Research Guides @ Fordham: Irish Studies: Medieval & Early Modern Resources

Reference Sources & Overviews

Medieval Ireland [electronic resource] : An Encyclopedia by Seán Duffy (Editor)
Routledge, 2005.
Call number [RH Stacks] DA933 .M43 2005
Clóliosta : Printing in the Irish Language, 1571-1871 : An Attempt at Narrative Bibliography by Richard Sharpe and Mícheál Hoyne
School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 2020.
Call number [RH Reference Area] Z152.6 .S43 2020
This item is currently on the new books shelf to the left of the Reference Desk.

Cambridge Histories Online This link opens in a new window
Search for content on Ireland in the Middle Ages and/or early modern period in this compendium of renowned texts in the Cambridge Histories series.
Dictionary of Irish Biography This link opens in a new window
A collaborative project between Cambridge University Press and the Royal Irish Academy, documenting over 11,000 lives of Irish men and women.

Facsimiles, Translations, Critical Editions & Catalogs

→ To locate facsimiles, translations, or critical editions of manuscripts, try the following:

Search for the manuscript by Title in the Library Catalog.

Browse the items cataloged under Manuscripts, Irish--Facsimiles.

For items published before 1926, try searching HathiTrust Digital Library.

→ When searching by subject headings, U.S.-based library catalogs will use the American spelling rather than the British "catalogue" spelling. Use the subject heading link below to find Irish manuscript catalogs.

Manuscripts, Irish--Catalogs

→ Irish Texts Society volumes are listed in the library catalog by name of the translated manuscript. Volumes 1-24 are available online in HathiTrust Digital Library.

Finding Books & Articles in Indexes & Bibliographies

International Medieval Bibliography & Bibliographie de Civilization Medievale This link opens in a new window
Index contains over 350,000 records of journal articles and books related to the Middle Ages published since 1967.

Celtic Studies Bibliography
Resource from the Celtic Studies Association of North America compiled by Karen E. Burgess (retired in 2020).

ITER : gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance This link opens in a new window
Offers journals and scholarly collections dedicated to the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400-1700).
Bibliography of British and Irish History This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive guide to books and articles about Britain, Ireland and the British overseas written from the Roman period to the present day. Online "Help Pack"

→ For full-text databases and journals, use the Articles & Databases page of the Irish Studies guide and items on the Database list under History, Literature, or Arts.

→ Use this video to learn how to locate specific articles from a citation in Fordham's library system.

Databases by Subscription

Early English Books Online, 1473-1700 This link opens in a new window
Collection holds more than 125,000 books and pamphlets printed in English.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
Full text of 180,000 books published from 1700 to 1799.
British History Online This link opens in a new window
Digital library containing some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles.
Medieval and Early Modern Sources Online This link opens in a new window
Digitized books and manuscripts principally from the major collections of government records of England, Ireland, and Scotland.
Archive of Celtic-Latin Literature This link opens in a new window
A full-text database of the corpus of Latin literature produced in Celtic-speaking Europe and Latin works from the period 400-1200 A.D.

→ Check the Medieval Studies guide for additional options.

Open Access Electronic Resources

CELT (Corpus of Electronic Texts)
A searchable online textbase consisting of over 19 million words from 1636 contemporary and historical documents in Irish, Latin, Anglo-Norman French, and English.
Irish Script On Screen - Meamram Páipéar Ríomhaire
A project of the School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies to publish digital images of Irish manuscripts online.
CODECS -- Collaborative Online Database and e-Resources for Celtic Studies
An online catalogue/database of Celtic Studies sources from the A.G. van Hamel Foundation for Celtic Studies.
Irish Sagas Online
Offers reliable versions of the original texts of medieval Irish sagas with parallel translations into Modern Irish and English from University College Cork.
Bardic Poetry Database
Poetry database hosted by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.
Saint Patrick’s Confessio
The Confessio HyperStack project offers a digital edition enabling readers to navigate the text as a layered document.
Irish Historic Towns Atlas Digital
Offers free access to digitized atlases published through this project.
Digital Resources from the Celtic Studies Association of North America (CSANA)
See list of more Irish & Celtic digital resources.

Old & Middle Irish Resources

Books at Fordham Libraries:

Dictionary of the Irish Language : Based Mainly on Old and Middle Irish Materials (Compact ed.) by E. G. Quin
Royal Irish Academy, 1983.
Call number [RH Reference Area] PB1291 .D49 1983
See eDIL below for digital access to the full dictionary.

→ Use the link below to search the Fordham library catalog for electronic and print books covering Old Irish grammar.

Irish Language to 1100 Grammar

Open Access Resources

eDIL - electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
A digital dictionary of medieval Irish based on the Dictionary of the Irish Language from the Royal Irish Academy drawing on Old and Middle Irish materials between c.700-c.1700.
Old Irish Online
Developed by the Linguistics Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin.
Early Irish Glossaries Database
Database of early Irish glossaries including Sanas Cormaic (Cormac’s Glossary), O’Mulconry’s Glossary and Dúil Dromma Cetta (the Collection of Druim Cett), as well as the shorter texts Loman and Irsan. Provided by the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at the University of Cambridge.
Léamh: Learn Early Modern Irish
A project at the University of Connecticut offering guided translations of a wide range of texts and genres, a grammar with basic paradigms and descriptive summaries, and a searchable reference glossary.
Historical Irish Corpus, 1600 - 1926
Search for words and phrases in over 3000 texts published in Irish between 1600 and 1926.
Thesaurus Linguae Hibernicae
A research and teaching tool from University College Dublin offering digital editions of texts in Early and Medieval Irish.

Irish Studies: Medieval & Early Modern Resources

Ireland in the Middle Ages