The structure of this section of the Sourcebook is as follows. You can browse
through the entire list, or jump directly to the part that interests you by selecting the
underlined links.
Main Page
will take you back to Sourcebook main page.
Selected Sources will take you to
the index of selected and excerpted medieval sources.
Saints' Lives will take you to the page
on hagiography. Note - full text saints' lives are not listed in this "Full Text
Sources" page.
Search the Sourcebook will enable
searches of the full texts of all the source texts at Fordham, at ORB, or selected
ancient, late antique, and medieval text databases.
Full Text Sources for Medieval History
Note: It may also be worth checking out the slightly mistitled Early Church Documents page of the ECOLE Project. It contains a purely alphabetical listing of historical texts
(many of them here) up until circa 1300. It is especially good for varied links to various
works of each of the Church Fathers.
For texts in the Ante-Nicene, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers series, see below
NOTE: The texts at this site here are public domain English translations
from the Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers series for the first Seven ecumenical councils and
from H.J. Schroeder, Disciplinary Decrees of the General Councils, (St. Louis: B.
Herder, 1937) [US Copyright expired - confirmed by TAN books, current owner of B. Herder's
list]. These are not necessarily the best available sources for the various council texts,
although they are quite serviceable, and the notes in the NPNF series are very useful.
More recent editions and translations should be consulted for serious academic publication
purposes. I have prepared a Guide to Documentary Sources
for Catholic Teaching which lists, in some detail, what I take to be the current
standard editions.
See also
Ecumenical Councils - a useful, if denominationally partisan, article from the Catholic Encyclopedia.
NOTE: Only the first three councils would be accepted as ecumenical by the so-called
"monophysite" churches, e.g. the Coptic and Armenian Orthodox Churches.
Fourth Ecumenical: Chalcedon, 451. Canons and
commentary on the Council of Chalcedon from Volume XIV of Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers.
NOTE: The following councils, although some of them had the support and participation
of Orthodox bishops at the time [e.g. Constantinople IV, Lyons II, Florence] are generally
not regarded as "ecumenical" by Eastern Orthodox or Anglican churches.
There are also online etexts of council decrees from Norman Tanner, ed., Decrees
of the Ecumenical Councils, (London: Sheed and Ward; Washington. D.C: Georgetown
University Press. 1990).
I have made these off-site links (at http://www.ewtn.com)
available, but note that there is no indication that copy permission has been
obtained. EWTN is a very conservative Catholic web site, but it does have a lot of files
[over 9000].
WEB EWTN.
[At EWTN]. EWTN is a conservative Catholic web site, but it has a huge file library of
over 9000 items, with good search facilities. Many are useless files from modern journals,
but there are also very extensive selections from the fathers and medieval writers.
WEB FATHERS OF THE CHURCH [At New Advent] New
Advent has taken the entire Father so the Church series, as at the Wheaton College site,
and broken the files down to the size of individual works.
The following works by various fathers are in rough chronological order. Most are
off site links to documents or indexes.
Tatian:
The Diatessaron, [At
New Advent].
A combination of the four Gospels into one account. It was the dominant text used in some
parts of the Eastern Church for many centuries.
St. Jerome: De Viris Illustribus [At New Advent][From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series]
St. Jerome's short entries in On Illustrious Men concern both pagan and Christian
illustrius men of the period from Christ until his own time. He gives biographical
information which is clearly distinct from hagiographic genres.
Eusebius Pamphlius of Caesarea (260-340): Church History. [At New Advent]
[From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series] [Covers church history from
beginning to Constantine I]
Socrates Scholasticus (c.379-440): Ecclesiastical History [At New
Advent] [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series] [Covers 305-446]
Sozomen Hermias (5th Century): Ecclesiastical
History [At New Advent] [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series][Covers 324-440 CE]
Sulpitius Severus (c.363-c.420): Sacred
History [At New Advent] [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series]
Theodoret of Cyrrhus (d.c. 457): Ecclesiastical
History [At CCEL] [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series]
[Covers 322-427 CE]
P'awstos Buzandac'i'. History
of the Armenians, 5th century, full text, trans. Robert Bedrosian, [At Arm. Hist.
Resources]
Ghazar P'arbec'i'. History of the Armenians,
5th century, full text, trans. Robert Bedrosian, At [Arm. Hist. Resources]
Sebeos: History, 7th century, full text,
trans. Robert Bedrosian, [At Arm. Hist. Resources] [this is the first of a series of
files].
John Mamikonean: History of Taron, 10th
century, full text, trans. Robert Bedrosian, [At Arm. Hist. Resources] [this is the first
of a series of files].
Aristakes Lastivertc'i': History,
11th-century, full text, trans. Robert Bedrosian, [At Arm. Hist. Resources]
The Georgian Chronicle, 12-13th century,
full text, trans. Robert Bedrosian, [At Arm. Hist. Resources][this is the first of a
series of files].
Kirakos Gandzakets'i': History of the Armenians,
13th-century, full text, trans. Robert Bedrosian, [At Arm. Hist. Resources] [this is the
first of a series of files].
T'ovma Metsobets'i': History of Tamerlane and
His Successors , full text, trans. Robert Bedrosian, [At Arm. Hist. Resources] [this
is the first of a series of files].
Michael Psellus (1018-after 1078): Chronographia,
full text.
The history of the Roman Empire 976-1078 by one of the liveliest writers of the middle
ages.
Anna Comnena (1093-after 1148): The Alexiad.
full text
The account of her father, the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I, by Princess Anna
Comnena is perhaps the most important historical work by a woman writer written before the
modern period.
Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents [At DO]
A Complete Translation of the Surviving Founder's Typika and Testaments. Edited by John
Thomas and Angela Constantinides Hero with the assistance of Giles Constable.
The texts are all in PDF form [for which you need the free Acrobat reader,
downloadable from the index page]. Although it is possible to read these within the
browser with Acrobat as a plugin, that often seems to destabilize a system. I recommend
downloading the files onto a hard disk, and then opening them with Acrobat running
independantly of the Browser.
Bar Sauma (c. 1278-1313): The Monk of Kublai Khan, Emperor of
China; or The History of the Life and Travels of Rabban Sawma, Envoy and
Plenipotentiary of the Mongol Khans to the Kings of Europe and Markos who as Yahbh-Allaha
III Became Patriarch of the Nestorian Church. Translated by E.A. Wallis Budge,
London: The Religious Track Society, 1928. [At Traveling to Jerusalem/U Sth
Colorado]
The Qu'ran,
trans. Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din Al-Hilali, [At The Noble Qu'ran]. This is an English
translation endorsed by the Saudi government. Includes Arabic commentary by Ibn Katheer,
Tabari, and Qurtubi. See also Catholic
Encyclopedia:
KORAN
The Qu'ran, translated
Maulvi Sher Ali, Full Text [At Al Islam]
Omar Khayyam (d. 1123 CE): The
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (first edition), trans. by Edward FitzGerald (page images [At
Virginia]
Omar Khayyam: The Rubiayat, c. 1120 CE, trans.
Edward Fitgerald.
Omar Khayyam (d. 1123 CE): The Rubaiyat, c.
1120
This is not the famous translation by Edward Fitgerald, but a more complete version by
E. H. Whinfield.
Sa'di (1184-1292 CE): Gulistan,
1258 CE, Full text, in short sections. [At MIT]
Sa'di (1184-1292 CE):
Gulistan, 1258 CE,
Full text of Persian prose/poetry text with significant homoerotic content
Sa'di (1184-1292): The Gulistan, c. 1256 CE.
another translation.
Sheikh Nefzaoui: The Perfumed
Garden, 11th century CE/c. A.H 925, translated by Sir Richard Burton , in chapter
files, full text, [At Bibliomania]
A guide to sex by a Tunisian writer of the 16th century. Does not discuss male
homosexuality, but does discuss Lesbianism (in chap. 20).
