LibGuides: Religion (General): Primary Sources

General

Early American Imprints (1639-1819)
An online collection reproducing all known books, pamphlets, and broadsides published in America from 1639 to 1819.
Early English Books Online (c. 1475-1700)
All known books published in England from the beginning of printing to 1700.

Eighteenth Century Collections Online
ECCO aims to deliver a digital copy of every significant English and foreign-language title printed in Great Britain during the Eighteenth Century, along with thousands of important works from the Americas, including literature, memoirs, monographs on all subjects, directories, Bibles, legal materials, manuals, sheet music, sermons, advertisements, etc.
HathiTrust Digital Library
HathiTrust is a large-scale collaborative repository with over 10 million volumes including content digitized via the Google Books project, Internet Archive, and by local libraries. Public domain content is full-text; non-public domain content (post-1923) is for full-text searching only. Since Tufts is a member, those with a Tufts login can download the pdf of pre-1923 materials and can build a personal collection. To login select Collections, then select login from the upper right; choose Tufts University and login using your Tufts username and password.

Internet Archive
Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, and much more.
Archive Finder
An index to archival collections, which often contain the letters, diaries, and other private documents of scholars and philosophers.

Buddhism

Internet Sacred Text Archive: Buddhism
Full text of modern retellings of the Gospel of Buddha, texts from Southern Buddhism, the Jataka, Northern Budhhism, and miscelleous texts from other eras.
The Long Discourses of the Buddha: a translation of the Dīgha Nikāya
This book offers a complete translation of the Digha Nikaya, the long discourses of the Buddha, one of the major collections of texts in the Pali Canon, the authorized scriptures of Theravada Buddhism. Available in print: Tisch Library Book Stacks BQ1292.E53 W35 1995
The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: a new translation of the Majjhima Nikaya
This collection--among the oldest records of the historical Buddha's original teachings--consists of 152 suttas or discourses of middle length, distinguished as such from the longer and shorter suttas of the other collections. Available in print: Tisch Library Book Stacks BQ1312.E5 N36 1995
The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya
The third of the four great collections in the Sutta Pitaka of the Pali Canon. The Samyutta Nikaya consists of fifty-six chapters, each governed by a unifying theme that binds together the Buddha's suttas or discourses. Available in print: Tisch Library Book Stacks BQ1332.B63 E5 2000b
Aṅguttara Nikāya: Numerical Discourses of the Buddha
Brings together teachings of the Buddha ranging from basic ethical observances recommended to the busy man or woman of the world, to the more rigorous instructions on mental training prescribed for the monks and nuns. The Anguttara Nikaya is a part of the Pali Canon, the authorized recension of the Buddha's Word for followers of Theravada Buddhism, the form of Buddhism prevailing in the Buddhist countries of southern Asia. Available in print: Tisch Library Book Stacks BQ1342.E5 T572 1999

Christianity

The Bible in English
20 different versions of the English Bible from the 10th to the 20th century, including 12 full Bibles, 5 New Testament texts, 2 versions of the Gospels only, and William Tyndale's translations of the Pentateuch, Jonah and the New Testament.
Patrologia Latina
The works of the Church Fathers from Tertullian in 200 AD to the death of Pope Innocent III in 1216.
Patrologiae Graecae
The most comprehensive record of Greek patristic material in existence, comprising digital images of more than 160 book volumes.
Digital Vatican Library
The Digital Vatican Library provides free access to the Vatican Library’s digitized collections: manuscripts, incunabula, archival materials and inventories as well as graphic materials, coins and medals, and some printed materials (special projects).
Library of Latin Texts
A remarkably complete collection of Latin texts from antiquity to Vatican II, with very strong coverage of medieval and Renaissance Latin as well as the traditional Classical authors. Lots of Church-related material here.
Internet Sacred Text Archive: Christianity
Includes public domain texts of the Scriptures, Gnosticism, Early Christian, Eastern Churches, Medieval, Renaissance and Reformation, as well as miscellaneous texts from the modern era.
Christian Classics Ethereal Library
Includes writings by the Church Fathers and other classic Christian writings.

