Internet Medieval Sourcebook

Editor: Paul Halsall



The Internet Medieval Sourcebook is located at the

Fordham University Center for Medieval Studies.

1. This project is both very large and fairly old in Internet terms. At the time it was begun (1996), it was not clear that web sites [and the documents made available there] would often turn out to be transient. As a result there is a process called "link rot" - which means that a "broken link" is a result of someone having taken down a web page. In some cases some websites have simply reorganized sub-directories without creating forwarding links. Since 2000, very few links to external sites have been made. An effort is under way to remove bad links. 2. All links to documents at Fordham should be working. 3. Users may attempt to locate texts not currently available, or where the links have changed via The Internet Archive/Way Back Machine . Alternately, a search via Google may locate another site where the document is available.

INTRODUCTION: MEDIEVAL SOURCES ON THE INTERNET

Historians teaching medieval history surveys almost always want to combine a textbook, a sourcebook, and additional readings. Textbooks, as an ever-evolving form, are probably worth the cost, but sourcebooks are often unnecessarily expensive. Unlike some modern history texts, the sources used for medieval history have been around a long time. Very many were translated in the 19th century, and, as a rapid review of any commercial source book will show, it is these 19th century translations which make up the bulk of the texts. Indeed the genealogy of such texts is a minor area of possible historiographical research. Although publishers need make no copyright payments to use these texts, there is no real cost reduction, compared with sourcebooks for modern history surveys. Many of these nineteenth-century texts are now available on the Internet, or are easily typed in to e-text form.



GOAL: The goal here then has been to construct an Internet Medieval Sourcebook from available public domain and copy-permitted texts. [A few short extracts -abiding by the standard 300 word "fair use" rule may be posted.] The problem with many of the Internet available texts is that they are too bulky for classroom assignment. For instance, all of Pope Gregory I's letters are available, but in one 500 page document. The Internet Medieval Sourcebook then is in two major parts. The first is made up of fairly short classroom sized extracts, derived from public domain sources or copy-permitted translations, the second is composed of the full documents, or WWW links to the full documents.



DOCUMENT SIZE: The size of documents for teaching purposes is an issue. Some commercial selections are composed of very small - paragraph long - snippets from many sources [see for example Deno John Geanakoplos, Byzantium]. Sometimes the documents themselves are short, but for the most part the choice here has been for texts which would be three or more printed pages in length. Such documents allow students to see a larger context, and to escape from being spoon fed.



COVERAGE and SELECTION: After ten years of steady development, the Sourcebook, while continuing to make available a wide range of texts which address elite governmental, legal, religious and economic concerns, now also includes a large selection of texts on women's and gender history, Islamic and Byzantine history, Jewish history, and social history . Although initially the similarity of the contents of a book like Tierney's The Middle Ages and the collections of ninety years ago was striking, this is no longer the case. In its early stages the the main principle of selection here was been availability of texts. This long ago ceased to be the case as editorial desiderata deliberately focused on expanding the number of texts addressing non-elites. Since it is foreseen that there will be a variety of uses for this Sourcebook, the principle of exclusion - necessary for printed material - does not operate. Although many survey classes do not include much discussion of Byzantium and Islam, I have been eager to include material which would be useful for classes which gave these two other successor civilizations of Antiquity equal billing. This is especially the case for Byzantium, which, apart from its own intrinsic interest, provides a parallel case for many western developments.



TEXTS Since these texts come from a variety of printed materials, translators, and sources, they will vary in quality. In particular there may be better modern translations available [for instance for the works of Bede, Froissart, or Joinville.] More modern translations offered with copy permission by modern translators have not been checked, and in some cases could not be, by the compiler of these pages. All the texts are, it seems, suitable for class purposes, but check printed material for any intended publication usage. Caveat emptor!



USAGE: This Sourcebook is specifically designed for teachers to use in teaching. There are several ways that this might be done:-

By pointing students to this web site.

By downloading the documents, and printing/Xeroxing them for distribution in course packets or as class handouts.

By creating syllabi and course outlines at local websites with links to the documents here.

[Please DO NOT download and incorporate the texts permanently into your local network websites. The files are updated and corrected: multiple versions on the web makes this difficult to do.]

All such projects are specifically allowed, permitted, and encouraged. Not all the documents here are out of copyright, and I claim copyright on the the specific electronic form, modernized versions of texts and any notes (this is not to prevent you using the material freely, merely to prevent others using it commercially).What is asked is that reference to the source of the material is included, and that no commercial use be made of the material. If you feel a need to pay up, do so by contributing texts you have made available in e-text form.



ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: N

ow out of copyright sources for documents include: