Research Guides: FAH214: Italian Renaissance Art: Find Primary Sources

Examples

The following are examples of primary source material:

Letters
Manuscripts
Original works of art
Literary works
Diaries or journals
Newspapers
Speeches
Interviews
Memoirs
Government documents
Photographs
Audio/video recordings
Original scientific research reports
Research data
Objects or artifacts

Primary Sources on the Web

Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects by Giorgio Vasari translated by Gaston du C. De Vere
This is a 10 volume book, the abridged version of which we have available as an ebook. But this is the entire work. Use Control+F to find your artist, then click on the corresponding volume link.
Internet Medieval Sourcebook
Created by Fordham University, this has primary sources in translation from the Medieval to Renaissance.
EuroDocs: Primary Historical Documents From Western Europe
Links to online collections of digitized primary source documents, organized by country.
European History Primary Sources
Maintained by the European University Institute, this site serves as a portal to scholarly websites that host primary source documents on the history of Europe. Links are organized by country, language, period, and subject.
NYPL Digital Collections: Medieval and Renaissance Europe
Cultivated and curated by the New York Public Library (NYPL), this site has hundreds of beautiful scanned manuscripts from Medieval and Renaissance Europe.
Library of the Aragonese Kings of Naples
A substantial collection of beautifully digitized manuscripts from Renaissance Italy.
British Archives
The website of the National Archives of the United Kingdom, they have research guides, online collections, and their own catalog you can look through.
British Library
Like the British Archives, the British Library has online collections you can peruse, including images and primary sources. Their collections are wider than just Great Britain, so you may want to look here even if your topic is not related to Great Britain.