Research Guides: COML 200: Introduction to Comparative Literature: Researching The Name of the Rose (HC): Background Information

Using Background Information

Subject encyclopedias and dictionaries provide brief overviews of ideas, people, and culture They are a quick way to find out the basic facts and current points of debate. Handbooks and companions provide longer, essay-length treatments of broader issues. They also tend to include more critical commentary.

When using an article in an encyclopedia or handbook, always check the bibliography for further reading at the end of the article. It will provide a selective list of the books, articles, and, sometimes, primary sources.

Encyclopedias and Handbooks on the Middle Ages

The Oxford Classical Dictionary by Tim Whitmarsh (Editor)
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Publication Date: 2016
Important reference source on Greek and Roman literature and history. In its digital form, it is continuously updated resource that keeps scholarship current and reflective of emerging subfields and perspectives. The OCD also incorporates multimedia, including images, links, and audiovisual clips that complement textual content.
The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages by Robert E. Bjork (Editor)
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Publication Date: 2010-07-29
Over 800 scholars have written 5,000+ entries. Each entry contains a brief bibliography. Distinguishing this research resource are its balanced coverage of both the whole geographical extent of the European Middle Ages and the major topics centrally important to the study of the period. Bryn Mawr students can use their Haverford credentials to access this online encyclopedia.
Handbook of Medieval Culture by Albrecht Classen (Editor)
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ISBN: 9783110377606
Publication Date: 2015-08-28
Overview essays and bibliographies on medieval topics. This is a follow-up publication to the Handbook of Medieval Studies (below), this work offers compact articles on essential topics, including education, medicine, travel, saints, the senses, and death. See the table of contents for an alphabetical list of topics in the three volumes.
Handbook of Medieval Studies by Albrecht Classen (Editor)
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Publication Date: 2010-11-16
Overview essays on scholarship concerning topics, terms, genres, and key scholars. Essays of interest include: "Eschatology"(pertaining to life after death), "Theology (Christian)" and ""Visionary texts".
Women and Gender in Medieval Europe by Margaret C. Schaus (Editor)
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ISBN: 0415969441
Publication Date: 2006-09-01
See articles relating to religion, heresy and sexuality as well as numerous entries connected to iconography and social history. For essay-length treatment of issues, see The Oxford Handbook of Women and Gender in Medieval Europe.
Print only copies at HC and BMC.

Encyclopedia and Handbooks on Medieval Religion

Cambridge History of Medieval Monasticism in the Latin West
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Includes such relevant essays as "Books and Libraries within Monasteries" and "Monastic Theologies, c. 1050–1200".
HC users see the table of contents and request chapters through Interlibrary Loan.
Companion to Heresy Inquisitions
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See discussion of Bernard Gui particularly in the essay "Heresy Inquisitions in the Later Middle Ages."
Print only copy at HC; Online copy at BMC
Encyclopedia of Monasticism
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Articles include "Libraries: Western Christian," "Manuscript Production," and "Benedictines: General or Male."
Print only copy at HC
Medieval Christianity
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This collection of essays focuses on lived experiences including "Heresy and Dissent," "Death and Burial," and "Hearing Women's Sins."
Oxford Handbook of Medieval Christianity
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Offers essays grouped around the themes of Spaces, Practices, Ideas, Identities and Power.
Print only copies at HC and Swarthmore
Preaching, Building, and Burying : Friars and the Medieval City
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Discusses the Franciscans and Dominicans as a new form of clergy.
Print only copy at HC
The World of Medieval Monasticism : Its History and Forms of Life
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See in particular the essays "Mendicant Orders in Conflict: Struggles over Poverty and Observance" and "The Franciscans: A Mendicant Order with the Whole World as Its Monastery".