Medieval Poets
Beowulf
The British Library created “Electronic Beowulf,” digital images of the single 11th Century manuscript of this first great English literary masterpiece, and put the whole thing online for a brief time -- but now it’s only available on CD-ROM.
The British Library created “Electronic Beowulf,” digital images of the single 11th Century manuscript of this first great English literary masterpiece, and put the whole thing online for a brief time -- but now it’s only available on CD-ROM.
Giovanni Boccaccio
A chronology of Boccaccio’s life & works from Brown University’s Decameron Web, which also offers the entire text of the Decameron, his prose masterpiece, in English & in Italian.
A chronology of Boccaccio’s life & works from Brown University’s Decameron Web, which also offers the entire text of the Decameron, his prose masterpiece, in English & in Italian.
Geoffrey Chaucer
Generally revered as the first great poet of the English language, Chaucer has stymied generations of students intimidated by his 14th century Middle English -- the trick is to read it aloud.
Generally revered as the first great poet of the English language, Chaucer has stymied generations of students intimidated by his 14th century Middle English -- the trick is to read it aloud.
Geoffrey Chaucer
Harvard’s Chaucer site offers glossed texts & a great library of source materials, collected for their courses but available to everybody on the Net.
Harvard’s Chaucer site offers glossed texts & a great library of source materials, collected for their courses but available to everybody on the Net.
Geoffrey Chaucer
Librarius has this chronology of Chaucer’s life in historical context & an edition of the Canterbury Tales annotated with a hyperlinked glossary.
Librarius has this chronology of Chaucer’s life in historical context & an edition of the Canterbury Tales annotated with a hyperlinked glossary.
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
You can find the text of the Canterbury Tales in the University of Virginia Library’s Middle English etext collection.
You can find the text of the Canterbury Tales in the University of Virginia Library’s Middle English etext collection.
Other works by Chaucer
Berkeley's Online Medieval & Classical Library has The Parliament of Fowles, The Book of the Duchesse, The House of Fame, The Legend of Good Women & Troilus and Criseyde.
Berkeley's Online Medieval & Classical Library has The Parliament of Fowles, The Book of the Duchesse, The House of Fame, The Legend of Good Women & Troilus and Criseyde.
Corpus of Middle English Prose & Verse
“Perle, pleasaunte to prynces paye / To clanly clos in golde so clere,” begins one of our fave Medieval poems, The Pearl. Or, how about the alliterative Morte D’Arthure? This is a rich, rich site, but the University of Michigan Library has restricted access so that the texts are no longer freely available on the Net -- boo-hoo....
“Perle, pleasaunte to prynces paye / To clanly clos in golde so clere,” begins one of our fave Medieval poems, The Pearl. Or, how about the alliterative Morte D’Arthure? This is a rich, rich site, but the University of Michigan Library has restricted access so that the texts are no longer freely available on the Net -- boo-hoo....
Dante Alighieri
The library at Columbia University’s Digital Dante site includes The Divine Comedy in its original Italian & two English translations, plus others of Dante’s works, books he would have read, scholarly works & student papers on Dante.
The library at Columbia University’s Digital Dante site includes The Divine Comedy in its original Italian & two English translations, plus others of Dante’s works, books he would have read, scholarly works & student papers on Dante.
Dante’s Inferno
Deborah Parker’s The World of Dante jazzes up the text of the Inferno with tags for searching & lots of illustrations from Gustave Doré & others, as well as a 3D VRML visualization of hell.
Deborah Parker’s The World of Dante jazzes up the text of the Inferno with tags for searching & lots of illustrations from Gustave Doré & others, as well as a 3D VRML visualization of hell.
Dante’s Clickable Inferno
Carthage College’s English department offers a selection of Cantos from the Inferno in Dante's Italian or Allen Mandelbaum’s, Robert Pinsky’s, or John Ciardi’s English translations, or any two of these side-by-side, with hyperlinked notes -- worth hours of wandering! See, for instance, Canto V with Pinsky’s & Dante’s lines paired, or Canto XXXIII, comparing Pinsky’s & Ciardi’s translations.
