Renaissance/Early Modern Research Guide
This guide has been designed as a starting point for research involving the Renaissance and Early Modern time period. If you need help, please contact Rebecca Dowson, Liaison Librarian: English Literature and History at 778.782.4304 or rda26@sfu.ca or Ask a librarian.
Another useful starting point is the book Literary research and the British Renaissance and early modern period : strategies and sources.
Contents
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography An illustrated collection of 50,000 specially written biographies of the men and women who shaped all aspects of Britain's past, from the fourth century BC to the year 2000.
Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Longman guide to Shakespeare quotations - Bennett Stacks PR 2892 G75
Shakespeare's wordcraft - Bennett Stacks PR 3077 K35 2007
Roget's thesaurus of the Bible - Bennett Reference BS 432 D34 1992
The Figurative language of the tragedies of Shakespeare's chief 16th-century contemporaries - Bennett Reference PR 658 T7 S78
Open Source Shakespeare: Concordance of Shakespeare's Complete Works (George Mason University)
The Oxford chronology of English literature - Bennett Reference PR 87 O95 2002
The Hutchinson chronology of world history
BBC History Timelines - Interactive timelines for topics in archeology, British history and the World Wars.
Handbook of British chronology - Bennett Reference DA 34 P6 1986
A Milton chronology - Bennett Stacks PR 3583 C36 1997
A Sidney chronology, 1554-1654 - Bennett Stacks PR 2343 B66 2003
A Christopher Marlowe chronology - Bennett Stacks PR 2673 H593 2005
There is a very good chronology section in the database State Papers Online. When you log in, choose "Research Tools" and then click on the Chronologies link.
Many of the companion handbooks also include a Chronology section - check the catalogue record of each companion to confirm the inclusion of a chronology/timeline section.
The Oxford dictionary of literary terms, 3rd ed.
The Penguin dictionary of literary terms and literary theory - Bennett Stacks PN 41 C83 1999
The Bedford glossary of critical and literary terms - Bennett Stacks PN 44.5 M86 2009
A glossary of contemporary literary theory - Bennett and Surrey Reference PN 44.5 H37 2000
Shakespeare's language : a glossary of unfamiliar words in Shakespeare's plays and poems - Bennett Stacks PR 2892 S447 1996
Dictionary of literary-rhetorical conventions of the English Renaissance - Bennett Stacks PR 531 D6
Classical myths and legends in the Middle Ages and Renaissance : a dictionary of allegorical meanings - Bennett & Belzberg PN 669 B78 1998
Specific Encyclopedias/Companions - Literary
Key concepts in Renaissance literature - Bennett Stacks PR 411 H43 2008
Encyclopedia of Renaissance literature - Bennett Stacks PN 721 C66 2006
A new companion to English Renaissance literature and culture - Bennett Reference PR 411 C663 2010
The Oxford handbook of Tudor literature, 1485-1603 - Bennett Stacks PR 413 O94 2009
A companion to Renaissance drama - Bennett Stacks PR 651 C66 2002
The Blackwell companion to the Bible and English literature - Belzberg Library PR 149 B5 2009
A companion to Shakespeare - Bennett Stacks PR 2910 C66 1999
The new Cambridge companion to Shakespeare, 2nd ed. - Bennett Stacks PR 2894 C33 2010
The Cambridge companion to Spenser - Bennett and Surrey Stacks PR 2364 C36 2001
Dictionary of literary and dramatic censorship in Tudor and Stuart England - Bennett Reference PR 411 A93 2001
Classical and Christian Ideas in English Renaissance Poetry: A Students' Guide PR 532 R5 or online
These are just a few of the subject specific dictionaries and encyclopedias available at SFU Library. Search for more by including the words encyclopedia OR dictionary OR handbook OR companion OR manual in your KEYWORD search (e.g. Marlowe AND companion)
Renaissance and Early Modern Theatre
English professional theatre, 1530-1660 - Bennett Stacks PN 2589 E55 2000
English Renaissance theatre history : a reference guide - Bennett Stacks PN 2589 Z972
The English stage : a history of drama and performance - Bennett Stacks PN 2581 S89 1996
The Shakespearean stage 1574-1642 - Bennett Stacks PR 3095 G87 2009 (4th ed.) Bennett & Surrey Stacks PR 3095 G87 1992 (3rd ed.)
The Shakespeare Company, 1594-1642 - Bennett & Surrey Stacks PR 3095 G86 2004
Playgoing in Shakespeare's London - Bennett & Surrey Stacks PN 2596 L6 G87 2004 (3rd ed.) Bennett Stacks PN 2596 L6 G87 1996 (2nd ed.) Bennett Stacks PN 2596 L6 G87 (1st ed.)
The Shakespearian playing companies - Bennett Stacks PR 3095 G869 1996 and online
Staging in Shakespeare's theatres - Bennett Stacks PR 3095 G88 2000
The Elizabethan stage - Bennett Stacks PN 2589 C4 (4 volumes, 2 copies of each volume)
Annals of English drama, 975-1700 - Bennett Reference & Bennett Stacks PR 1241 Z94 1964
DEEP: Database of Early English Playbooks DEEP is a database of early modern plays and playwrights with additional useful information, such as genre, dates of first publication and production.
