ORB Masthead with site navigation toolbar; see bottom 
of page for text version of toolbar

Encyclopedia | Library | Reference | Teaching | General | Links | About ORB | HOME


High Medieval Germany

A Guide to Online Resources


Section Editor: Rebecca L. R. Garber

Preliminary Outline for this Section:

  • ORB Encyclopedia--Original Essays

    • Medieval German Women Writers (1100-1450), by Rebecca L. R. Garber. Includes short biographies and textual descriptions in English of 17 medieval German women authors, 1100-1475.

    • Hildegard of Bingen. Biography in German, summarizing Adelgundis Führkötter's work on Hildegard von Bingen. Biography concentrates on Hildegard's textual activities.

    • Hildegard von Bingen: Gender and Character. Summary in German of Hildegard's scientific and mystical writings on the four humors and how they affect human character as well as a summary of her theory on how the attitudes and character of the parents affect the gender and character of the unborn fetus.

  • Primary Sources--Literature, chronicles, other texts

  • Bibliographies

  • Resources for Teaching

  • Works of art

  • Maps

  • Links to museums and libraries

    • Web-Accessible Catalogues from university, state and city libraries in Germany. There are two caveats: the OPAC catalogues at these sites are almost all incomplete, that is, they only contain works acquired since the 1950's (best case) and 1980's (worst case). Also, the contents of their rare book rooms are only rarely online.

  • Other Website of Interest

    • The Codex Manesse
      "Die Manessische Liederhandschrift" contains the largest collection of "Minnelyrik" from twelfth-century Germany. Written in the fourteenth century, each poet's lyriks are preceded by a full page "author portrait." These images are bundled in order in groups of ten, and can also be searched by author name, or by keyword. nb: the keyword search is limited to articles of clothing, German language only, at present.

    • Monasteries in Bavaria. A database searchable by town (alphabetical), or by name of the order in German or Latin. It then generates nicely readable tables which include name of the founder/foundress, Order, male or female inhabitants, location, and a short history, among other info.

    • Cistercian monastery at Zinna. It includes a timetable, history, and images of the major buildings and the newly restored medieval frescoes (which are quite nice). In its history of expansion, decline, reform, renewal, and secularization Zinna demonstrates a typical pattern followed at many medieval monastic foundings.

  • Search Engines for German Sources

    • The Virtual Prussian Book of Documents (address the file /pub/suchmaschine.html)

    • The complete texts of the reviews of the Hansische Geschichtsblätter for 1996, 1998, 1999 and parts of 2001. This is an important journal, covering the economic and political history of the entire North Sea and Baltic area (from Russia to Portugal) from the 10th through the 19th century (address the file /hu/suchmaschine.html)

  • Centers for medieval studies

  • Professional organizations


Encyclopedia | Library | Reference | Teaching | General | Links | About ORB | HOME

The contents of ORB are copyright © 1995-1999 Laura V. Blanchard and Carolyn Schriber except as otherwise indicated herein.