Research Guides: English and American Literature: Databases

Databases for Literary Research

For the full list of UD Library databases, click here.

General / Criticism

MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
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The major index of research pertaining to literature, language, linguistics, folklore, and film. Coverage is international. The MLAIB connects with the MLA Directory of Periodicals. (1926 to present)
Can be searched in conjunction with the MLA Directory of Periodicals, which contains all information available on journals & series on the Bibliography‘s Master List. The Directory of Periodicals is included in the Bibliography.
Annual Bibliography of English Language & Literature This link opens in a new window
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This component of Literature Online (LION) indexes books, articles, book reviews and doctoral dissertations on British, American and Commonwealth literature. (1920 to present)
4 concurrent users allowed.
Part of the Literature Online database.
Gale Literature Criticism This link opens in a new window
A range of modern and historical views on authors and their works across regions, eras and genres, offering tens of thousands of hard-to-find critical essays.
Gale Literature Criticism is comprised of the following series:
- Children’s Literature Review
- Classical & Medieval Literature Criticism
- Contemporary Literary Criticism Online
- Drama Criticism
- Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800
- Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism
- Poetry Criticism
- Shakespearean Criticism
- Short Story Criticism
- Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism
Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
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Includes selections from Contemporary Literary Criticism, Poetry Criticism, Drama Criticism, Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism, Novels for Students, and Literature and Its Times.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text access to scholarly journals in a variety of subject areas. Many journals go back to their first issue. Check the issues available for individual titles.
Project MUSE Journals This link opens in a new window
Project MUSE offers online access to scholarly humanities, arts and social sciences journals. (Variable coverage: 1993 or later to the present.)
A large number of open access e-books are also available on Project MUSE. Search DELCAT to access these free e-books.
Academic OneFile This link opens in a new window
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Academic OneFile covers a wide variety of subjects, including literature. Most of the journal articles are available in full text.

Medieval / Early Modern

Dictionary of Old English This link opens in a new window
The Corpus contains all surviving Old English material, excluding some variant texts. The texts have been divided into meaningful units, usually editorial sentences.
Early American Imprints Series I: Evans, 1639-1800 This link opens in a new window
All American imprints from the 17th and 18th centuries identified in the American Bibliography by Charles Evans and in the supplement by Roger Bristol. For Series 2 (Shaw-Shoemaker) titles, see Microfiche no. S269.5.
Series in America's Historical Imprints (which is a component of Archive of Americana)
Series 1, Evans is the only one of the series that UD owns, so entry is listed as" Early American Imprints Series I: Evans, 1639-1800."

Can be searched on Readex AllSearch, an integrated platform that combines Readex’s primary sources into a single cross-searchable interface.
Early English Books Online This link opens in a new window
Contains about 100,000 of over 125,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, & Ireland and of English Books Printed Abroad, 1475-1640 (STC I) and Donald Wing's A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and British America, and of English Books Printed in Other Countries, 1641 to 1700 (STC II), as well as the Thomason Tracts, a compendium of broadsides on the English Civil War printed between 1640 and 1661.
This collection can also be searched on Gale Primary Sources, an integrated platform that combines Gale’s digital archives into a single cross-searchable interface.
English Short Title Catalogue This link opens in a new window
Descriptions of English or English-language letterpress materials published in Great Britain or its colonies or in English anywhere in the world from 1473 to 1800.
Mainly, but not exclusively in English.

Includes materials ranging from Shakespeare & Greek New Testaments to anonymous ballads, broadsides, songs, advertisements, & other ephemera.

From the collections of the British Library & over 2,000 other libraries.
International Medieval Bibliography Online This link opens in a new window
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The interdisciplinary bibliography of the European Middle Ages, covering Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa in the period 400-1500.
Limited to 3 simultaneous users.
Iter: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance This link opens in a new window
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Includes Iter Bibliography, Iter Italicum, Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme (e-journal), Early Theatre (e-journal), REED (Records of Early English Drama), New Technologies and Renaissance Studies, Aestimatio, Electronic Capito Project, Medici Archive Project and Baptisteria Sacra Index.
Iter Bibliography: Citations for journal articles, reviews, review articles, bibliographies, catalogs, abstracts, discographies, monographs, & material published in monographs & collections of essays pertaining to the Middles Ages & Renaissance (400-1700).

Iter Italicum: Online version of Paul Oskar Kristeller’s Iter Italicum, the most comprehensive finding list available of previously uncataloged or incompletely cataloged Renaissance humanistic manuscripts found in libraries & collections all over the world.

Renaissance & Reformation/Renaissance et Réforme: A peer-reviewed quarterly journal, multidisciplinary & bilingual, on all aspects of the Renaissance & Reformation period.

Early Theatre: A peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles on medieval or early modern drama & theatre history, rooted in the records & documents of England, Scotland, Ireland, & Wales.

REED (Records of Early English Drama): (1976-1997) Published documentary evidence of early drama, items on records research, & requests by scholars for information. It was superseded by the peer-reviewed journal, Early Theatre.

Aestimatio: Provides critical, timely assessments of books published in the history of what was called science from antiquity up to the early modern period in cultures ranging from Spain to India, & from Africa to northern Europe.

The Electronic Capito Project: Provides access to the text of letters from & to Wolfgang Faber Capito (c. 1478-1541).
Middle English Compendium This link opens in a new window
The HyperBibliography includes Middle English materials cited in the Middle English Dictionary.
Parker Library on the Web This link opens in a new window
High-resolution copies of every imageable page in the Corpus Christi College Library’s collection of manuscripts spanning the sixth to the sixteenth centuries as well as other resources.

18th and 19th Centuries

British Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Searchable full text of hundreds of periodicals, 1680s-1930s, based on the microfilm sets Early British Periodicals, English Literary Periodicals, and British Periodicals in the Creative Arts together with additional titles.
C19: The Nineteenth Century Index This link opens in a new window
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Simultaneously search a number of important databases related to the 19th century, including books, periodicals, archival collections, and government documents.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
Works published during the 18th century, Parts I and II.
This collection can also be searched on Gale Primary Sources, an integrated platform that combines Gale’s digital archives into a single cross-searchable interface.
The acquisition of this database was made possible through the support of the Unidel Foundation.
Eighteenth Century Drama: Censorship, Society and the Stage This link opens in a new window
A unique archive of almost every play submitted for license between 1737 and 1824, and hundreds of documents that provide social context for the plays, including The London Stage, 1660-1800.
Gerritsen Women's History Collection of Aletta H. Jacobs This link opens in a new window
Monographs and periodicals, 1543-1945, collected by Aletta Jacobs Gerritsen, reflecting the evolution of a feminist consciousness and women’s rights.
In many cases, the Gerritsen Collection provides easy access to primary sources otherwise available only in a few rare book rooms.
Eight Centuries This link opens in a new window
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A vast database covering source material dating from 1106 until 1960 (varies by source). Eight Centuries aggregates indexes, catalogs, collections, and other finding aids, and includes citations to 9,000 periodicals. Combines a number of 19th-century indexes, including Poole's Index to Periodical Literature.
Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalogue This link opens in a new window
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Aims to index all printed works published in Britain, its colonies, and the United States, all printed works in English wherever published, and all translations from English from the beginning of the 19th century to the end of the First World War.
Learn more about this database
Periodicals Index Online This link opens in a new window
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An index to international journals and magazines in the humanities and social sciences, 1665-1995.
Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals, 1824-1900 This link opens in a new window
The vast majority of articles written for Victorian periodicals were published anonymously, or under pseudonyms. The index identifies the authors of articles and provides a bibliography for each contributor.