Getting Started: Early Modern Period
This section provides information on resources for topics related to art of the Early Modern period (c. 1450-1800), including print books and ebooks, article databases, images, streaming media, and digital resources.
Get started with the Quick Links section of this guide before exploring the resources in this section.
Note:
Print materials on Early Modern art are located in the Music, Art & Architecture Library.
Print materials on related history, aesthetics, and humanities topics can be found at the Koerner Library and/or Rare Books & Special Collections.
Databases
Start your search by looking at the Databases section of the general Art History & Visual Art guide.
Then explore the topic-specific databases below.
- Iter: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance This link opens in a new windowIter resources include the Iter bibliography (with more than 1,070,000 records), the Iter italicum online, the Medici archive project and other databases.
- Early English Books Online (EEBO) This link opens in a new windowEarly English Books Online (EEBO) contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales & British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700.
- Perdita Manuscripts: Women Writers, 1500-1700 This link opens in a new windowBritish women's writings from the sixteenth- and seventeenth-centuries. Contents range from memoirs to account books to medical receipt books.
- Defining gender This link opens in a new window110 source documents (books and periodicals) from the early modern period to the nineteenth century supported by introductory essays, biographies, and chronologies.
- Grand Tour This link opens in a new windowThe Grand Tour was a rite-of-passage for many aristocratic and wealthy young men between c1550 and c1850: a phenomenon which influenced British art, architecture, urban planning, literature and philosophy.
- Making of the Modern World This link opens in a new windowTracks the development of the modern, western world through the lens of trade and wealth.
- ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials This link opens in a new windowCompiled by the American Theological Library Association. Covers Biblical studies, world religions, church history, and religious perspectives on social issues.
Articles / Journals
Print & Electronic Journals @ UBC Library
To find a specific journal, search by Title here:
For a selective list of print journals related to art of the Early Modern Period, browse the UBC Library Catalogue with the following subject headings, while using the "Subject begins with" or "Subject contains" search options. Here are a few examples:
Select Art Publications
This is a selection of art journals in UBC Library holdings related to Early Modern art:
- Renaissance Quarterly
Online coverage: 1967-Present.
Also available in print at the Music, Art & Architecture Library (ASRSO) at: CB3 .R36 (1948-2006). - I Tatti Studies: essays in the Renaissance
Online coverage: 1985-Present.
Also available in print at the Music, Art & Architecture Library at: N6915 .T288 (1985-2012). - Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes
Online coverage: 1939-Present.
Also available in print at the Music, Art & Architecture Library (ASRS) at: N1 .L65 (1939-Present). - Reformation and Renaissance Review
Online coverage: 1999-Present. - Sixteenth Century Journal [Journal of Early Modern Studies]
Online coverage: 1973-2008 [Select coverage]; 2009-Present [Full text]. - Early Modern Women
Online coverage: 2006-Present. - The Art Bulletin
Online coverage: 1919-Present.
Also available in print at the Music, Art & Architecture Library at: N1 .A4 (1913-Present). - Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art
Online coverage: 2009-Present. - Oud Holland: Journal for Art of the Low Countries
Online coverage: 1883-Present.
Also available in print at the Music, Art & Architecture Library at: N1.O9 H6 (1941; 1964-Present). - Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz
Online coverage: 1908-Present.
Also available in print at the Music, Art & Architecture Library at: N14 .F5515 (1908-Present). - Rinascimento meridionale
Online coverage: 2010-Present.
[In Italian, with abstracts in Italian and English].
Subject Headings & Keywords
Listed below is a selection of art subject headings that can be used for keyword searching in the UBC Library Catalogue.
Click on the links to browse books on specific subjects.
Books
Highlighted Resources
The globalization of Renaissance art: a critical review by Call Number: OnlineISBN: 9789004355781Publication Date: 2017
Women and Art in Early Modern Europe by Call Number: N5240 .W64 1997ISBN: 0271015683Publication Date: 1997
Black Africans in Renaissance Europe by Call Number: D233.2.B44 E26 2005ISBN: 0521815827Publication Date: 2005
Entangled Landscapes: early modern China and Europe by Call Number: Online / SB470.55.C6 E58 2017ISBN: 9789814722582Publication Date: 2018
Painting and Experience in Fifteenth-Century Italy by Call Number: ND615 .B393 1988ISBN: 019282144XPublication Date: 1988
Art, Commerce and Colonialism, 1600-1800 by Call Number: N72.G55 A765 2017ISBN: 9781526122926Publication Date: 2017
A Cultural History of the Atlantic World, 1250-1820 by Call Number: Online / D210ISBN: 9780521898751Publication Date: 2012
Italian Renaissance Courts by Call Number: NX552.A1 C65 2016ISBN: 9781780677408Publication Date: 2016
Dictionaries & Encyclopedias
Renaissance and Reformation, 1500-1620: a biographical dictionary by Call Number: CT759 .R46 2001 (Reference)ISBN: 0313305749Publication Date: 2001
The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1300-1990s by Call Number: NX650.M9 R45 1993ISBN: 0195049985Publication Date: 1993
Painting of the Golden Age by Call Number: ND456 .G43 1993 (Reference)ISBN: 0313243107Publication Date: 1993
Bibliographies
Iberian books: books published in Spanish or Portuguese or on the Iberian Peninsula before 1601 by Call Number: Online / Z240.A1ISBN: 9789004170278Publication Date: 2010
Central Italian Painting, 1400-1465: an annotated bibliography by Call Number: ZN6919.C46 D86 1986ISBN: 0816185468Publication Date: 1986
Sourcebooks & Documents
Medieval and Renaissance Treatises on the Arts of Painting by Call Number: ND1130 .O747 1999ISBN: 0486404404Publication Date: 1999
Italian Art, 1400-1500: sources and documents by Call Number: N6915 .I78 1980ISBN: 0135079470Publication Date: 1980
Women and the Visual Arts in Italy C. 1400-1650 by Call Number: N6915.5 .W66 2012ISBN: 9780719080999Publication Date: 2012
Northern Renaissance art, 1400-1600: sources and documents by Call Number: N6370 .S66Publication Date: 1966
Italy and Spain, 1600-1750: sources and documents by Call Number: N6916 .E5 1970ISBN: 0135081017Publication Date: 1970
Images
- Artstor This link opens in a new windowA digital image library for the arts and sciences with an unparalleled range of images licensed for educational use at UBC.
- Grove Art Online This link opens in a new windowGrove Art Online is the foremost scholarly art encyclopedia covering both Western and non-Western art. First published as the Dictionary of Art, edited by Jane Turner, Grove Art encompasses all aspects of visual culture.
- CORSAIR: Online collection catalogue of the Morgan LibraryA database providing unified access to over 330,000 records for medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, rare and reference books, literary and historical manuscripts, music scores, ancient seals and tablets, drawings, prints, and other art objects.
- Web Gallery of ArtA virtual museum and searchable database of European painting and sculpture of the Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassic, and Romantic periods (1000-1850).
Websites
- EuropeanaMillions of items from Europe's leading galleries, libraries, archives and museums. Books and manuscripts, photos and paintings, sculpture and crafts, diaries and maps, and more.
- GallicaFrom the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, millions of documents including digitized historical books, journals, and images.
- Internet Medieval Sourcebook Selected Sources: RenaissanceExcerpts texts from Early Italian Humanism (Dante, Petrarch), Artists (Vasari), Politicians (Lorenzo de Medici, Machiavelli), Courtly Arts (Castiglione).
- Internet Medieval Sourcebook Selected Sources: ReformationExcerpts texts related to the Protestant Reformation, Papal Critics, and the Catholic Reformation.