Subject Guides: French Studies: Primary Sources

French Primary Sources Online

Full-Text Historical Sources

EuroDocs
Includes Medieval primary historical documents in facsimile, transcription, or translation.

Holocaust Collection This link opens in a new window From primary documents of the National Archives and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum...

Internet Medieval Sourcebook
Thousands of sources indexed by country, by time period, and by topic. From Fordham University.
Internet Modern History Sourcebook Internet Modern History Sourcebook is one of series of history primary sourcebooks. It is intended to serve the needs of teachers and students in college survey courses in modern European history and American history, as well as in modern Western Civilization and World Cultures. Although this part of the Internet History Sourcebooks Project began as a way to access texts that were already available on the Internet, it now contains hundreds of texts made available locally.

The Making of the Modern World (Gale) This link opens in a new window Understand the development of the modern, western world through the lens of wealth, commerce, finance, social conditions, politics, trade and transport.
Monumenta Germaniae Historica This link opens in a new window MGH is a corpus of historical works, charters, legal texts, letters, political texts, and literature from the European Middle Ages.
Testaments to the Holocaust (Gale) This link opens in a new window Electronic holdings of the Wiener Library in London, England. These holdings also include publications of the Wiener Library. The collection includes Nazi propaganda materials; Hitler Youth materials; pamphlets, books; and a rare encyclopedia of anti-Semitism. The core of the collection is 1,200 eyewitness accounts dealing with the pogrom of 1938 through the scope of the Holocaust. Also included are photographic materials.
U.S. Intelligence on Europe, 1945-1995 (Brill) This link opens in a new window

World War I Document Archive
World War I document archive of primary documents from World War I has been assembled by volunteers of the World War I Military History List (WWI-L). The archive is international in focus and intends to present in one location primary documents concerning the Great War.

French Literary Sources & Concordances

Online Literary Works

ABU: la Bibliothèque Universelle
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ABU is a corpus of literature, mainly French, searchable by author, text, or words

ARTFL This link opens in a new window Alternate title: American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language (ARTFL). A French Studies database. A collaborative project from the University of Chicago and other publishers this database provides a wide range of resources. Sources include French texts, articles, encyclopedias, images and dictionaries. Many of the resources are full-text. Coverage includes many classical texts ranging from the 12th to the 20th century.
Corvey Collection of European Literature (Gale) This link opens in a new window Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO): European Literature, 1790-1840: The Corvey Collection includes the full-text of more than 9,500 English, French and German titles. The collection is sourced from the remarkable library of Victor Amadeus, whose Castle Corvey collection was one of the most spectacular discoveries of the late 1970s. The Corvey Collection comprises one of the most important collections of Romantic era writing in existence anywhere including fiction, short prose, dramatic works, poetry and more with a focus on especially difficult-to-find works by lesser-known, historically neglected writers.

Ebooks libres et gratuits Free public domain e-books from French literature and other realms. Do check any "note sur le droit d'auteur" for copyright status, since it varies from country to country. Click on "Ebooks" for a search or browse menu.

Concordances, Literary Editions & Corpora

ARTFL This link opens in a new window Alternate title: American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language (ARTFL). A French Studies database. A collaborative project from the University of Chicago and other publishers this database provides a wide range of resources. Sources include French texts, articles, encyclopedias, images and dictionaries. Many of the resources are full-text. Coverage includes many classical texts ranging from the 12th to the 20th century.
Corpus de la litterature medievale This link opens in a new window La base de textes du Corpus de la litterature medievale est une base litteraire de plus de 800 oeuvres en langue d'oil des origines a la fin du XVe siecle, geree par le logiciel BABEL dedie aux analyses de contenu. Le Corpus de la litterature medievale se caracterise par sa coherence editoriale et ses possibilites d'acces au texte original jumelees aux fonctions de recherche.
Corpus of francophone literature from black Africa This link opens in a new window Corpus of francophone literature from black Africa contains 11,000 texts of Francophone Literature from Africa.

Primary Source Search

You can locate records for primary sources within the HBLL catalogue by using the specific keyword "sources" within the "subject" field.

By combining that word with other relevant terms elsewhere, e.g., "French Revolution" you can can find relevant primary sources lurking in the Harold B. Lee Library.

These may include diaries, manuscripts, transcriptions, translations and other items considered to be primary sources.

Local Projects

EuroDocs:Online Sources for European History and the related World War I Document Archive are two local projects designed to help you locate online primary sources on European history and on the Great War, respectively.

They provide transcriptions, facsimiles and translations of documents, along with occasional streaming video or audio.