Check out the Course Reserves

"Relics and Reliquaries in Medieval Christianity"
(A thematic essay from Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History; including images and a biliography.)

The Oxford Dictionary of Saints 

Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art

Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art. Ref. N7560 .E53 1998

Dictionary of Symbols in Western Art. Ref. N7740 .C29 1995

The Dent Dictionary of Symbols in Christian Art. Ref. N7825 .S68 1994

Symbolism in Liturgical Art. N7825 .A7

Symbols and Legends in Western Art. (Ref N7760  .W53)

Medieval Iconography: a Research Guide. (Oversize: NX449.Z99 F75 1998)

A. Use Library Catalogs to find books

1. Tufts Libraries Catalog

2. WorldCat (beyond Tufts)

B. Searches & Results

(note the search pattern; modify to your own needs)

The Broader Context:

Christian shrines

 

Christian saints

Christian saints -- Cult

Christian Saints In Art

Specific Interests:

 

Santiago de Compostela (Spain) (site)

Manuscripts, Medieval

Illumination of books and manuscripts (objects)

 

       James, the Greater, Saint (person)

Christian art and symbolism -- Medieval, 500-1500. (themes)

(devotion* or pious or piety) and art and medieval
Note: devotion* searches for devotion, devotional, etc.)

Art, Medieval -- Themes, motives.

Related Subjects:

Christian hagiography

Liturgy and art.

Liturgy and architecture

Types of Documents:

Christian Saints In Art -- Exhibitions.

  

These exhibition and museum catalogues are uniquely valuable sources, which may include:

• Fundamental data on each work of art;
• Official images of the artworks;
• Curatorial statements/essays;
• essays by art critics/historians;
• list of scholarly publications on the art,
• and more.

Path of Discovery in the Catalogs

1. Find a title/author (assigned readings/Course Reserves);

2. Note the descriptive language of the Catalog record.

3. Use that language in further searches

e.g. Click on subject/author in the record to see further results and related topics.

Early Medieval Art, 300-1150; Sources and Documents. / [compiled by] Caecilia Davis-Weyer.
Oversize: N5975 .D3

This anthology collects sources relevant to an understanding of early medieval art: description of lost monuments, theoretical, technical, and other texts that reveal intentions of particular patrons and artists or esthetic attitudes of the literate public. It also contains a number of liturgical texts, describing ritual use of medieval artifacts.

Gothic Art 1140-c. 1450; Sources and Documents. / [compiled by]Teresa G. Frisch. Oversize: N6310 .F7

Saints in Art. (Ref ND1430 .G5513 2003)
Butler’s Lives of the Saints. (Ref BX4654 .B8 1995)
Saints and Their Emblems. (Ref N8080 .D7 1971)

The Oxford Companion to Christian Art and Architecture. N7830 .M87 1996

English Mediaeval Architects: a Biographical Dictionary Down to 1550: Including Master Masons, Carpenters, Carvers, Building Contractors, and Others Responsible for Design. NA963 .H37 1984

English Mediaeval Architects: a Biographical Dictionary Down to 1550. Supplement to the revised edition of 1984.   NA963 .H37 1984 Suppl

A. Use Subject Databases for Journal Articles:

1 & 2. JSTOR and Project Muse

JSTOR is a favorite with its full texts in core journals of all disciplines. Project Muse does not include exactly the same JSTOR journals, but it has more recent and current articles on many topics.

 

3. Period Studies

International Medieval Bibliography (400-1500).

Iter: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400 -1700).

Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index

 

4. Art History and Literature

 

5. History, Religion, and Women's Studies

 

6. Dissertations & Theses

 

7. When use GoogleScholar, set your Library Links to access Tufts full texts.

B. Review Articles

Reviews of recent books and other types of review articles in major journals in a discipline are likely to summarize the current state of research in an area.

An Example of reviews of a Book:

Bregni, Simone. "Images, Relics, and Devotional Practices in Medieval and Renaissance Italy (review)."Italian Culture 26 (2008), 145-147.

 

 

 

A Few Core Journals:

Dumbarton Oaks Papers

Early Medieval Europe

Essays in Medieval Studies

Gesta

Medieval Encounters

Speculum

Studies in Iconography. (Tisch oversize: NX1 .S84)

 

The Art Bulletin.

Art History

C. More Articles like this "perfect" one

How:

Search, in Arts and Humanities Citation Index, for the article you have read.

For example:

Boehm, Barbara Drake. "Body-part Reliquaries: The State of Research" Gesta, Vol. 36, No. 1 (1997), pp. 8-19.
References: 68  Times Cited: 2

 

You can, then, look up, in the record, the 68 references that Boehm cited for her article and, in turn, 2 articles that cited hers. The assumption is that these articles address related issues.

 

 

Note:

1. Not every single article is cited;
2. Influential authors are cited more often;
3. More recent publications take time to be cited.

1. Click on the button in your search results screen to a window of three sequential options:

a. link to the digital full text when available;

b. link to a Library Catalog search for the print journal;

c. link to ILliad for requesting the article when the above two options are negative.

2. Search for a journal directly here:

a. Tufts Library Catalog (including e-journals)

b. Electronic journals list

c. Use ILliad to request your article, if Tufts does not have your journal.

Set up for your ILliad account

Use ILLiad, our Interlibrary Loan Service, to request articles, books and other materials that are not available at Tufts.

Chicago Style Manual (for citing sources)

RefWorks

ARTstor

More than one million images with contributions from outstanding museums, photographers, libraries, scholars, photo archives, and artists and artists' estates from all over the world.

 

Index of Christian Art (Princeton University)

Illuminated Manuscripts