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HIST 398-003: Florence, Cradle of the Renaissance: Primary Sources

Guides

Finding Primary Sources

This local guide provides assistance in pursuing research using primary sources, especially those we have available here in several formats: paper, republication, microfilm, and electronic. The database below helps identifies primary source repositories around the world.

ArchiveGrid

ArchiveGrid serves as a single point of entry that provides online access to descriptions of archival collections held by thousands of libraries, museums, historical societies, and archives worldwide.

Texts

You can sometimes find primary sources, or reproductions of them, by searching the online catalog using such terms as personal narratives, diaries, journals, autobiography, letters, records, papers, sources, interviews, early works, archives, or archival sources. For example:

Texts--Digital Collections

Early English Books Online (EEBO)
1475-1700. Find early Italian books printed in England or translated into English.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: 1475-1700
Language: Primarily English
Early European Books Online
Covers the origins of Western culture beginning with the earliest print resources from continental Europe to 1700. Built on the pattern of Early English Books Online (EEBO), this project is Europe-wide and will trace the history of printing in Europe from its origins to 1700.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: 1450 - 1700
Language: Various
Art Theorists of the Italian Renaissance
Collection of treatises on art and architecture printed and published between 1470 and 1775
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: 1470-1775
Language: English, Italian
Medieval Travel Writing
Provides direct access to a widely scattered collection of original medieval manuscripts that describe travel - real and imaginary - in the Middle Ages. Included are translations and supporting materials (all of which are fully searchable); maps showing the routes of the travelers; introductory essays by leading scholars.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Making of the Modern World (Parts I, II)
Part I presents more than 66,000 titles from the period 1450-1914 and is the most comprehensive collection in existence for the study of early economic, political, business and social history and for researching the literature of economics from this period. The collection contains books, serials, pamphlets, government publications and more.

Part II provides a glimpse into the second half of the 19th century and the global events and crises that occurred. Topics covered by this collection include: banking history, economic disaster and recovery, socialism and social movements, war and the military, law and government and industry and trade.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Language: English, French, German, Portuguese, Scandinavian, Italian, Spanish

The following free websites might also be useful.