Alpamysh, a Central Asian, Turkic epic, [At
ukc.ac.uk] and here [At Kansas]
Full text of H.B. Paksoy, ALPAMYSH Central Asian Identity under Russian Rule (Hartford, Connecticut: AACAR, 1989), including translation
Nasir-i-Khusraw (1046-1052): Book
of Travels (Safarnama) [At Traveling to Jerusalem/U Sth Colorado]
Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents [At DO]
A Complete Translation of the Surviving Founder's Typika and Testaments. Edited by John
Thomas and Angela Constantinides Hero with the assistance of Giles Constable.
The texts are all in PDF form [for which you need the free Acrobat reader,
downloadable from the index page]. Although it is possible to read these within the
browser with Acrobat as a plugin, that often seems to destabilize a system. I recommend
downloading the files onto a hard disk, and then opening them with Acrobat running
independantly of the Browser.
Tacitus: Germania. full text, trans. J. Church
and W. J. Brodribb.
Tacitus: Germania, trans. Thomas
Gordon, full text, Also available in Latin.
Eusebius Pamphlius of Caesarea (260-340): Church History [At New Advent
site] [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series] [Covers church history from
beginning to Constantine I]
Socrates Scholasticus (c.379-440): Ecclesiastical History [At New
Advent site] [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series] [Covers 305-446 CE]
Sozomen Hermias (5th Century): Ecclesiastical
History [At New Advent site] [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series][Covers 324-440 CE]
Sulpitius Severus: Sacred
History [At New Advent site] [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series]
Theodoret of Cyrrhus (d.c.457): Ecclesiastical
History [At New Advent site] [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series]
[Covers 322-427 CE]
Michael Psellus (1018-after 1078): Chronographia,
full text.
The history of the Roman Empire 976-1078 by one of the liveliest writers of the middle
ages.
Guillame de Tyr (William of Tyre) (c.1130- 1190): Historia rerum in partibus
transmarinis gestarum [History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea], full text of Old French
version (13th century) available 9/3/98
Books 1-9 the Old French translation from the
edition of Paulin.
WEB Arthurian texts, for
those not collected here, see the Camelot Project, and especially
the Camelot Project Author
Menu for beautifully presented, introduced, and annotated texts of:
The Alliterative Morte Arthure
Annales Cambriae (Annals of Wales), Arthurian References in (c. 960-980)
The Avowyng of Arthur
The Awntyrs off Arthur
The Carle of Carlisle
Culwch and Olwen (translated by Lady Charlotte Guest as Kilhwch and Olwen)
The Greene Knight
The Jeaste of Sir Gawain
King Arthur and King Cornwall
The Knightly Tale of Gologras and Gawain
Lancelot of the Laik
The Marriage of Sir Gawain
Sir Gawain and the Carle of Carlisle
Sir Perceval of Galles
Sir Tristrem
Stanzaic Morte Arthur
The Turke and Sir Gawain ((c) TEAMS)
The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle
A selection of post medieval Arthurian literature [Tennyson, Emerson, Swinbourne and so
on.]
Beowulf, c. 1100
[At Lone Star] modern verse translation by Davidn Breeden.
Beowulf is the oldest surviving epic in English literature, and it survives in only one
manuscript. This copy survived both the wholesale destruction of religious artifacts
during the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII and a disastrous fire which
destroyed the library of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (1571-1631). The poem still bears the
scars of the fire, visible at the upper left corner of the manuscript.
Geoffrey Chaucer (d. 1400): The Canterbury
Tales [Modernized version] Skip Knox, of Boise State University, Idaho - collection of
modernized tales.
Geoffrey Chaucer (d. 1400):
The Canterbury
Tales [Modernized version] The entire Canterbury Tales is now available on line
at Virginia Tech via HTML. [These are all ascii files. The site is no longer up at Virginia Tech,
so all of the links below will take you to the Internet Archive version, which may load slowly.]
