Links
Studies of Manuscript Documents

Eurodocs This link site was once mainly confined to transcripts of various primary source documents from Europe, but now includes a number of sites showing manuscript facsimiles. A major portal for the study of medieval documentary material.

Documents Online This provides online access to digitised public records at the National Archives, London. Access to the index is free, but there is a fee to download a digital image of a document. Documents available include a large number of medieval wills from the Prerogative Court at Canterbury. This site also includes the new Domesday Book section, which gives access to every page of the two volumes of Domesday Book. You get a modern translation of every page downloaded. If you look up documents in the online catalogue, it is also possible to order digital downloads of selected documents for a fee.

English Medieval Legal Documents AD 600 - AD 1535: A Compilation of Published Sources This site aims to provide bibliographical material for published works, as well as links to online resources including major text and image collections, for English medieval legal documents. There is some introductory explanatory material in the various sections, and links to Wikipedia entries (which I presume they have vetted thoroughly).

Anglo-Saxon Charters A mammoth collaborative project between the British Academy and the Royal Historical Society is resulting in the publication of all known Anglo-Saxon charters. The web site gives details of the progress of the work, as well as making some material freely available, including lists of charters, texts, translations, some images of documents, reference works and working aids.

The Sala Family Archives A survey and description of a collection of medieval and early modern Catalonian charters in Georgetown University and other libraries, with some manuscript images.

Durham Cathedral Muniments Images of a large number of medieval documents, with partial transcripts and notes for some examples. The images were originally selected for a class in palaeography and diplomatic. There is an associated online exhibition of Medieval Seals, with a large number of images and commentary, from Durham University Library.

Yorkshire Archaeological Society - Manuscripts This shows images of a selection of manuscript documents, one with a transcription, from the archives of the society.

Bibliographics This is a very strange web site which gives no indication of who it belongs to. They obviously did a weekend course on Java at some stage, but would have been well advised to complete a longer course. It has two sections which illustrate manuscripts. Four English Land Grants provides images of three documents (one was AWAL when I saw it), supposedly with a line by line transcription, but this didn't work on my browser (IE6). There is also a section on Manuscript Fragments found in bookbindings.

ARCHIM - Archives Nationales Images de Documents A French language site with database interface which shows images and gives catalogue information, including the accessibility of the original document, for manuscripts in the French National Archives.

Scriptmani Manuscrits A French language site, but with some English translations, by an enthusiastic manuscript collector who has put his treasures on the web for all to enjoy. There are also transcriptions of some documents.

Parchemins: Quercy Médiéval Photographs of documents on papyrus and parchment relating to the history of Quercy, derived from the ARCHIM database.

Codice Diplomatico digitale della Lombardia medievale (secoli VIII - XII) From the University of Pavia, this Italian language site is a work in progress, aiming to provide an online archive of documents from Lombardic Italy. Catalogue entries, transcriptions, commentary and bibliographies are available, but we await the promised digital facsimiles.

Monasterium Subtitled Virtuelles Urkundenarchiv mitteleuropäischer Klöster und Bistumer, this is a catalogue with images, transcripts and notes, of medieval charters from monasteries in Lower Austria and Vienna. It is still under construction, with the intention to eventually cover 20,000 charters from central Europe.

Castilian Documents Six late medieval Spanish documents.

Catalonian Manuscripts Digital facsimiles with description and background information in a user friendly database format. Some of the examples are documents.

Ilardi Microfilm Collection Digitised images of 15th century Italian diplomatic documents taken from microfilm. There are no descriptive notes or transcripts and the quality of the images is a bit gruesome, but it is primary source material on the web.

National Library of Wales: Digital Mirror A selection of treasures from the library, with images and some basic commentary, including a set of monastic charters.

Vatican Library "Secret Archives" There are 3 manuscript images shown here; not quite so secret any more. This appears to be an old site which has been superseded, but not replaced by Vatican Secret Archives, which includes a virtual tour of the building and its frescoes and gives a detailed look at some documents and seals. It also has an excellent section on The Diplomatics of Papal Documents which helps the understanding of the structure and classification of these difficult texts.

Historical Archives Kotor From the medieval town of Kotor in Montenegro, click on the CD-ROM link to see images of a range of historical documents, as well as pictures of the historical monuments of the area. The project seems to have stalled in 1999.

Lopez Martin Collection of Maps and Manuscripts This site displays documents related to Iberian history, mainly from the 16th century. It appears to be very much under construction.

Fine Rolls Henry III Publication in both print and electronic format of the Fine Rolls of Henry III from 1216 to 1248, with further publication to 1272 anticipated. There is free access to digital facsimiles of the rolls, although I had some trouble with the interface, but my software and connection is currently getting a bit antiquated. This is the provision of genuine research material to your desktop.

The Anglo-American Legal Tradition From the O'Quinn Law Library at the University of Houston, this site contains complete digitised images of English plea rolls from the National Archives in London. To find a specific document you would have to use the online catalogue of the National Archives to identify it. The scans seem to be of variable quality. There are brief essays on the history of the English legal system, some paleography assistance in the form of examples with transcripts and a section on the structure of the plea roll. Hefty research material for the legal or historical specialist.

Archivos Medievales - Region de Murcia Digital This Spanish language site provides access to digitised documents in the public archives of the Murcia region of Spain from 1245 to 1504. It is necessary to download a proprietory plugin viewer.

 

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This site is created and maintained by Dr Dianne Tillotson, freelance researcher and compulsive multimedia and web author. Comments are welcome. Material on this web site is copyright, but some parts more so than others. Please check here for copyright status and usage before you start making free with it. This page last modified 3/8/2008.