, to find alternate texts which illustrate the point. In some cases though, the copyrighted text is the only one to use, and that provides a reason to buy the book I suppose.

THANKS - THE HONOR ROLL The texts in this sourcebook have come from a number of different sources, printed and electronic. A number of people have helped by allowing use of their translations, or by entering text. See here for a roll of honor and thanks.

HOW YOU CAN HELP If you have any suggestions, or etexts of translations of short passages you are willing to have included in this Sourcebook, please contact me at halsall@murray.fordham.edu. If you teach a class and have reading guides prepared for any of the material here, I would be happy to include it with the various texts. Finally, If you come across typographical errors - and you will - please also inform me.

Guide to Contents

The structure of this set of Sourcebook is as follows. You can browse through the entire list, or jump directly to the part that interests you by selecting the underlined links. From this page you can also directly access the Yahoo and Lycos Internet search engines.

I Readings In Medieval History

II Full Texts of Basis Texts for Readings

III Newly Translated Texts in the Internet Medieval Sourcebook

IV New Additions to the Sourcebook

NOTES:

I Readings in Medieval History


The End of the Classical World

PAGAN LATE ANTIQUITY

CHRISTIAN LATE ANTIQUITY

THE GERMAN IMPACT


Byzantium

BYZANTIUM- GENERAL

JUSTINIAN

ICONOCLASM

THE BYZANTINE COMMONWEALTH

BYZANTINE RELIGION


Islam

MUHAMMAD AND FOUNDATIONS - TO 632 CE

ISLAMIC EXPANSION AND EMPIRE - 750 CE

LATER ISLAMIC HISTORY


The Formation of Latin Christendom

THE ROMAN CHURCH

MONASTICISM

THE CAROLINGIAN ESSOR

FEUDALISM?


The Flowering of Latin Christendom

WESTERN RECOVERY

THE COMMERCIAL REVOLUTION

EMPIRE AND PAPACY - INVESTITURE CONTROVERSY

THE CRUSADES

12TH CENTURY THOUGHT

WESTERN EUROPEAN LITERATURE

EMPIRE AND PAPACY - BARBAROSSA TO INNOCENT III

ENGLAND

THE RISE OF FRANCE

SPAIN AND PORTUGAL

There is very little material available in etext form, as yet, about medieval Spain and Portugal. The American Association of Research Historians of Medieval Spain maintains an AARHMS web page, which includes and Archive section devoted to putting such material online. It is still fairly sparse at this stage. An archive is also under development at Northwestern University's site dedicated to Electronic Texts for the Study of Medieval Iberia.

THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE - FREDERICK II AND AFTER

PARLIMENTARY ORIGINS IN ENGLAND


Medieval Life and Thought

13TH CENTURY SCHOLARS AND SCHOLASTICISM

CRITICISM OF SOCIETY - HERESY AND MENDICANCY

LAW - THEORY AND PRACTICE

RURAL LIFE

MEDIEVAL JEWISH LIFE

CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY

WOMEN'S ROLES

CONSTRUCTIONS OF SEXUALITY AND GENDER

MARRIAGE


The Late Middle Ages

THE PAPACY OVERREACHES

THE CALAMITOUS 14TH CENTURY

LATE MEDIEVAL GOVERNMENT

CONCILIARISM

MEDIEVAL PEOPLE - REFLECTED IN LITERATURE


Transformations

ITALIAN RENAISSANCE

EARLY REFORMATION

EXPANSION OVERSEAS

II Full Texts of Basis Texts for Readings

The Early Church Fathers

Note The Medieval Sourcebook aims to present classroom sized texts. But a major resource for many scholars are the translations in the Early Church Fathers Series. The entire 38 volume set is now available on line. Some of it is nicely marked up, other texts are available only in large lumps of text. The Christian Classics Ethereal Library at Wheaton College is to site with the texts. The Library has made the texts available in both text, zipped, and, where possible, HTML form. The following information and links have been lifted directly from the Ethereal Library site

The Early Church Fathers is a 38-volume collection of writings from the first 800 years of the Church. This collection is divided into three series, the Ante-Nicene, Nicene, and Post-Nicene Fathers.

