Classical, Medieval & Renaissance Studies: Archival Resources
- Archives of Sexuality and GenderMajor collection of primary sources for the historical study of sex, sexuality, and gender. With material dating back to the sixteenth century, researchers and scholars can examine how sexual norms have changed over time, health and hygiene, the development of sex education, the rise of sexology, changing gender roles, social movements and activism, erotica, and many other interesting topical areas. This growing archival program offers rich research opportunities across a wide span of human history.
- Defining Gender, 1450-1910A digitized collection of original documents relating to Gender Studies, sourced from libraries and archives around the world. It has five thematic sections: Conduct and Politeness, Domesticity and the Family, Consumption and Leisure, Education and Sensibility, and The Body.
- Empire OnlineA digitzed collection of original documents relating to Empire Studies, sourced from libraries and archives around the world. It covers: cultural contact, empire writing and literature of empire, the visible empire, religion and empire, race, class & colonialism.
- English Historical Documents OnlineAn annotated collection of documents on British history surveying the years 500 to 1914, and covering a wide spectrum of topics. Primary sources include treaties, statutes, declarations, government and cabinet proceedings, military dispatches, orders, acts, sermons, newspaper articles, pamphlets, personal and official letters, diaries, and more.
- Making of the Modern World
A digital collection of millions of pages of unique primary sources tracking the development of the modern, western world using trade and wealth as a central focus. Supports research in history, political science, technology and industry, economics, and more. In 2015, the University of Saskatchewan updated this resource with part two of the collection; in 2018, we added part three; and in 2025, we added part four.
- Medieval Travel WritingAn extensive collection of digitized manuscript materials for the study of medieval travel writing in fact and in fantasy from the 13th to the 16th centuries. The chief focus is on journeys to central Asia and the Far East, including accounts of travel to Mongolia, Persia, India, China and South-East Asia. It also includes a selection of accounts of travels to or through the Holy Land.
- MEMSO: Medieval and Early Modern Sources OnlineA large and growing collection of medieval and early modern books and manuscript sources digitized from print essential to the study of medieval and early modern Britain and Ireland. It includes linked searchable books and original manuscript images. Books may be downloaded, printed out or used offline for educational purposes.
- ORLANDO: Women's Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present"Includes biographical and writing career entries on over a thousand writers, more than eight hundred and fifty of them British women. It also includes selected non-British or international women writers, and British and ... thirty thousand dated items representing events and processes (in the accounts of these writers, but also in the areas of history, science, medicine, economics, the law, and other contexts)."
- Parliament Rolls of Medieval England (PROME)An online version of the rolls of the English parliament, "the official records of the meetings of the English parliament from the reign of Edward I (1272-1307) until the reign of Henry VII (1485-1509)"... later, "the journals of the lords and, somewhat later, of the commons" and more.
- Perdita Manuscripts: Women Writers, 1500-1700Index of manuscripts of early modern women authors, including full digital facsimiles of over 230 selections, produced in association with the Perdita Project based at the University of Warwick and Nottingham Trent University. "Perdita" means "lost woman" and the quest of the Perdita Project has been to find early modern women authors who were lost because their writing exists only in manuscript form."
- Women Writers OnlineA full-text collection of early womens writing in English, published by the Women Writers Project at Northeastern University. It includes full transcriptions of texts published between 1526 and 1850, focusing on materials that are rare or inaccessible.
Other Archival Resources
- Iter BibliographyWithin the Iter collection, there are a number subscribed and open access of archival resources. See specifically: Iter Italicum, a finding list to previously uncatalogued Renaissance manuscripts in libraries and other collections worldwide; French Renaissance Paleography; Gateway to Early Modern Sermons; Milton: A Bibliography, a listing of all manuscripts and editions of Milton’s works; Electronic Capito Project, access to the full-text of the correspondence of Erasmus contemporary and religious reformer Wolfgang Faber Capito; Medici Archive Project, documentary sources in the Medici Granducal Archive, 1537-1743; Baptisteria Sacra Index, an extensive inventory list of baptismal fonts dating from the early Christian period to the 17trh century.
Microform Collections for Humanities Research
Using Microforms at the Murray Library
Ruins - Hadrian's Library, Athens