A BIG OLD LIST OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY & LITERATURE RESOURCES.
y’all knew this was coming. the resources I especially recommend are bolded, and I’ll probably update this periodically.
HISTORY, SOCIETY, & POLITICS.
the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (modern English translation). begun in the late 9th century and added to until the 12th.
clear map of the Norman Conquest.
English medieval history from the BBC.
Terry Jones’s “Medieval Lives” documentary series. yes, the one from Monty Python.
Introduction to Old English. (with exercises; click on the “aerobics” link on the left; you may need to make an account.)
massive compilation of O.E. resources. I mean it, it’s massive.
Middle English dictionary. note: when searching dictionaries, use the first few letters of the word followed by an asterisk - spelling wasn’t standardized! so if you’re looking up the word tonnen, search ton*.
Reading Middle English. a really thorough group of lessons on basic (Chaucerian) language, pronunciation, and analysis.
basic/general Middle English pronunciation guide.
scholars reading Chaucer aloud.
History of English podcast.
Discarding Images (facebook). hilarious/beautiful manuscript marginalia.
the Getty’s open content program. (they also have a tumblr). you’ll have to do some searching but they’ve got a ton of gorgeous manuscript pages.
the Book of Kells online.
all of Mallory Ortberg’s posts about the two monks.
POC in medieval art history.
medieval drama. includes resources for mystery cycles, art, and music.
LITERATURE & SCHOLARSHIP.
TEAMS manuscript editions. scholarly editions of medieval texts with great footnotes, accompanied by extremely well-researched introductions.
In the Medieval Middle. this is one of my absolute favorite medievalist blogs - it’s run by a group of (well-known) scholars, but is based more on their personal interests than any single overarching theme.
the British Library’s Medieval Manuscripts blog. a fabulously eclectic (and really active!) selection taken from the BL’s holdings.
the Wellcome Library’s blog on early medicine. does what it says on the tin.
MedievalBooks.nl. Erik Kwakkel’s blog - provides some well-curated blog posts about books, binding, etc.
Andreas Capellanus’s De Amore. a guide to courtly love - important to know if you’re going to be reading anything medieval, especially romances.
basic overview by Judy Shoaf.
big list of Arthurian legend academic resources. includes some really good bibliographies.
the Camelot Project. makes the above list look small.
MANUSCRIPTS & MANUSCRIPT RESOURCES.
Electronic Beowulf / Beowulf with facing-page translations.
Making Parchment. a short animation by the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.
Making Manuscripts. a really lovely series of videos (20 mins total) from the Getty that show the actual ms production process.
Late Medieval English Scribes. a database of scribal hands with examples of letterforms.
Sexy Codicology. collaborative blog dealing with paleography & codicology.
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