The Internet Medieval Sourcebook is a website with a variety of resources about Medieval Churches. It is "located at the Fordham University Center for Medieval Studies." The Sourcebook has been active since 1996 and is regularly updated.
The site is organized as three main index pages, with a number of supplementary documents.
Selected Sources is the main entry to the resources here. It consists of links to an organized "index of selected and excerpted texts for teaching purposes." For teachers who wish to refer students to the Sourcebook, this page is the best starting point.
Full Text Sources is another critical link with full texts of medieval sources arranged according to type.
Saints' Lives is devoted to Ancient, Medieval and Byzantine hagiographical sources.
Type of Material:
Reference Material
Recommended Uses:
Research guide/bibliography for students conducting research on the history of Christianity during the medieval period.
Technical Requirements:
The site was successfully reviewed using Google Chrome. Any Internet browser should suffice.
Identify Major Learning Goals:
This resource offers a hyperlinked bibliography of sources related to medieval European Christianity.
Target Student Population:
High School, College General Ed, College Lower Division, College Upper Division
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
Many of the links are to archaic primary souce documents that may require a strong background in European history and the writing style of the period.
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
The bibliography is quite thorough in terms of the topics covered (from monasticism and clergy to heresies and folk Christianity on topics like the Devil). This would be an ideal research source for upper division undergraduates, and even graduate students who want an in-depth exploration of Christianity during the medieval period.
Concerns:
As a sourcebook, the website is very text-heavy, and its content may not be particularly useful to high school students or undergraduates in survey courses.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
The strength of the source lies in its comprehensive nature and coverage of Christianity during the time period, from organizational to theological topics.
Concerns:
Some of the links may be too advanced for many students, or would require significant contextualization by the instructor.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
The website was very easy to use, and was organized in a useful, thematic format.
At the time of the review, all links that the peer reviewers surveyed worked perfectly.
Concerns:
The text-heavy nature of sourcebooks may overwhelm visual learners who would prefer to have more images.
Each individual section of the Medieval Sourcebook is large, and a goal is to avoid incessant "clicking" to get between pages and to information. Faculty who use the Sourcebook as a class resource will want to support students in finding an organized surfing approach.
Creative Commons:
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