Primary sources

Primary sources will provide you with the raw material to analyse and interpret the topic you are researching. Listed on this page are the primary source e-resources that we subscribe to. You can find many more on the MEMSLib pages.

  • English Historical Documents: over 5,500 indexed and fully searchable primary documents from 500-1914
  • The Cecil Papers: collection of early-modern historical documents from the reigns of Elizabethan I and James I/VI; the papers span the period 1520-1668, from the birth of William Cecil, Lord Burghley, to the death of William Cecil, 2nd Earl of Salisbury.
  • Parliament rolls of medieval England: full text and translation of the meetings of the English parliament from Edward I to Henry VII, 1272 to 1504
  • State Papers Online 1509-1714: Access to all four parts:
    • Part I: The Tudors (Henry VIII to Elizabeth I), 1509-1603: State Papers Domestic
    • Part II: The Tudors, 1509-1603: State Papers Foreign, Scotland, Borders,Ireland and Registers of the Privy Council
    • Part III: The Stuarts and Commonwealth, James I – Anne I, 1603-1714: State Papers Domestic
    • Part III: The Stuarts and Commonwealth, James I – Anne I, 1603-1714: State Papers Domestic
  • Acta Sanctorum: complete text of the collection of documents examining the lives of saints published by the Société des Bollandistes between 1643-1940.
  • Patrologia Latina(from Chadwyck-Healey): full-text database of the works of the Church Fathers from Tertullian in 200 AD to the death of Pope Innocent III in 1216
  • The Library of Latin Texts (LLT) is the world’s leading database for Latin texts. It gathers Latin texts of all genres and all periods. The texts have been taken from the Corpus Christianorum series and from many other leading editions.
  • New Oxford Shakespeare (Oxford Scholarly Editions): presents an entirely new consideration of all of Shakespeare’s works, edited from first principles from the base-texts themselves, and drawing on the latest textual and theatrical scholarship. Click Sign in via your Institution, chose University of Kent and log in with your Kent IT Account username and password.
  • Records of Early English Drama (REED): brings together evidence of dramatic, ceremonial and minstrel activity in Great Britain before 1642.
    • REED Patrons & Performances: use this tool to explore touring professional performers in England outside London before 1642 – their patrons, playing places and travel routes.
    • REED Pre-Publication: get early access to the work of REED scholars in draft form, before it’s professionally edited and published.
  • Bayeux Tapestry Digital Edition: full images of the tapestry, plus commentary, maps, and genealogies
  • Early European Books: printed sources to 1700: traces the history of printing in Europe from its origins through to the close of the 17th century, offering full-colour facsimile images of rare and hard-to-access printed sources
  • Historical Texts: cross-search over 400,000 historical books from:
    • Early English Books Online (EEBO)
    • Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)
    • 19th Century books from the British Library collection
  • Manchester Medieval Sources Online(from Manchester Hive): full text of 39 e-books on medieval topics, plus other resources and introductory and explanatory material, intended to bring alive the reality of life in the medieval world through these first hand accounts, many translated into English for the first time
  • Orlando: Women’s writing in the British Isles from 612 BC – authors’ lives, writing careers, etc.
  • Perdita Manuscripts: Women Writers, 1500-1700: produced with the Perdita Project based at the University of Warwick and Nottingham Trent University with the aim of identifying and describing all manner of writing by early modern women from diaries to works of drama. They cover works of poetry, religious writing, autobiographical material, cookery and medical recipes, and accounts.
  • Cambridge Companions to Literature and Classics: our subscription includes online Companions to: Chaucer, Christopher Marlowe, Spenser, Renaissance humanism, English literature 1500-1600, English renaissance drama, Medieval English theatre, Medieval romance, Old English literature and Medieval women’s writing
  • Defining Gender, 1450-1910(from Adam Matthew): British source materials for the study of gender, leisure and consumer culture