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Religious Studies

Resources to support Religious Studies at the University of Alabama

What are Primary Sources?

An image from the "Domesday Book," the survey of English land and landholdings commissioned by William I in 1086.

An image from the "Domesday Book," a survey of English land and landholdings commissioned by William I in 1086

Primary Sources are original sources: they were created by someone who participated in or observed an event.  They include diaries, letters, newspapers, government documents, photographs, and other manuscripts.

Resources for finding and accessing primary sources are below: 

Primary Source Collections

Personal Texts and Books

If you are searching for texts written by a specific medieval figure, you can often find their texts on the internet since their works are usually not copyrighted.  Type in the name of the person Google along with a word like textswritings, or works.

You can find the famous Scholasticism philosopher's writings at:

 

 

Some other great resources that you can use to find a vast amount of eBooks from the Later Middle Ages are: 

You can also find books that can be used as primary sources at: 

Women in Medieval Religion

University of Houston has a great site with links to primary sources about women and medieval religion.

Epistolae offers medieval women's letters!

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