Research guides: History Research Guide: History (Sex and Gender in Early Modern Europe)

Researching Sex and Gender in Early Modern Europe

Whether you are working on a research paper, a historiographical paper, a digital project, or other project work, the boxes on this page will help you discover both primary and secondary sources relating to your topic. However, if you are not finding what you need, please let me know. I'm committed to helping you do the best research possible.

-- Mike Chee, History Librarian

Interlibrary loan of print books is difficult at this time but ...

... you can try. Submit a request using this form.
If another library's licence allows sharing, then staff can obtain short term access to an electronic version.

Three search tips

1. Use shortcuts. Typically you can use

the asterisk * at the end of a word stem to retrieve more results. For example, arrest* finds arrest, arrests, arrested.
quotation marks around phrases retrieves records with that exact string of words.
geographical and date limits to narrow or broaden your results.

2. Build search strings

widow* AND "early modern" AND england
widow* AND rights AND "early modern" AND german*

3. Use terms that will expand (or narrow) your search

synonyms, antonyms
specialized vocabulary used by scholars
subject headings assigned by cataloguers to records
alternate/older spelling variations that have changed overtime. For example:
use v for u; u for v; j for i or y; i for j or y; y for i or j; w for vv or uu; s for f
- dictionaries can help with this:
  - English: Oxford English Dictionary
  - German: Deutsches Wörterbuch.
  - Polish: Elektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII I XVIII wieku
  - for others check the page: The OED and its cousins.

Terminology tracking sheet

Databases that track secondary sources

Atla Religion Database with AtlaSerials
Indexes journals, essays in multi-author works, and book reviews in the areas of religion and theology.
Coverage: 1949 - present
Bibliography of British and Irish History
Indexes historical scholarship relating to the British Isles, the British Empire, and the Commonwealth. Time periods range from 55 BC.
Coverage: 1901 - present
HeinOnline
Articles on law and legal history, court judgments, tribunal decisions, statutes and regulations from Canadian, U.S. and UK jurisdictions.
Coverage: varies
Historical Abstracts
Articles, books, and dissertations on world history from 1450 to the present (excluding the United States and Canada).
Coverage: 1955 - present
Note: A limited number of users may access this database simultaneously; if you are unable to connect, please try later.
History of Science Technology and Medicine
Journal articles, conference proceedings, books, book reviews, and dissertations in the history of science, technology, and medicine and related historical fields.
Coverage: 1975 - present
ITER
Indexes articles, books, reviews, catalogues, and conference proceedings about the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400-1700).
Coverage: 1945 - present
Iter, meaning 'a journey' or 'a path' in Latin, is a non-profit research project with partners in Toronto (the headquarters), New York City, and Tempe, Arizona. The goal of Iter is to increase access to all published materials pertaining to the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400-1700) through the creation of online bibliographic databases. Iter has been made available through the Ontario Scholars Portal collection of databases. The Journals database is an electronic bibliography of interdisciplinary journal literature pertaining to the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Citations for articles, bibliographies, catalogues, abstracts and discographies are included. To date, the full runs of 518 scholarly journal titles, published since 1853, have been indexed. Journals and essay collections indexed Subject access to selected materials pertaining to the Renaissance (1300-1700), published since 1990, is available via Library of Congress Subject Headings
Oxford Bibliographies
Annotated bibliographies in the social sciences and humanities.
Coverage: varies
We only get the collections that are listed at the top of the Oxford Bibliographies page: Atlantic History, Classics, Medieval Studies, Philosophy, and Renaissance.

Primary source collections via the Library

ARTstor
Collection of images of architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative art, design, and various forms of visual culture. Artstor's high-quality collections and key functionality are now on JSTOR.
Coverage: prehistoric - present
ARTstor's software tools allow the viewing and analyzing of images through features such as zooming and panning, saving groups of images online for personal or shared uses, and creating and delivering both online and offline presentations.
Burney - 17th and 18th Century Newspaper Collection
The newspapers and news pamphlets gathered by the Reverend Charles Burney. Represents the largest collection of 17th and 18th century English news media.
Coverage: 17th and 18th Century
The collection contains 700+ bound volumes of newspaper and news pamphlets that were published mostly in London. The collection also includes English provincial, Irish and Scottish papers, the American colonies, Europe and India.
Defining Gender, 1450-1910
British and European primary source material. Themes include: Conduct and Politeness, Domesticity and the Family, Consumption and Leisure, Education and Sensibility, and The Body.
Coverage: 1450 - 1910

Early English Books Online EEBO
Literary and historical works 1474-1700.

From: "A discourse against unequal marriages ...," by Samuel Bufford. 1696.

Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)
English and other language books, pamphlets, broadsides and other ephemera published in the United Kingdom and the Americas.
Coverage: 1701 - 1820
Included are significant collections of women writers, collections on the French Revolution, numerous 18th century editions of the works of Shakespeare, and multiple editions of other works of literature.

EuroDocs
Choose a country, choose a time period.
European History Primary Sources
via Department of History and Civilisation at the European University Institute.
Europeana
Search Europe's galleries, libraries, archives and museums. Find books and manuscripts, photos and paintings, television and film, sculpture and crafts, diaries and maps, ...
German History in Documents and Images
via the German Historical Institute, Washington, D.C.

HeinOnline
Articles on law and legal history, court judgments, tribunal decisions, statutes and regulations from Canadian, U.S. and UK jurisdictions.
Coverage: varies

Internet Women's History History Sourcebook
Themes include: great women, oppression, the structure of women's lives, women's agency, and feminism.
London Lives
1690-1800
Retrieve records from the courts, hospitals, churches relating to poverty, crime, illness, and social conditions.
Old Bailey
Proceedings of London's criminal court, 1674-1913

Perdita Manuscripts
These manuscripts were written or compiled by women in the British Isles. Find transcriptions and images of all manner of writing from account book entries, diaries, essays, hymns, and more
Coverage: 16th - 17th centuries

Primary Sources: European/Worldwide
Via the UWLibrary's History Research guide. Use the top tabs to explore by document type. Check that the date ranges match the time period you need.

Build a bibliography