Nicholas Cusanus: Where
is he that is born king of the Jews?, 1456, a new translation of Ubi est qui natus
est rex Iudaeorum?" by Clyde Lee Miller [At Internet Archive, from Stonybrook],
Richard de Bury (1281-1345): The Love of
Books (The Philobiblon), trans. E.C.Thomas 1888, [At Project Gutenberg]
Richard de Bury was an English bishop and politician. He was also a book lover. This text
was completed on the 24th of January, 1345, as he lay ill. The treatise contains his rules
for the library of the new College at Oxford--Durham College (where Trinity College now
stands).
Sepher
Yetzirah, translated from the Hebrew by Wm. Wynn Westcott, [At Wolf's Den]
The Sepher Yetzirah is one of the most famous of the ancient Qabalistic texts. It was
first put into writing around 200 C.E. Westcott's Translation was first published in 1887.
Ancrene Wisse, In Middle
English, with some Latin, [At Google Books]. A collection of rules and advice for English nuns.
Guibert of Nogent (1053-1124): Autobiography, full
text, trans. C.C. Swinton Bland
Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153): The Love of God [At
CCEL].
Conrad of Saxony: Mirror of
the Blessed Virgin Mary, often ascribed to St. Bonaventure, but now considered the
work of Conrad by many scholars., [At Intratext]
Jordan of Saxony : Handbook on the Origins of the Order
of Preachers, a machine translation of Livret sur les orignes
de l'Ordre des Prêcheurs d'après la traduction du frère Marie-Humbert Vicaire,
o.p., parue dans l'ouvrage Saint Dominique et ses frères. Évangile ou croisade, coll.
Chrétiens de tous les temps, n° 19, (Paris : éditions du Cerf, 1967).
Erasmus (ca. 1469-1536): In Praise
of Folly, trans. John Wilson, 1688 [Full text] [At University of the South] [More
Erasmus texts are at the Erasmus Text Project.
Travel and Pilgrimage Texts
Benjamin of Tudela (1160-1173): The Itinerary of Benjamin of
Tudela Critical Text, Translation and Commentary by Marcus Nathan Adler. [At Traveling
to Jerusalem/U Sth Colorado]
Anonymous: Guide-book
to Palestine. (c. 1350). Translated by. J. H. Barnard. London: Palestine
Pilgrims’ Text Society, 1894. [At Traveling to Jerusalem/U Sth Colorado]
John Poloner (1422): Description
of the Holy Land (c. 1421), based on the translation of Aubrey Stewart from the Tobler
text. London, 1894. [At Traveling to Jerusalem/U Sth Colorado]
Felix Fabri (1480 & 1483-84): The Book of the Wanderings of Felix
Fabri (Circa 1480-1483 A.D.) trans. Aubrey Stewart. 2 vols. London: Palestine
Pilgrims' Text Society, 1896 [At Traveling to Jerusalem/U Sth Colorado]
Bracton: De Legibus Et
Consuetudinibus Angliæ (On the Laws and Customs of England), in English and Latin,
attributed to Henry of Bratton, (c.1210-1268), Full Text, [At Harvard]
Baldesar Castiglione (1478-1529): The Book of the Courtier,
translated by Sir Thomas Hoby (1561), full text [At Oregon]
[The English is too archaic for classroom use.]
"On The Jews and Their Lies", a treatise by Martin Luther (translated by Martin H. Bertram, Luther's Works, Vol. 47: The Christian In Society IV, ed. by Franklin Sherman (c) 1971
Fortress Press, pages 121-306) has been removed because of copyright objections. We will attempt
to provide a new translation of the German text at some point, but meanwhile welcome a translation
any scholar wishes to supply.
Note The Medieval Sourcebook aims to present classroom sized texts. But a
major resource for many scholars are the translations in the Early Church Fathers
Series. The entire 38 volume set is now available on line. Some of it is nicely marked
up, other texts are available only in large lumps of text. The Christian Classics Ethereal Library at Wheaton College is
to site with the texts. The Library has made the texts available in both text, zipped,
and, where possible, HTML form. The following information and links have been lifted
directly from the Ethereal Library site
The Early Church Fathers is a 38-volume collection of writings from the first 800 years
of the Church. This collection is divided into three series, the Ante-Nicene, Nicene, and
Post-Nicene Fathers.
