Links for New Researchers

Play Texts

The York, Chester, and Towneley Plays

Palaeography

General introductions include Bob Peckham’s list, originally posted on medtext-l, of palaeography and manuscript sites and the University of Pennsylvania’s Texts, Manuscripts, and Palaeography page.

The Stanford University Library offers a site specifically for Medieval Latin Palaeography, which links to a variety of resources.

The National Archives in the UK are offering an in-depth online tutorial in palaeography, as is Cambridge’s COPIA project at English Handwriting 1500-1700: An online course.

Another site that may be helpful for those trying to learn medieval palaeography is Medieval Writing, which includes exercises for the student.

A site offering learning aids for both medieval and early modern palaeography is the Introduction to Palaeography website presented by Dave Postles, University of Leicester, the REED editor for Nottinghamshire.

Palaeography — Developing the National Resource focuses on specifically English documents and includes links to research sites.

For manuscript images, see the list of images available on the Bodleian Library’s website, the Scriptorium, or the Digital Scriptorium. Of general REED, as well as MSS, interest is the DScriptorium, which includes MSS pages and miniatures from the Jeu de Robin et Marion and the Mystere dou jour dou jugement.

Archives, Libraries, and Other Repositories

Access to Archives (A2A) is an ongoing project at the British National Archives. The goal is to put the catalogues of all the local repositories online; it’s regularly updated.

The Beinecke Library, Yale University

The Bodleian Library

The British Library

Cambridge University Library and JANUS, access to Cambridge Archival and MSS collections

COPAC provides unified access to the catalogues of some of the largest university research libraries in the UK and Ireland.

The Folger Shakespeare Library Collections

The Huntington Library

The British National Archives (formerly the Public Record Office) offer ARCHON, a listing of all online archives and record offices in the British Isles; the National Register of Archives; and the online National Archives Catalogue, formerly PROCAT.

The Newberry Library

The National Union Catalogue of Manuscripts Collections has a web page, which also provides open access to the Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN) site.

Online Journals

Comparative Drama

Early Modern Literary Studies

Early Theatre (ET/REED) at McMaster University, which evolved from the REED Newsletter

The EDAM Project, for information on EDAM Newsletter and EDAM Review

The MRDS Newsletter

Medieval English Theatre (METh), for listings of the contents of their published volumes

Research on Medieval and Renaissance Drama

Renaissance Forum

Shakespeare Quarterly

Local History

Department of English Local History at Leicester University

The Institute of Historical Research provides links to online information of interest to local historians, including British History Online.

Local History Online offers an index of various links to local history sites.

The US Library of Congress provides Sources for Research in English Genealogy.

The first edition six-inch Ordnance Survey maps for the UK are very helpful for locating forgotten places.

A database of English clergy

The Calendar of Patent Rolls online