Medieval Art, Architecture, and Visual Culture: Home

Professor Alice Isabella Sullivan

• Byzantium in Eastern European visual culture in the late Middle Ages
• "Space, Image, Light: Toward an Understanding of Moldavian Architecture in the Fifteenth Century." Gesta (Fort Tryon Park, N.Y.) 60, no. 1 (2021): 81-100.
• “Divine Assistance in Byzantium and Beyond – Defending Constantinople,” Medieval Warfare 10, no. 5 (2020): 46-49
• Prof. Alice Sullivan's monthly column for med.net.
• more

• Mapping Eastern Europe
• Sinai Archive
• Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online
• Mapping Gothic France
• Byzantium 1200

Digital Image sources

• ARTStor
• BiblioPhilly
• Medieval England and France, 700-1200
• Bodleian Library Manuscripts (University of Oxford)
• Digitized Manuscripts (British Library)
• Digital Texts at Tisch Library and on the Web
• The Digital Scriptorium
• Index of Medieval Art
• North of Byzantium
• Tisch Library Special Collections

Web Sites

• Treasures of Heaven
• "Relics and Reliquaries in Medieval Christianity" (A thematic essay, MET)
• Medieval and Renaissance Studies
• Medieval Resources Online - an annotated list
• Medieval Manuscripts Blog (the British Library)
• Hereford Mappamundi
• Andrew McCormick Maps and Prints
• The David Rumsey Map Collection Database
• Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources (DMNES).

(Illuminated) Manuscripts

• Illuminated Manuscripts in Boston Collections
• Morgan Library and Museum Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts List
• Beinecke Library Digital Collections, Yale University
• Goodspeed Manuscript Collection
• Manuscripts and Rare Books | The Walters Art Museum
• Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania
• Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text & Image | UPenn
• J. Paul Getty Museum Digitized Manuscripts

Medieval Blogs, Tweets, etc.

• “Medieval illuminated manuscripts”
• Medievalists.net
• Manuscript Road Trip

• Archnet.org
• Aga Khan Visual Archive (MIT)
• Discover Islamic Art
• Islamic Calligraphy (McGill)
• Miniatures from the Topkapi Museum (Istanbul)
• The Collections - Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah
• Islamic Heritage Project (Harvard)
• MIZAN Project

• Islamic Manuscripts Online
• Bodleian Library Manuscripts (Oxford)
• e.g., Medieval Islamic Views of the Cosmos" the Book of Curiosities

**New Acquisitions/subscriptions at Tisch Library:

• Medieval Family Life
• Medieval Travel Writing

Overviews, Recent Bibliographies and Review of Books

• A companion to medieval art: Romanesque and Gothic in Northern Europe
• The Routledge companion to medieval iconography
• Thematic Essays (MET)

• Medieval Studies (Annotated Bibliographies)
  • Decorative Arts
  • Dress
  • Illuminated manuscripts
  • Textiles
• Art History (Annotated Bibliographies)

• Dissertations and Theses (Check out the bibliographies of recent dissertations on a topic.)
• Dissertation Reviews (yet to be published, which "offer a glimpse of each discipline's immediate present")

 

• CAA Reviews (College Art Association)
• H-Net Reviews in the Humanities and Social Sciences (1994 - )
• New York Review of Books (1963 - )
• The Medieval Review

Tip: Questions to ask about review of books

• 1.

  You might consider such questions as: Does the reviewer agree or disagree with the book’s theses and approaches? Does the  reviewer provide new evidence not included in the book? What does  the reviewer see as the relevance of the book? What  questions not included in the book does the reviewer identify? Based on  this book review, what do you think are a few of the major questions or  methodologies being used in your chosen field?

  2.

  What's the next larger context? Aren't any (or many) books published on your topic? Try place your idea in the knowledge hierarchy. e.g., connect Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling with 16th-century Italian art, focusing on patronage in Rome during the Renaissance and Baroque periods; or, dealing with influential Italian artists through history, etc.?

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Journal Articles (subject databases)

1. All Subjects

• JSTOR
• Project Muse

A Few Notable Journals in the field

• • Convivium: exchanges and interactions in the arts of Medieval Europe, Byzantium, and the Mediterreanean.
  • Different Visions
  • Gesta
  • Peregrinations
  • Studies in Iconography (1993-2012)
  • (table of contents of latest issues)

2. Medieval Studies

• Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index
• International Medieval Bibliography (400-1500).
• Iter: Gateway to the Middle Ages & Renaissance (400 - 1700)

3.  Cross Search Art History and Related Subject Databases

• In EBSCOhost databases, you can select to search across the following databases, among others:
• Academic Search Premier
• America: History & Life
• Art & Architecture Source
• Communication & Mass Media Complete
• Film & Television Literature Index
• Historical Abstracts (World history and culture)
• History of Science, Technology and Medicine
• LGBTQ+ Source
• Women's Studies International

**Not in the EBSco collection is the Index Islamicus (islamic and Middle Eastern Studies database)

Tip: Search for Review of Books on A Topic

• 1. limit your search to Reviews or Book Reviews

  2. Use keywords such as "review", "current research".

 

Tip: "Literature Review"

• 	1. Start with State of the Research / Literature Review articles.
  	Reviews of recent books and other types of review articles in major journals in a discipline are likely to summarize the current state of research in an area.     e.g., Reviews in the latest issue of  Studies in Iconography (Vol. 16, 2015):

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   JumboSearch for Books     

Note: WorldWide Libraries (also known as WorldCat is still a better place to get a fuller picture of  books on a topic.)

**Internet Medieval History Sourcebook

Suggested keywords to use when searching for books:

 

Medieval Architecture

•  

  Medieval architecture Gothic architecture Liturgy and architecture Church architecture Cathedrals Monasteries Cistercian monasteries Cistercian architecture mausoleum Sepulchral monuments

 

Medieval Clothing and Textiles

•  

  Medieval Clothing and Dress. Medieval Costume Medieval Textile fabrics. Fashion history Costume history Clothing and dress history Textile fabrics history Dress accessories Clothing and dress in art. Clothing and dress in literature. fashion in art Textile fabrics in art. Clothing and dress -- Social aspects. Clothing and dress -- Symbolic aspects.

 

Medieval Relics and Reliquaries

•  

  Medieval relics and Reliquaries Christian saints Christian saints -- Cult Christian Saints In Art Christian hagiography Liturgy and art. Liturgy and architecture

 

Medieval Maps & Diagrams

•  

  Medieval Geography Medieval Maps World map manuscript Early maps Ancient Maps Maps in Art Maps in Literature History of Cartography Cartographers Geography in Art Geography in Literature Medieval astronomy Astrology in Art Medieval cosmology Cosmography Cosmology in Art Medieval medicine in art zodiac in art

 

Medieval Travel

•  

  Medieval travel Travelers' writings, European Travelers' Writings, English. Travelers' Writings, English -- Middle East.   Travelers' Writings, English -- Orient Travelers' Writings, English -- Turkey British -- Travel -- Middle East Travelers' Writings Travel writing Travelers -- Middle East. Travelers Europe East and West Travelers -- Great Britain.

 

Other Topics

•  

  Science & Technology Medieval Science History of Technology ( -- to 1500) Manuscripts Medieval Manuscripts, Medieval Illumination of books and manuscripts (objects)