Records of Early English Drama: Patrons and Performances Web Site Designed to include a wide range of data about professional performers on tour in the provinces – their patrons, the performance venues they used and the routes they took across the kingdom.
Early Modern London Theatres This database provides an abstract record of the relationship between primary (pre -1642 sources) and secondary (post-1642) materials discussing plays, theatre audiences, lives of players and the theatre builings themselves that were built in and around London from 1567 to 1629.
Shakespeare's Globe The official Globe Theatre site
British Literary Manuscripts: Part 2: British Literary Manuscripts Online: Medieval & Renaissance offers students and researchers unprecedented online access to 565,000 pages of rare manuscripts from the Medieval and Early Modern periods, c.1100 to 1660. Researchers and students can explore online a rich tapestry of letters, poems, stories, plays, chronicles, religious writings and commonplace books through searchable catalogue records.
Digital Scriptorium Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts (Columbia University)
English Broadside Ballad Archive Website dedicated to early ballads in English, especially 17th-century broadside ballads; provides full transcriptions and images of the originals, search facilities, sung versions of ballads, and background essays (Early Modern Center, University of California-Santa Barbara)
The Shakespeare Quartos Archive A digital collection of pre-1642 editions of William Shakespeare's plays.
Treasures in Full: Shakespeare in Quarto See 107 copies of the 21 plays by Shakespeare printed in quarto before the 1642 theatre closures. (British Library)
Internet Shakespeare Editions On this website, you will find one of the web's widest varieties of Shakespeare-related resources, including fully annotated texts of his plays and poems, exciting multimedia materials and records of his plays in performance, and thousands of searchable pages devoted to the history, arts, politics, society, and stage of Shakespeare's world, as well as biographical details of his life. (University of Victoria)
Folger Digital Image Collection The Folger's Digital Image Collection offers online access to over 40,000 images from the Folger Shakespeare Library collection, including books, theater memorabilia, manuscripts, art, and more.
The Oxford encyclopedia of the Reformation - Bennett & Belzberg Reference BR 302.8 O93 1996 and online
The age of Reformation : the Tudor and Stewart realms, 1485-1603 - Bennett Stacks BR 375 R97 2009
Renaissance and Reformation, 1500-1620 : a biographical dictionary - Bennett Reference CT 759 R46 2001 and online
The Bible in English A collection of 20 different versions of the English Bible from the tenth to the twentieth century, including 12 full Bibles, 5 New Testament texts, 2 versions of the Gospels only, and William Tyndale's translations of the Pentateuch, Jonah and the New Testament.
The Book of Common Prayer - 1559 HTML version of the 1559 edition of the Book of Common Prayer. Includes background information and links to other resources.
Digital Library of Classic Protestant Texts More than 1,200 works from the Reformation and post-Reformation eras, including the theological writings of more than 300 Protestant authors, as well as confessional documents, biblical commentaries, polemical treatises, and Bible translations.
Digital Library of the Catholic Reformation Includes over 450,000 pages of primary-source material from the 16th and 17th Centuries, including all the key catechisms, scholarly treatises, papal documents, devotional works, and theological volumes that sparked and sustained the reform from within the Catholic Church.
ATLAS Religion Database Indexes journal articles on all aspects of religion and theology, including church and religious history. Contains some full text articles.
Early English Prose Fiction More than 200 full text works which provide a representative view of prose fiction by writers from the British Isles from the period 1500-1700.
Project Gutenberg Provides access to over 33,000 downloadable e-books.
Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature Provides information on medieval, renaissance, 17th and 18th century authors, with the full text of selected works, and additional materials including biographical sketches, book reviews, essays, and graphics.
Renascence Editions An online repository of works printed in English between the years 1477 and 1799.
Early Modern Literary Studies Electronic Texts Gathering of links to select electronic texts of fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth century materials which are on the Internet, as well as others which have bearing upon this time period.
Oxford Text Archive The Oxford Text Archive develops, collects, catalogues and preserves electronic literary and linguistic resources for use in Higher Education, in research, teaching and learning.
Electronic Text Center - Modern English Collection This heterogeneous collection contains fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, letters, newspapers, manuscripts and illustrations from 1500 to the present, arranged for browsing by author's last name or by category of interest. (University of Virginia)
Perseus Digital Library Project - Renaissance Materials Digital versions of primary and secondary sources in early modern English literature. (Tufts University)
Representative Poetry Online Includes 3,162 English poems by 500 poets from Caedmon, in the Old English period, to the work of living poets today. It is based on Representative Poetry, established by Professor W. J. Alexander of University College, University of Toronto, in 191.
Spenser and the Tradition: English Poetry 1579-1830: A Gathering of Texts
Early Stuart Libels: An Edition of Poetry Web-based edition of early seventeenth-century political poetry from manuscript sources. It brings into the public domain over 350 poems, many of which have never before been published.
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare The Web's first edition of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare. This site has offered Shakespeare's plays and poetry to the Internet community since 1993. (MIT)
These resources provide extensive bibliographies and links to other useful online resources for the study of the Renaissance.
Centre for Early Modern Studies
Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies
CERES, Cambridge English Renaissance Electronic Service
Voice of the Shuttle: Literature (In English)
Literary Resources - Renaissance
Renaissance Sites and Elizabethan Resources
Shakespeare Studies: A guide for students and professors interested in the study of Shakespeare's life and works (NY University Library)
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