LibGuides: EN 316: Home

Experiment with synonyms
Use asterisks to search for multiple word-forms at once: Poet* = Poet, Poetry, Poetic, Poets
Use quotation marks to search for a phrase: "Marie de France"
Try searching the CBB catalog for Companion or Handbook and your keyword. Like this: Companion Chaucer.

Companions can be very helpful in getting oriented to a new area of study.

To Request Books from Bates, Bowdoin, or Colby Storage

Click where the arrow points to request. Fill in the numerals only of the barcode on the back of your Colby ID.

Click here for 1-minute videos on how to search CBBcat, search WorldCat, submit ILL requests, etc.

Research Strategies

For background information, look in:

Oxford Classical Dictionary - For succinct information on classical figures, literature, and history
Brill's New Pauly - For more detailed information on topics from antiquity
Credo - For background information of any kind
Literary Reference Center
Oxford English Dictionary For early uses of words and their various senses
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Continue your research using terminology and facts learned from the background information to search for articles in:

JSTOR - A collection of scholarly journals, many embargoed for the most current 5 years.
Iter - Citations for secondary sources on the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, 400-1700. Search Article Title in OneSearch or Journal / Book Title in CBBcat. If not found, go to My ILLiad Account.
International Medieval Bibliography - Multidisciplinary bibliography of Europe, North Africa, and the Near East, 300-1500. Search citations as for Iter.
Philosopher's Index - Citations and abstracts from hundreds of journals on philosophy and related interdisciplinary fields, 1940 to present
Literature Resource Center - Includes "Overviews" of works

Articles in academic journals reflect current scholarly debate

Look for a sidebar in databases that will allow you to limit searches by date, type

of source, language, etc.

Explore digitized primary sources in:

Medieval Manuscripts Online
ArtStor - images of paintings and other art, searchable by keyword, period, artist, place Use Advanced Search!
Index of Medieval Art - Princeton University's index of art -- primarily from the medieval era -- presenting Christian iconography as well as Jewish, Islamic, and nonreligious subjects

Investigate the notes and bibliographies of every good source you find for leads to more. For a quick video on how to look up and request articles you find cited, click here.

Think about what sorts of publications the information you need might be published in.

Biographical? Try encyclopedia articles or book-biographies.
Primary sources? Look for letters, government documents, and artworks.
Literary analyses of an author? Search in Iter or International Medieval Bibliography for articles, in catalogs for books.