Acta Sanctorum
A collection of documents examining the lives of saints.

Dead Sea Scrolls
This site offers a brief introduction and guide to resources on the Dead Sea Scrolls, starting with a short essay on the Dead Sea Scrolls discovery and associated controversies, intended to help orient readers new to the subject, which is augmented by a descriptive catalog of the best currently available Dead Sea Scrolls Internet Resources.

Confucianism

Internet Sacred Text Archive: Confucianism
This site includes the key texts of Confucianism, the traditional state religion of feudal China. These are some of the few Chinese texts which survived a disastrous book-burning in 213 B.C.E. by the Emperor Ch'in Shih Huang.
Siku Quanshu 四庫全書
The most comprehensive collection of Chinese literature from antiquity through the 18th century, this resource includes 3,460 works and more than 36,000 volumes. It covers a wide range of subjects including the classics, history, literature, philosophy, geography, politics, governmental rules and regulations, economics, society, astronomy, science, technology, medicine, and more.
The Original Analects: Sayings of Confucius and his Successors
This new translation presents the Analects in a revolutionary new format that, for the first time in any language, distinguishes the original words of the Master from the later sayings of his disciples and their followers, enabling readers to experience China's most influential philosophical work in its true historical, social, and political context. Available in print: Tisch Library Book Stacks: PL2478 .L33 1998
Ta Hsüeh and Chung Yung
Ta Hsueh and Chung Yung are two of the central texts of early Chinese thought, encapsulating Confucian philosophy on the Way of moral cultivation and spiritual attainment. Traditionally held to be the work of two of Confucius's closest disciples, the books were compiled in their present form late in the second or first century BCE and have occupied a central position in educational and political life for almost a thousand years throughout the East Asian cultural sphere. Available in print: Tisch Library Book Stacks PL2478 .M75 2003
Confucianism: From China to the World
Tisch Library research guide that includes a large number of primary sources on Confucianism.

Hinduism

Internet Sacred Text Archive: Hinduism
Full text of the Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, Epics, Mahabharata, Ramayana, Bhagavad Gita, Vedanta, later texts, and additional primary texts from other eras.
Hymns from the Rigveda
1922 translation that includes a selection of 40 hymns from the Rigveda in verse.
Indian idylls, from the Sanskrit of the Mahâbhârata
Svcavitrî ; or, Love and death -- Nala and Damayanti -- The enchanted lake -- The saint's temptation -- The birth of death -- The night of slaughter -- The great journey -- The entry into heaven.
Upanisads
The Upaniṣads are the concluding portions of the Vedas and the basis for the Vedānta philosophy, “a system in which human speculation seems to have reached its very acme,” according to Max Müller. Available in print: Tisch Library Book Stacks BL1124.52 .E5 1996.
The Bhagavad Gita: A New Translation, Contexts, Criticism
The Bhagavad Gita, the Song of the Lord, is an ancient Hindu scripture about virtue, presented as a dialogue between Krishna, an incarnation of God, and the warrior Arjuna on the eve of a great battle over succession to the throne. This new verse translation of the classic Sanskrit text combines the skills of leading Hinduist Gavin Flood with the stylistic verve of award-winning poet and translator Charles Martin. Available in print: Tisch Library Book Stacks BL1138.62 .E5 2015
The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki: an epic of ancient India. Volume I, Bālakāṇḍa
Ramayana is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the other being the Mahābhārata. Along with the Mahābhārata, it forms the Hindu Itihasa. This link will take you to Volume 1. Use JumboSearch to find all of the additional volumes of this epic.
Dharmasastra
Dharmaśāstra (Sanskrit: धर्मशास्त्र) is a genre of Sanskrit texts and refers to the treatises (shastras) of Hinduism on dharma.