These files have the majority of the text printed in the actual books -- however, some
portions have been excluded, such as the prefaces written by the editors, footnotes,
indices, etc. In fact, Volume IX of the Ante-Nicene Series was omitted because it consists
entirely of index information. --Adapted from the introduction to the Electronic Bible Society CD-ROM Volume 1.
These volumes are in the process of being converted to multi-file HTML webs. The
volumes that have not yet been converted are available as large text files of 1.5 to 3.5
MB each. Because of this and because the text paragraphs are not wrapped, you will
probably have to download them to your system and read them with a word processor. A
windows-based word processor is preferable because some special characters from the
Windows character set are used. Some of the volumes that have been converted to HTML webs
can be downloaded as a single zip file via FTP -- look for a file called
html-web.zip.
You will soon be able to get the Early Church Fathers commercially on a CD-ROM from Logos Research, in a much improved form. Look for major
improvements here, as well, in the next couple of years.
These files are also available, usefully, in plain text form, split up into the
various works, and with many typos eliminated at EWTN.
EWTN is a conservative Catholic web site and has removed, as "too Protestant"
all the notes and introductory matter from the files. In some cases this may have been justified, in other cases good scholarship was discarded because it offended against some
modern standard of orthodoxy. Although EWTN has stuck on a claim to copyright to the
"electronic form" of these texts, they are in fact all public domain in the US.
Volume I -- The Apostolic Fathers
with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus: Clement, Mathetes, Polycarp, Ignatius, Barnabas, Papias,
Justin Martyr, Irenaeus.
Volume II -- Fathers of the Second Century: Hermas, Tatian, Theophilus,
Athenagoras, Clement of Alexandria.
Volume III -- Latin Christianity:
Its Founder Tertullian: I. Apologetic, II. Anti-Marcion, III. Ethical.
Volume IV -- Fathers of the Third Century: Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Commodianus, Origen.
Volume V -- Fathers of the Third Century: Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian,
Appendix: Baptism of Heretics, Anonymous Treatise Against the Heretic Novatian, Anonymous
Treatise on Rebaptism.
Volume VI -- Fathers of the Third Century: Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the
Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Archelaus, Alexander of Lycopolis,
Peter of Alexandria, Alexander of Alexandria, Methodius, Arnobius.
Volume VII -- Fathers of the Third and Fourth Centuries: Lactantius, Dionysius of
Rome, Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, The Homily
Ascribed to Clement, Early Liturgies.
Volume VIII -- Fathers of the Third and Fourth Centuries: Testaments of the Twelve
Patriarchs, Theodotus: Excerpts, Epistles Concerning Virginity, Pseudo-Clementine
Literature, Apocrypha of the New Testament, Decretals Memoire of Edessa and Ancient Syriac
Documentary remains of the Second and Third Centuries.
Volume IX -- Original supplement to the American Edition: Gospel of Peter,
Diatessaron of Tatian, Apocalypse of Peter, Visio Pauli, Apocalypses of the Virgin and of
Sedrach, Testament of Abraham, Acts of Xanthippe and Polyxena, Narrative of Zosimus,
Apology of Aeristedes, Epistles of Clement (complete), Origen's Commentaries on John and
Matthew (partial).
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series I
Philip Schaff, editor
St. Augustine Volumes:
Volume I -- Prolegomena;
Life and Works; Confessions; Letters
Volume XI -- Homilies on the
Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle to the Romans
Volume XII -- Homilies on the
Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians
Volume XIII -- Homilies on
Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon
Volume XIV -- Homilies on the
Gospel of St. John and the Epistle to the Hebrews
NICENE AND POST-NICENE FATHERS, Series II
Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, editors
Volume I -- Eusebius; Church
History; Life of Constantine the Great; Oration in Praise of Constantine
Volume II -- Socrates Scholasticus: Ecclesiastical History; Sozomenus: Ecclesiastical History
Volume III -- Theodoret:
Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, Letters; Jerome and Gennadius: Illustrious Men; Rufinus
and Jerome; Life of Rufinus; Apology vs. Rufinus