These files have the majority of the text printed in the actual books -- however, some portions have been excluded, such as the prefaces written by the editors, footnotes, indices, etc. In fact, Volume IX of the Ante-Nicene Series was omitted because it consists entirely of index information.

(Adapted from the introduction to the Electronic Bible Society CD-ROM Volume 1.)

These volumes are 1.5 to 3.5 MB each. Because of this and because the text paragraphs are not wrapped, you will probably have to download them to your system and read them with a word processor. A windows-based word processor is preferable because some special characters from the Windows character set are used.

If you would like to contribute to making these accessible on the WWW, you could volunteer to format a volume in HTML. In addition, it appears that these files have a relatively large number of typographical errors and will need proofreading. Also, footnotes have not been reproduced and will in some cases need to be typed in.

The links ending in .gz are compressed with gzip and will be about one-third the size. You will need a gzip-compatible program to uncompress them. A gzip extraction program for DOS is available. If you have winzip for windows, or windows95, it will do the job nicely.

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Contents

Ante-Nicene Fathers to A.D. 325

Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, editors.

Volume I -- The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus: Clement, Mathetes, Polycarp, Ignatius, Barnabas, Papias, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus. text, gzip

Volume II -- Fathers of the Second Century: Hermas, Tatian, Theophilus, Athenagoras, Clement of Alexandria. text, gzip -- hermas.rtf

Volume III -- Latin Christianity: Its Founder Tertullian: I. Apologetic, II. Anti-Marcion, III. Ethical. text, gzip

Volume IV -- Fathers of the Third Century: Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Commodianus, Origen. text, gzip

Volume V -- Fathers of the Third Century: Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix: Baptism of Heretics, Anonymous Treatise Against the Heretic Novatian, Anonymous Treatise on Rebaptism. text, gzip

Volume VI -- Fathers of the Third Century: Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Archelaus, Alexander of Lycopolis, Peter of Alexandria, Alexander of Alexandria, Methodius, Arnobius. text, gzip

Volume VII -- Fathers of the Third and Fourth Centuries: Lactantius, Dionysius of Rome, Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, The Homily Ascribed to Clement, Early Liturgies. text, gzip

Volume VIII -- Fathers of the Third and Fourth Centuries: Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, Theodotus: Excerpts, Epistles Concerning Virginity, Pseudo-Clementine Literature, Apocrypha of the New Testament, Decretals Memoire of Edessa and Ancient Syriac Documents, remains of the Second and Third Centuries. text, gzip

Volume X -- Original supplement to the American Edition: Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron of Tatian, Apocalypse of Peter, Visio Pauli, Apocalypses of the Virgin and of Sedrach, Testament of Abraham, Acts of Xanthippe and Polyxena, Narrative of Zosimus, Apology of Aeristides, Epistles of Clement (complete), Origen's Commentaries on John and Matthew (partial). text, gzip

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series I

Philip Schaff, editor

St. Augustine Volumes:

Volume I -- Prolegomena; Life and Works; Confessions; Letters text, gzip, html

Volume II -- The City of God; Christian Doctrine text, gzip, html

Volume III -- Doctrinal Treatises; Moral Treatises text, gzip html

Volume IV -- Anti-Manichaean and Anti-Donatist Writings text, gzip html

Volume V -- Anti-Pelagian Writings text, gzip

Volume VI -- The Sermon on the Mount; Harmony of the Gospels; Homilies on the Gospels text, gzip

Volume VII -- Homilies on the Gospel and the First Epistle of John; Soliloquies text, gzip

Volume VIII -- Expositions on the Psalms text, gzip

St. Chrysostom Volumes:

Volume IX -- Prolegomena; On the Priesthood; Ascetic Treatises; Select Homilies and Letters; Homilies on the Statues text, gzip

Volume X -- Homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew text, gzip

Volume XI -- Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle to the Romans text, gzip

Volume XII -- Homilies on the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians text, gzip

Volume XIII -- Homilies on Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon text, gzip

Volume XIV -- Homilies on the Gospel of St. John and the Epistle to the Hebrews text, gzip

NICENE AND POST-NICENE FATHERS, Series II

Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, editors

Volume I -- Eusebius; Church History; Life of Constantine the Great; Oration in Praise of Constantine text, gzip, html

Volume II -- Socrates Scholasticus: Ecclesiastical History; Sozomenus: Ecclesiastical History text, gzip

