LibGuides: Medieval and Renaissance Studies: Finding Articles

Finding Articles

Step One: Finding your database

You have a research topic and now you need a relevant database to search. To do this just turn to one of the side boxes for lists of relevant databases. Remember - if one database isn't giving you the results you want, feel free to switch to another database.

Step Two: Finding online articles

There are three ways to find online articles:

Directly through a database, which will provide a link to online articles through the Library's Discover Full Text (Note: it's in a blue box).
Through one of the Library's online catalogs: U of I Collection or Easy Search.
Not all online journals can be found in a database or the online catalog. To find them, search the Library's Online Journals by title of the journal. Please note this site only lets you search for journals and not individual articles.

What if my article is not available online in full-text?

Step Three: Finding print articles

Not everything is available in electronic format. Keep your citation (name of journal, volume, and issue) handy. Now search the Library's online catalog for the location of the print journal.There are two ways to search the online catalog.

Through the new Primo Catalog.
Through the Easy Search.

Look to see which library holds the issue or volume that you need and jot down the location and call number. Now you need to visit a departmental library to make a photocopy. There are a number of scanners in the Library. Many are located in Room 200 and the Main Stacks.

What if the library doesn't have an article?

Step Four: Interlibrary Loan

If your article is not available in full-text online and it is not available in print, you can request the article through Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery. Make sure to choose "Request a photocopy" and fill out the entire form, including the source of the citation. This process typically takes 7-10 days, so plan ahead! Interlibrary Loan will most likely deliver your article as a .pdf file to your email address.

Article Indexes for Medieval Studies

Subject-specific databases are listed under in the topic sections.

Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index
Covers journal articles, book reviews, and essays in books about women, sexuality, and gender during the Middle Ages.

Brepolis Medieval and Early Modern Bibliographies This link opens in a new window
The Brepolis Medieval and Early Modern Bibliographies are multidisciplinary bibliographies of Europe, North Africa and the Near East (300-1500), founded in 1967 with the aim of providing a comprehensive, current bibliography of articles in journals and miscellany volumes (conference proceedings, essay collections or Festschriften) worldwide. The bibliographies comprise 365,000 articles, all of which are fully classified by date, subject and location, and provide full bibliographical records.
Iter: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance This link opens in a new window
Contains electronic resources for researchers in the study and teaching of the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400-1700). Enables users to access citations in journal, book, and reviews databases; provides online access to Paul Oskar Kristeller's Iter Italicum (a finding list of Renaissance humanistic manuscripts); provides access to the International Directory of Scholars (a comprehensive directory of contact information, and information on the research and teaching careers of scholars around the world). Subscription includes a membership to the Renaissance Society of America.
IBZ Online - International Bibliography of Periodical Literature This link opens in a new window
Universal index of periodical literature covering basic research from all fields of knowledge, and is particularly strong in the humanities and the social sciences. Over 11,500 periodicals are indexed by this multilingual database, now containing over 3.2 million records. It is international in scope, and indexes a significant proportion the the periodicals published on the European continent.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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Provides page images of back issues of the core scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and basic sciences from the earliest issues to within a few years of current publication. Users may browse by journal title or discipline, or may search the full-text or citations/abstracts. New issues of existing titles and new titles are added approximately on a weekly basis. The University of Illinois has access to the following JSTOR collections: Arts & Sciences I-XV, 19th Century British Pamphlets, Business IV, Global Plants, Hebrew Journals, Ireland, Life Sciences Collection, Lives of Literature, Security Studies, Struggles for Freedom - South Africa, Sustainability, and World Heritage Sites - Africa.
Mirabile: Digital Archive for Medieval Latin Culture This link opens in a new window
Mirabile is an online content aggregator of Medieval resources. It contains extensive databases of medieval studies resulting from collaboration between the Societ{grave}a Internazionale per lo Studio del Medioevo Latino (SISMEL) and the Fondazione Ezio Franceschini (FEF) and their journals published by SISMEL - Edizioni del Galluzzo.--Agostino Paravicini Bagliano, President, Societ{grave}a internazionale per lo studio del Medioevo latino.
Oxford Bibliographies Online This link opens in a new window
Offers peer-reviewed annotated bibliographies on specific topics in a growing range of subject areas. There are at least 50 specific topical bibliographies in each subject area. Each of these features an introduction to the topic. Bibliographies are browseable by subject area and keyword searchable. Contains a My OBO function that allows users to create personalized bibliographies of individual citations from different bibliographies.
Periodicals Archive Online This link opens in a new window
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Periodicals Archive Online is a major archive that makes the backfiles of scholarly periodicals in the arts, humanities and social sciences available electronically, providing access to the searchable full text of hundreds of titles. The database spans more than two centuries of content, 37 key subject areas, and multiple languages.

Regesta Imperii Akademie der Wissenschaften
The RI-Opac is a freely accessible database, covering all disciplines of medieval sciences for the European language sphere.