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Prof. Sean Perrone and Librarian Jeff Waller
Spring 2007
This guide is designed to tie in with the two class writing assignments: first, to write a book review, and second, to write an essay on an aspect of Medieval Spain. To identify a book to review, see the list below or follow the suggestions on how to locate an appropriate book in the catalog. For the essay, search the history and full-text databases for relevant journal articles that focus on your particular topic of interest. If you need additional material beyond what is available in Geisel Library, use our Interlibrary Loan service to request books and articles from other libraries.
The reference librarians have created a group of Web pages under the heading Research Help, including a guide on Research Basics such as developing a topic and conducting keyword searches in article databases. Please take advantage of these resources. For guidance on how to write a book review, see the following resources:
A Short Guide to Writing about History
Ref D13 .M294
This invaluable writing guide contains an entire appendix devoted to writing book reviews, including examples.
A Concise Guide to Writing a Critical Book Review (University of Alberta)
How to Write a Book Review (Dalhousie University)
How to Write a Book Review (Los Angeles Valley College)
Writing Book Reviews (Indiana University)
For the book review assignment, reference materials can offer brief overviews of important leaders, places, or events mentioned in the book that you are reviewing. This context can help deepen your understanding of the author's major points. For the essay assignment, reference sources provide basic background information on your topic and help you identify keywords to search in the article databases. Some reference resources provide bibliographies at the ends of each entry or volume, which will point you to additional books and journal articles worth exploring.
Dictionary of the Middle Ages
Ref D114 .D5 (14 vols.)
Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages
Ref D114 .E53 (2 vols.)
Medieval Iberia: An Encyclopedia
Ref DP99 .M33
The list below consists of books at Geisel Library that have been approved for the book review assignment by your professor.
The Aristocracy in Twelfth-Century León and Castile
General Collection HT653.S7 B375
Charity and Welfare: Hospitals and the Poor in Medieval Catalonia
General Collection HV344.C37 B76
The Cortes of Castile-León, 1188-1350
General Collection JN8399.C245 O27
Crisis and Continuity: Land and Town in Late Medieval Castile
General Collection HD2025.C325 R85
Daily Life during the Spanish Inquisition
General Collection BX1735 .A72
The Fall of the Caliphate of Córdoba: Berbers and Andalusis in Conflict
General Collection DP107 .S33
Henry IV of Castile, 1425-1474
General Collection DP143.M5
Islamic Spain, 1250 to 1500
General Collection DP102 .H34
Jiménez de Cisneros: On the Threshold of Spain's Golden Age
General Collection DP166.X5 R86
The Kingdom of León-Castilla under King Alfonso VI, 1065-1109
General Collection DP137.6.R44
The Lara Family: Crown and Nobility in Medieval Spain
General Collection DP60.L3 D68
Making Agreements in Medieval Catalonia: Power, Order, and the Written Word, 1000-1200
General Collection HN590.C36 K67
The Making of Medieval Spain
General Collection DP99.J32
Medieval Crown of Aragon: A Short History
General Collection DP128.B57
The Moors in Spain and Portugal
General Collection DP102.R4
Pedro the Cruel of Castile, 1350-1369
General Collection DP141.6 .E8
Spain in the Middle Ages: From Frontier to Empire, 1000-1500
General Collection DP99.M23
The Spanish Kingdoms, 1250-1516
General Collection DP99.H5 (2 vols.)
Tormented Voices: Power, Crisis, and Humanity in Rural Catalonia, 1140-1200
General Collection HD1536.S7 B57
Trade and Traders in Muslim Spain: The Commercial Realignment of the Iberian Peninsula, 900-1500
General Collection HF3685 .C66
To find other potential books to review, you may wish to conduct either Subject or Keyword searches in the Geisel Library catalog. Start by searching any of the Subject Headings below as a Subject.
- Aragon (Spain) – History
- Catalonia (Spain) – History
- Inquisition – Spain
- Muslims – Spain – History
- Spain – Civilization – 711-1516
- Spain – History – 711-1516
Alternatively, you may prefer to perform keyword searching on the names of specific individuals, events, and ideas of interest, such as particular heads of state or the Spanish Inquisition. Use the Boolean AND to combine together multiple concepts, and use the Boolean OR to expand your search with synonyms and related terms. If you select a book that is not on the list above, please ask the instructor for approval.
Articles in scholarly journals often provide greater detail than books, but typically with a much narrower focus. To start looking for scholarly articles in an electronic database, try conducting keyword searches on some of the people, events, places and ideas that you have encountered in your course readings or the book you have reviewed. Use the *(asterisk) as a truncation symbol to retrieve variant forms of a word root; for example, Moor* will catch articles with the words "Moor", "Moors", or "Moorish" in the catalog record. As in the catalog, employ the Boolean AND to combine concepts together.
Note that much of the scholarly literature on Medieval Spain is written in Spanish, so you may want to use database limiters to restrict the language to English. Once you find relevant articles, examine the subject headings that have been assigned to them and conduct Subject searches on the ones that seem most potentially fruitful. Also, read the bibliographies of articles to identify additional sources worth tracking down.
If there is no link to the full text of the article, click on the  icon to determine whether the journal is available in the Geisel Library or in full-text via another electronic database. If the article isn't available, consider clicking on the Interlibrary Loan link to request a PDF copy of the article from another library. Articles requested via ILL will be delivered to your email inbox within about a week.
Historical Abstracts
The best place to start. It provides abstracts to journal articles, book/media reviews, and dissertations with a focus on world history and culture (excluding the United States and Canada) from prehistoric times to the present.
Academic Search Premier
A broad index providing abstracts and some full-text of scholarly and popular journals for a range of academic areas, including history.
History Cooperative
This resource for historical research offers full-text articles from several key journals and conference proceedings, as well as providing historian's links and historical map collections. (Most, but not all, titles are accessible). Tips for Effective Searching
Iter
This database of medieval and renaissance studies includes full-text articles of several journals, plus citations for journal articles (1842 – current), reviews, bibliographies, abstracts, and more. Searching Guide
JSTOR
JSTOR provides the full text of back issues of major journals in the humanities and social sciences, including many in the area of history. Journal list for: Arts & Sciences I Arts & Sciences II
Project MUSE
"Project MUSE provides online, worldwide, institutional subscription access to the full text of more than 200 scholarly journals in arts and humanities, social sciences, and mathematics." Journal List
The first two websites below offer primary-source material from the Medieval period in Spain, while LIBRO provides free access to secondary sources on the topic.
EuroDocs: Primary Historical Documents From Spain
Links to online collections of digitized primary source documents from Spain, ranging from the Medieval period through the present.
Internet Medieval History Sourcebook
This web-based sourcebook of primary source texts includes a lengthy page devoted to the Iberian peninsula (modern-day Spain and Portugal). It includes a large number of intriguing primary documents, although a few of the external links are non-functional.
LIBRO: The Library of Iberian Resources Online
This online library provides the full text of recent but out-of-print scholarly books about Iberian history, with a focus on the 5th through 17th centuries.
See the library's How To Cite Your Sources guide for resources on how to properly cite research materials. Always confirm the style required by your instructor.
The Library Liaison contact for this course is Jeff Waller.
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