Carthage College’s English department offers a selection of Cantos from the Inferno in Dante's Italian or Allen Mandelbaum’s, Robert Pinsky’s, or John Ciardi’s English translations, or any two of these side-by-side, with hyperlinked notes -- worth hours of wandering! See, for instance, Canto V with Pinsky’s & Dante’s lines paired, or Canto XXXIII, comparing Pinsky’s & Ciardi’s translations.
Dante's Purgatorio
W.S. Merwin's translation of Canto XXXI of the Purgatorio premieres in Issue 7 of The Cortland Review, with a RealAudio reading by Robert Pinsky.
W.S. Merwin's translation of Canto XXXI of the Purgatorio premieres in Issue 7 of The Cortland Review, with a RealAudio reading by Robert Pinsky.
William Langland
The text of Langland’s great work, Piers Plowman, is on the Net at the University of Virginia Electronic Text Center & the Humanities Text Initiative’s Corpus of Middle English Prose & Verse. Translations into Modern English are at the Harvard Chaucer Project site.
The text of Langland’s great work, Piers Plowman, is on the Net at the University of Virginia Electronic Text Center & the Humanities Text Initiative’s Corpus of Middle English Prose & Verse. Translations into Modern English are at the Harvard Chaucer Project site.
William Langland
Christopher Ball’s BritLit site has this introductory essay about the famous medieval poem, Piers Plowman, & what little is known of the life of its attributed author, Langland.
Christopher Ball’s BritLit site has this introductory essay about the famous medieval poem, Piers Plowman, & what little is known of the life of its attributed author, Langland.
Luminarium Middle English Anthology
Anniina Jokinen's labor of love is a beautiful multimedia collection of photos, introductory essays, texts and critical resources covering Chaucer, Sir Gawain & the Green Knight, Langland, anonymous Medieval lyrics & more. The very best place to start your study of medieval literature on the Net.
Anniina Jokinen's labor of love is a beautiful multimedia collection of photos, introductory essays, texts and critical resources covering Chaucer, Sir Gawain & the Green Knight, Langland, anonymous Medieval lyrics & more. The very best place to start your study of medieval literature on the Net.
Medieval Sourcebook
Paul Halsall's extensive online Sourcebook offers such hard-to-find resources as the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales in parallel text, Chaucer's Middle English lined up beside a modern translation.
Paul Halsall's extensive online Sourcebook offers such hard-to-find resources as the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales in parallel text, Chaucer's Middle English lined up beside a modern translation.
Middle English Song
Orient yourself in Medieval studies at Christopher Ball's BritLit site with Charles Grosvenor Osgood's articles on Middle English song & new meters in Middle English poetry.
Orient yourself in Medieval studies at Christopher Ball's BritLit site with Charles Grosvenor Osgood's articles on Middle English song & new meters in Middle English poetry.
The Pearl Poet
Paul Deane’s Forgotten Ground Regained, “a treasury of alliterative & accentual poetry” both classic & new, offers its editor’s own translation of the Pearl Poet’s greatest work, Sir Gawain & the Green Knight.
Paul Deane’s Forgotten Ground Regained, “a treasury of alliterative & accentual poetry” both classic & new, offers its editor’s own translation of the Pearl Poet’s greatest work, Sir Gawain & the Green Knight.
Francesco Petrarch
For the 700th anniversary of his birth in 2004, the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale put together a wonderful online Petrarch exhibition, curated by Dennis Dutschke, which includes a bio, bibliography, & gallery of manuscripts & books from the collection.
For the 700th anniversary of his birth in 2004, the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale put together a wonderful online Petrarch exhibition, curated by Dennis Dutschke, which includes a bio, bibliography, & gallery of manuscripts & books from the collection.
Francesco Petrarch
Seth Jerchower’s Petrarchan Grotto links to a biography of the Italian poet from The Catholic Encyclopedia & has a number of texts & English translations.
Seth Jerchower’s Petrarchan Grotto links to a biography of the Italian poet from The Catholic Encyclopedia & has a number of texts & English translations.