We have trial access to Medieval Family Life and Medieval Travel Writing databases from Adam Matthew until 29th December 2015. Both databases have been added to our e-resources trials webpage. Update 2016 – we have purchased Medieval Family Life
Medieval Family Life – The Paston, Cely, Plumpton, Stonor and Armburgh Papers. This resource contains full colour images of the original medieval manuscripts that comprise these family letter collections along with full text searchable transcripts from the printed editions, where they are available. The original images and the transcriptions can be viewed side by side. Along with the letter collections themselves there are many additional features useful for teaching and research. These include: A chronology, a visual sources gallery, an interactive map, a glossary, family trees and links to other scholarly free to access digital resources useful for researching the medieval period.
Medieval Travel Writing – this project provides direct access to a widely scattered collection of original medieval manuscripts that describe travel – real and imaginary – in the Middle Ages.
These sources tell us much about the attitudes and preconceptions of people across Europe in the medieval period, shedding light on issues of race, economics, trade, militarism, politics, literature and science. They will be welcomed by scholars in both literature and history as well as by French and German studies departments.
The project combines:
- Multiple manuscript sources, detailing the journeys of famous travellers from Marco Polo to John Capgrave, and the stories of legendary figures such as Prester John and Sir John Mandeville
- Translations and supporting materials (all of which are fully searchable)
- Maps showing the routes of the travellers
- Introductory essays by leading scholars
Feedback and further info
We are interested to know what you think of these databases as your comments influence purchase decisions so please do fill out our feedback form.
A list of all trials currently available to University of Edinburgh staff and students can be found on our trials webpage.