Volume III -- Theodoret: Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, Letters; Jerome and Gennadius: Illustrious Men; Rufinus and Jerome; Life of Rufinus; Apology vs. Rufinus text, gzip

Volume IV -- Athanasius: Select Works and Letters text, gzip

Volume V -- Gregory of Nyssa: Select Writings and Letters; Dogmatic Treatises text, gzip

Volume VI -- St. Jerome: Letters and Select Works text, gzip

Volume VII -- St. Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures; St. Gregory Nazianzen: Select Orations, Sermons, Letters; Dogmatic Treatises text, gzip

Volume VIII -- St. Basil: Treatise De Spiritu Sancto; Nine Homilies of Hexaemeron text, gzip

Volume IX -- St. Hilary of Poitiers: Select Works on the Trinity and Psalms; John of Damascus: Exposition of Faith text, gzip

Volume X -- St. Ambrose: Principal Works, Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, etc. text, gzip

Volume XI -- Sulpitius Severus: Extant Works; Vincent of Lerins: The Catholic Faith; John Cassian: On Institutes of the Coenobia; The Eight Principal Faults; Conferences; On the Incarnation vs. Nestorius text, gzip

Volume XII -- Leo the Great: Letters, Sermons; Gregory the Great: Pastoral Rule, etc. text, gzip

Volume XIII -- Gregory the Great: Selected Epistles; Ephraim the Syrian: Hymns, Homilies; Aphrahat: Demonstrations text, gzip

Volume XIV -- The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church; Canons and Decrees; Canons of Local Synods with Ecumenical Acceptance text, gzip

This list of Early Church fathers texts (last modified January 15, 1996) taken from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library server, at Wheaton College

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III Newly Translated Texts in the Internet Medieval Sourcebook

While the majority of the texts in the Sourcebook are texts which were either available on the Internet, or were scanned and typed in from out-of-copyright translations, a number of translations and texts are presented here for the first time and are only available in etext form. [Some are available on the homepages of their translators - see here for links to these pages.] These texts are integrated into the structure above, but are also listed here for convenience. They are all copy-permitted for non-commercial and educational use, but copyright is retained by the translators.



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IV New Additions to the Sourcebook

The Sourcebook is continually growing with the addition of new selections and full texts. To aid regular visitors, new additions to the Sourcebook will be listed here, in reverse order of accrual for one month after they are added. Beginning March 25, 1996. For order of additions before March 25, 1996, see New Additions List.


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SEARCH THE NET

Here are search forms which will take you directly to two of the best search engines on the net. The Web is so vast now that it contains more, and more diverse information, than any single printed source. This availability of information will only increase. To use the Web efficiently, the various search engines are essential. Yahoo is best, I think, if you are looking for specialized websites. Lycos indexes many more documents [it goes through each website and looks at all documents there]. Lycos will always turn up more references, but far more will be dross than with Yahoo. Yahoo has a nice feature in that once it tells you everything that it has found, it will automatically plug you in to the other search engines.

It is important to form your query words as clearly as possible. For instance, if you are interested in finding information on a particular musician, do not search for "music", but for a style [eg "jazz" or "gregorian chant"] or even a name ["abba", "charlie parker", "hildegard"].

Yahoo :

Lycos :

This text is copyright. The specific electronic form, and notes and questions are copyright. Permission is granted to copy the text, and to print out copies for personal and educational use. No permission is granted for commercial use.

If any copyright has been infringed, this was unintentional. The possibility of a site such as this, as with other collections of electronic texts, depends on the large availability of public domain material from texts translated before 1920. [In the US, all texts issued before 1920 are now in the public domain. Texts published before 1964 may be in the public domain if copyright was not renewed after 28 years. This site seeks to abide by US copyright law: the copyright status of texts here outside the US may be different.] Efforts have been made to ascertain the copyright status of all texts here, although, occasionally, this has not been possible where older or non-US publishers seem to have ceased existence. Some of the recently translated texts here are copyright to the translators indicated in each document. These translators have in every case given permission for non-commercial reproduction. This site is intended for educational use. Notification of copyright infringement will result in the immediate removal of a text until its status is resolved.

(c)Paul Halsall January-April 1996
halsall@murray.fordham.edu