Research Guides: Researching Art in the Middle Ages (HC): Finding Primary Sources

Finding Primary Sources

Primary sources written during the Middle Ages provide vantage points from which to understand concepts and world views from a different era.

Source Collections

Early Medieval Art 300-1150: Sources and Documents by Caecilia Davis-Weyer
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ISBN: 0802066283
Publication Date: 1986-05-01
An anthology of medieval texts on art. It includes descriptions of lost monuments, theoretical and technical texts which reveal intentions of artists and patrons, and liturgical texts which describe the use of medieval artifacts
Gothic Art 1140-1450: Sources and Documents by Teresa Grace Frisch
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ISBN: 0133605450
Publication Date: 1986-01-01
The purpose of this book is to help students reconstruct from the remnants of documents medieval attitudes toward art..

Medieval and Early Modern Sources Online (MEMSO)
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A collection of digitized editions of texts concerning economic, political, legal, and ecclesiastical history, such as treasury accounts, chronicles, papal registers, etc. Most are from England, Ireland, and Scotland, although some concern continental Europe and the New World.

Renaissance Art Reconsidered: An Anthology of Primary Sources by Michael W. Franklin (Editor); Kim W. Woods (Editor); Carol M. Richardson (Editor)
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ISBN: 9781405146401
Publication Date: 2007-02-12
Includes letters, treatises, contracts, inventories, and other public documents. Showcases aesthetic principles as well as workaday practices guiding daily life.
Women and the Visual Arts in Italy C. 1400-1650: Luxury and Leisure, Duty and Devotion : A Sourcebook by Mary Rogers (Editor); Paola Tinagli (Editor)
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ISBN: 9780719080982
Publication Date: 2012-06-30
The anthology of original sources concerns women's varied involvement with the visual arts and material culture of their day. Treats issues of patronage, civic festivities, pilgrimages, everyday life and devotional practices.

Feminae Listings of Translations

Feminae indexes translations, both complete texts and excerpts from anthologies.

Go to the Advanced Search Page, and enter Translation in the Article Type box.

In the Keyword box enter your topic or you can specify a name in the Author box. You can also specify century and geographic area (British Isles, France, Germany, etc.) in those search boxes.

Feminae This link opens in a new window
Provides abstracts and/or citation information to journal articles, book reviews and essays about women, sexuality and gender in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, from 450 C.E. to 1500 C.E. Covers materials published since 1990.

Translated Texts

On Divers Arts: The Treatise of Theophilus by Theophilus, Presbyter, active 12th century.
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Publication Date: 1976
Manual written by a 12th century monastic artist detailing techniques in painting, glass and metalwork.
The Rationale Divinorum Officiorum of William Durand of Mende by Timothy M. Thibodeau
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ISBN: 9780231141819
Publication Date: 2010-02-12
The Rationale Divinorum Officiorum is arguably the most important medieval treatise on the symbolism of church architecture and rituals of worship. Book one features detailed descriptions of the various parts of the church and its ecclesiastical ornaments.
Selected Works of Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis by Suger, Abbot of Saint-Denis
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ISBN: 9780813229980
Publication Date: 2018
Suger enlarged, decorated, improved, and redesigned the church of Saint-Denis, promoting the new Gothic style. He describes the work he planned and supervised as well as his thinking about the importance of light, color and visual meaning.
The Things of Greater Importance: Bernard of Clairvaux's Apologia and the Medieval Attitude toward Art by Conrad Rudolph
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ISBN: 0812281810
Publication Date: 1990-05-29
The "Things of Greater Importance" provides a close look into the social and cultural context of medieval art, primarily as expressed in Bernard of Clairvaux's Apologia.. Bernard wrote the Apologia during the medieval efflorescence of monumental sculpture and stained glass, of advanced architecture, of pilgrimage art, of high Romanesque, and of the origins of Gothic art.