Skip to Main Content

Medieval Studies

Overview of Medieval Studies

Medieval Studies is the term used to describe scholarly investigation into the history, religion/theology, philosophy, art, literature, music, and other aspects of culture of those living in Europe (East and West), around the Mediterranean, in North Africa, and in the territories of the Eastern Roman empire during the Middle Ages (a period from roughly 400 CE-1500 CE).

Medieval studies is an interdisciplinary endeavor. Related subjects include: Art History, Byzantine Studies, Classics, English Literature, French Language and Literature, History, Western Europe, Italian Language and Literature, Music, Philosophy, Theology and Religion.

Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

Dictionaries are most often collections of words in one or more specific languages, usually arranged in alphabetical order, providing information like word meanings, usage, etymology, and, when they contain more than one language, translations. Some dictionaries include information more commonly found in encyclopedias. Encyclopedias are collections of information on terms, figures, eras, locations also arranged alphabetically, and, alongside definitions of terms, they also include more in-depth general information on a topic. Encyclopedias can be general or subject-specific.

Guides, Handbooks and Finding Aids

Reference resources like Handbooks, Guides, and Manuals provide subject-specific, sometimes technical information to aid in understanding important aspects of the discipline or subject that they treat. Finding Aids are useful for finding information within libraries, archives, or specific collections. 

Biographies

Biography provides a description of a person's life,  detailing the basic facts like birth and death, education, family background, etc. but also portraying the individual subject's experience of those life events.