Islam

Internet Sacred Text Archive: Islam
Full text of public-domain editions of the Qur'an, Hadith, Sufi Texts, and miscelleous texts from other eras up to the modern era. Note: Some Muslims do not believe that any text other than the actual Arabic text of the Quran (even a transliteration or an Arabic text with vowels) can strictly be called 'the Qur'an'. This is because the Arabic text is considered canonical and there can be no other versions of it. The phrase 'the meaning of the Quran' is typically used to describe texts which would otherwise be described as 'translations'. Please be aware of this issue where this site presents or refers to a 'translation,' 'translator' or 'transliteration' of the Quran.
Harvard Open Collections Program: Islamic Heritage Project
For the IHP, Harvard’s Open Collections Program (OCP) has produced digital copies of over 280 manuscripts, 275 printed texts, and 50 maps, totaling over 156,000 pages. Users can search or browse online materials that date from the 10th to the 20th centuries CE.
Al-Islam
Comprehensive digital Islamic library (Shi'a).
IslamiCity
Comprehensive digital Islamic library (Sunni).

Quranic Studies Online
Qur'anic Studies Online includes, among other resources, (1) Encyclopaedia of the Qur'ān Online, an encyclopaedic dictionary of qur'ānic terms, concepts, personalities, place names, cultural history and exegesis extended with essays on the most important themes and subjects within qur'ānic studies; (2) Early Western Korans Online, a collection of 62 korans printed in Arabic type in several Western European cities between 1537 and 1857;(3) Qurʼān Concordance, a unique finding aid which allows users to identify and localize text fragments, or even snippets, of the Qurʼān; (4) and Dictionary of Qurʼānic Usage, a fully-researched and contextualised Arabic-English dictionary of Qur'anic usage, compiled in accordance with modern lexicographical methods by scholars who have a lifelong immersion in Qur'anic Studies.

Judaism

Center for Jewish History Digital Collections
Large collection of material from the Center for Jewish History and its partner organizations: the American Jewish Historical Society, the American Sephardi Federation, the Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum, and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Features more than 25000 digital objects, including rare books, children’s books, personal letters, official decrees, maps, memoirs, posters, photographs, scrapbooks, oral histories and more.
Internet Sacred Text Archive: Judaism
Full text of public-domain editions of the Talmud, Tanakh, Kabbalah, and miscelleous texts from other eras, including Flavius Josephus, Maimonides; other documents from the modern era.
Internetarchiv Judischer Periodika
Browse or search more than 100 German-Jewish magazines and journals from the 18th to mid-20th centuries. Results, in German, are displayed as full-page images.
Middle East, 1916-2001: a Documentary Record
Government documents, transcripts of speeches by government leaders and UN resolutions. Arranged by year.
Southwest Jewish Archives
Features materials on Jewish pioneers, railroad builders, ranchers, and merchants; synagogues and religious objects; Crypto-Jews; finding aids for the archive's collections; and transcripts of over 20 oral histories.
Spielberg Digital Yiddish Library
Includes 10,000 Yiddish books, digitized as a project of the National Yiddish Book Center and the Internet Archive. Browse by turning pages or download as PDF files.
Babylonian Talmud
Digitized Parchment Manuscript, France (?) 1342 (Bavarian State Library).
Sefaria
3,000 years of Jewish texts

Shinto

Internet Sacred Text Archive: Shinto
This section has scriptures of the Shinto religion, as well as other texts that relate to the spirituality of Japan, which combines Shinto, Buddhism, Confucianism, Animism, and other themes. There is also a collection of Ainu Texts.
Shinto Shrines - A Guide to the Sacred Sites of Japan's Ancient Religion
A fully illustrated guide to 57 major Shinto shrines throughout Japan, many of which have been designated World Heritage Sites or National Treasures. In each comprehensive entry, the authors highlight important spiritual and physical features of the individual shrines (architecture, design, and art), associated festivals, and enshrined gods.
Sanjō engi
Written by Tanaka Yoritsune, a popular explication text of the Three Standards of Instruction, from 1873.