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Medieval Studies—Biography

Authors & texts | Church & Papacy | General sources | National biography | Personal names | Saints' lives | Scholars | Women

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The following can help establish various name-forms, spellings, and pseudonyms:

Three recent catalogs in the form of library authority lists:

General

Consult Caenegem (1997) Introduction aux sources de l'histoire medievale, "Prosopography" in Powell (ed.) Medieval Studies: An Introduction, 2nd ed., and also the various general and subject encyclopedias and the collections listed under National Biographical collections.

World biographical information system Stanford only (aka WBIS online). Compiles biographical articles from printed reference works published from the 16th to the 20th century. N.B. Search index only; facsimile texts not subscribed; try Google Books.

Church

Europa Sacra OnlineStanford only draws its initial information from: C. Eubel, Hierarchia catholica medii aevi... ab anno 1198 (1st and 2nd edns. Münster, 1898ff), and P.B. Gams, Series episcoporum ecclesiae catholicae (Regensburg, 1873-86).

Papacy

church | saints' lives | national biography | scholars

Saints lives | hagiography

Introduction

Three and a half centuries have elasped since Fr. John Bollandus (1596-1665), after whom the publishers of the Acta Sanctorum Stanford only are called Bollandists, commenced the task of editing the Acta.  The first two volumes, those of January, were issued in 1643. Since then the it has developed into a series of 68 folio volumes containing the lives of saints celebrated from Jan. 1 to November 10. Three editions of the work have been published: 1) the original edition and only one recognized by the Bollandists, 2) the Venice edition, and 3) the Paris edition. Since 1882 the Acta Sanctorum...quotquot toto orbe coluntur Stanford only has been supplemented by the periodical Analecta Bollandiana,  appearing two times a year. It presents results of research, text editions, critical studies and bibliographical information. A third publication, the Subsidia hagiographica, consists of works too large for the Analecta, particularly text editions. (Brepols catalog.)

Intenet Sources:

Abbreviations:

Bibliography: See Berlioz, Identifier sources et citations, Chap.11, pp.199-200 and the Bollandist's list of reference books. A brief guide to hagiography from before 1000 AD available in English translation and A brief guide to scholarship concerning western hagiography in the early middle ages were once found at http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~tfhead/ (Thomas Head's web page), but appear to be MIA.

Standard print sources:

Calendar: On-line Calendar of Saints Days, maintained by Glenn Gunhouse.

Latin hymns

Dictionaries: Bollandist's list, sorted by language. There are a number of compendia:

There is a clutch of English saints lives which are essentially popularizing digests:

Of more interest:

  • Baring-Gould. 1907-1913. The lives of the British saints. 4 v. For saints of Wales and Cornwall and for Irish saints recognized in Britain and Brittany. BX4659.G7B3.
  • Delaney. 1982. Dictionary of saints. BX4655.8 Stacks. Useful mostly for the inclusion of both the Roman calendar and Byzantine calendar showing feast days, and a list of saints' symbols in art.
  • Doyé. 1929. Heilige und Selige. 2 v. BX4655.8.D6 Lane Rm. Has an appendix of German saints. Interestingly it also includes a number of color plates showing the habit or vestments of different church orders.
  • Farmer. 2003. The Oxford dictionary of saints. 5th ed. Inludes references, bibliography; covers saints recognized in England. BR1710.F34.
  • King. 1990. The calendar of holy women: a bibliography. 6th rev. ed. Z7961.R45 K56.
  • Torsy. 1959. Lexikon der deutschen Heiligen. BX4659.G3.L4.

Emblems & Iconography: Milburn (1990) Saints and their emblems in English churches, 3rd ed. (BV150.M54, Info Center) has an appendix "An Alphabetical List of Emblems and a Note on Vestments." Another popular work in Reference is Tasker (1993) Encyclopedia of medieval church art (N7943.A1T37, Info Center). It covers representations, in sculpture and stained glass, of Old and New Testament themes; Mary; The Godhead; Saints; The Church; Creatures natural & mythical; Everyday scenes; Stories & proverbial sayings. With its bibliography, it is a handy compendium. However, scholarly works on iconography such as Mâle's L'Art religieux de la fin du Moyen Age en France and Kuenstle's Ikonographie der christlichen Kunst are found in the Art Library. See Kaske's Medieval christian literary imagery: a guide to interpretation, pp.100-101 for other sources.

Universal/National Biographical Collections/Shorter Works

The older universal biographical collections are being replaced by large national ones, many of which are still in different stages of incompletion. The major universal biographies are Michaud (1843-1865) Biographie universelle, 45 v. (CT143.B53, Info Center); and Hoeffer (1855-1866) Nouvelle biographie générale, 46 v. (CT143.H5, Info Center).

The new national efforts (along with some shorter works) are:

Belgium

  • Biographie nationale. 1866-1986. CT1163.A2, Info Center. The quality of the older volumes leaves something to be desired. The supplementary volumes include both new persons and new articles on persons dealt with previously.

Byzantium

France

Germany and Austria

Great Britain

See also the "Biography and Genealogy" section in Graves, A Bibliography of English history to 1485, and the new Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . The Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England (PASE) is a database comprising a persons that includes, in principle, every recorded individual who lived in, or was closely connected with, Anglo-Saxon England from 597 to 1042.

Ireland

Italy

Luxemburg

Netherlands

  • Biografisch woordenboek der Nederlanden, 21 v., 1852-1879, DJ103.A3.
  • Nieuw Nederlandsch biographisch woordenboek, 10 v., 1911-1937, CT1143.M7.
  • Biografisch woordenboek van Nederland, redactiecommissie I. Schoffer ... (et al.), 1979-, CT1143.B56

Scandinavia

Spain and Portugal

Switzerland

Rome, Late Empire; Byzantium

Students and Scholars

Historigraphy & Historians

Authors and texts | Indexes, bibliographies and collections | Personal names

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Personal Names

Names, Personal--Latin | Names, Personal--English

Last modified: February 11, 2008
     
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