What content is available in Bloomsbury Medieval Studies?

Bloomsbury Medieval studies is the digital home of Bloomsbury Medieval Studies Core Collection, Medieval Clothing and Textiles, Medieval Life and Culture, and the Medieval World Reference Library, allowing institutions to curate a bespoke content collection that will best suit the needs of their users.

• Bloomsbury Medieval Studies: Core Collection offers cross-searchable access to over 200 eBooks from Arc Humanities Press, Amsterdam University Press, Bloomsbury and IB Tauris. It also includes a growing collection of articles from the new and exclusive major reference work, The Encyclopedia of the Global Middle Ages. High-resolution scans of Medieval incunabula, manuscripts and contemporary maps have been licensed from Senate House Library and the British Library; 1000 museum object images from The Metropolitan Museum of Art are displayed with contextualizing descriptions; and an interactive timeline provides a visual representation of the period.
• Medieval Clothing and Textiles provides digital access to the entire backlist of Boydell and Brewer’s Medieval Clothing and Textiles series. At launch the collection includes 17 Annuals, with a new Annual added every year.
• Medieval Life and Culture is a vibrant collection of 38 eBooks from the ABC-Clio list, dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of daily life during the Middle Ages. This rich and diverse collection provides a unique window into the everyday lives of the Medieval world from a truly global perspective.
• Medieval World Reference Library is a collection of 14 major reference works from the market leading ABC-Clio list. With a focus on the global history of the middle ages, the collection provides students and instructors with accessible, student friendly reference works, from historical encyclopedias to biographical dictionaries, covering a rich breadth of subject areas.
• • Medieval Literature Aloud: Chaucer Studio Audio Collection brings together a unique collection of 79 recordings of key works of Medieval literature, read and performed by leading experts, combined with scholarly eBooks to support students and researchers improve their pronunciation and understanding of the original cultural contexts within which these works of literature would have been performed and experienced.

Find out more about the content

Is there content included in Bloomsbury Medieval Studies that is not available online anywhere else?

The growing Encyclopedia of the Global Middle Ages is available exclusively through the Bloomsbury Medieval Studies: Core Collection and is not available elsewhere. The incunabula and manuscripts from the Senate House Library have been digitized for the first time, exclusively for the Bloomsbury Medieval Studies: Core Collection. Medieval Clothing and Textiles is the only opportunity to purchase the entire series in a single, cross searchable online package. Annuals 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6 are exclusive to Bloomsbury Medieval Studies and are not available for purchase from any other sources at an institutional level. Medieval Life and Culture is the only online platform that provides access to the titles at an institutional level in one unified collection. The Medieval World Reference Library provides access to major reference works, from encyclopedias to dictionaries, covering the study of the global middle ages. The content included in the Medieval Literature Aloud: Chaucer Studio Audio Collection is digitally exclusive to Bloomsbury Medieval Studies. While the individual works are available for purchase to single users, this is the only way to purchase unlimited user access to the titles at an institutional level in one unified collection.

How global is the coverage in Bloomsbury Medieval Studies?

The Encyclopedia of the Global Middle Ages is being commissioned from a global and inclusive perspective. It includes overviews of the ‘Middle Ages’ based on specific regional areas (at launch, these Regional Overview articles include Medieval Japan, Mesoamerica and the Korean Kingdom of Silla) as well as thematic overviews of key concepts in a global context (at launch, these Thematic Overviews include queenship, intellectual discourse and Early Medieval migration). Case study articles provide deep dives into how these broader themes can be explored through specific, global examples (at launch, these Core Case Studies include Wu Zetian Tang Empress, Tamar of Georgia, Queenship in the Sultanate of Delhi and more).

The platform’s browse function offers the ability to explore by geographic area and the interactive timeline is divided into Africa, Americas and Oceania, Asia, Europe and the Middle East to provide users with an additional avenue for delving into content by region. The British Library licensed maps give users an opportunity to explore how contemporary cartographers understood the Medieval world and include representations of the Mediterranean coast, Constantinople, the Atlantic coast, the Western coast of Africa, the city of Rome and multiple world maps.

The eBooks on Bloomsbury Medieval Studies cover a wide variety of regions, with particularly strong coverage of Europe and the Middle East. Deepening the global coverage is a key priority for the resource as it grows and new content is added.

What time period is covered?

The content in Bloomsbury Medieval Studies covers a broad time period from the 4th to the 15th century.

Will the resource be updated?

Yes, new and revised content will be added to the Bloomsbury Medieval Studies: Core Collection twice a year. Updates will include new articles from the Encyclopedia of the Global Middle Ages, primary resource images from museums and collections, additional eBooks and a growing suite of primary source commentary articles and scholarly articles offering new perspectives on core topics in Medieval Studies. Medieval Clothing and Textiles will be updated with a new Annual every year. There are no updates currently planned for the Medieval Life and Culture collection, or Medieval Literature Aloud: Chaucer Studio Audio Collection.

Who is the resource for?

Bloomsbury Medieval Studies is an invaluable resource for students, researchers and instructors of Medieval Studies, History, Literature and related courses as wide-ranging as the History of Religion, Global History, Visual Culture, History of Art, Cultural History, Fashion and Textiles History and more.