The OER History Primary Resources repository was originally created with the assistance of Rosalind Beiler, Alicia Duffy, Tiffany Earley-Spadoni, Duncan Hardy, Alison Hudson, Amanda Snyder, and Rachel Williams at the University of Central Florida.
This OER compilation is provided under a Creative Commons license: Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0
Articles
Description: Tragedy regarding Oedipus as the King of Thebes.
Date: c. 429 BCE
Location: Athens, Greece
Keywords: tragedy; Sophocles
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Pro Cluentio (Defense of Cluentius)
Description: Aulus Cluentius was a wealthy man who had accused his stepfather of trying to poison him (so that Aulus’s mother could inherit all his property). The trial was controversial because both sides probably tried to use bribes to secure favourable verdicts. A decade later, Cluentius’s mother Sassia and his step-brother accused Cluentius of poison, and Cicero defended him at his trial. Cicero probably did not believe Cluentius was innocent: he later boasted that he had pulled the wool over the judges' eyes in this case. This source can be used for gender history, considering the way Cicero portrays "good" versus "bad" women and "good" versus "bad" sons, among many other topics.
Date: 66 BC
Location: Italy/Roman Empire
Keywords: Gender History; Social History; Legal History
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Books
Description of Rome from Ammianus Marcellinus's History, Ammianus Marcellinus
Description: Ammianus Marcellinus was an elite Roman soldier who wrote a history of Rome towards the end of his life.
Date: Before 395
Location: Roman Empire
Keywords: Social History; Economic History; Intellectual History
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Description: Historic work of Germanic tribes outside the Roman Empire.
Date: 98
Location: Roman Empire
Keywords: Germania; Tacitus
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012History of the estate at Neuilly
Description: The estate at Neuilly was gifted and regifted by kings to their supporters over the course of a century. This account gives an insight into how kings used land to gain and maintained support from nobles. It also maps the political developments from the creation of the Carolingian Empire to its division between different rulers.
Date: 876
Location: Carolingian Empire
Keywords: Economic History; Social History; Political History
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin
Description: Regarded as one of the most influential works of Protestant theology, it covers a broad range of theological topics from the doctrines of church and sacraments to justification by faith alone and Christian liberty.
Date: 1536
Location: Basel and Geneva, Switzerland
Keywords: theology; Protestant
Course codes: AMH2010; EUH2000; WOH2012On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, Martin Luther
Description: A treatise examines the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church in the light of Luther's interpretation of the Bible.
Date: 1520
Location: Wittenberg, Germany, Holy Roman Empire
Keywords: treatise; religion
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Description: History of Rome which covers Aeneas, the founding of Rome, the reign of Augustus, and more.
Date: 27-9 BCE
Location: Roman Empire
Keywords: Livy; Rome
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012The Life and Miracles of St. Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne
Description: Biography of a saint from early medieval Northumbria.
Date: 721
Location: Kingdom of Northumbria, Britain
Keywords: St. Cuthbert; Bede
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli
Description: A 16th-century political treatise claimed to be one of the first works of modern philosophy, especially modern political philosophy.
Date: 1513
Location: Florence, Italy
Keywords: Machiavelli
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Description: A book of precepts written in 516 by Benedict of Nursia for monks living communally under the authority of an abbot.
Date: c. 525
Location: Ostrogothic Italy
Keywords: St. Benedict
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Description: Twelve biographies of Julius Caesar and the first eleven emperors of the Roman Empire.
Date: 121
Location: Roman Empire
Keywords: Caesar
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Law Codes
Description: A legal code issued by Charlemagne and promulgated among the Saxons during the Saxon Wars.
Date: 775-790
Location: Frankish/Carolingian Kingdom
Keywords: Charlemagne; Saxon Wars
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Description: A royal charter of rights to make peace between a king and a group of rebels. Promised to protect rights of the church, protect barons from illegal imprisonment, and limitations on feudal payments.
Date: 1215
Location: Kingdom of England
Keywords: Magna Carta
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012"Neutrality Act" of August 31, 1935
Description: Passed because of rising threats that would eventually lead to World War II and as a result of World War I, the Neutrality Act sought to ensure the United States was not entangled in foreign wars.
Date: 1935
Location: USA
Keywords: WWII
Course codes: AMH2020; EUH2001; WOH2012Statute in Favor of the Princes
Description: This law relinquished a number of important Royal rights to the secular princes. Among other things, they received the rights to mint coins and levy tolls in the German part of the Holy Roman Empire. In particular, however, Frederick granted them the right of approval over any legislation proposed in future by the Emperor.
Date: 1231
Location: Germany, Holy Roman Empire
Keywords: Holy Roman Empire
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012The Code of Hammurabi, Ascribed to Hammurabi
Description: The so-called law code was a political document meant to promote the kingship of Hammurabi. It reveals striking class inequality and was seldom if ever consulted in legal contexts.
Date: Old Babylonian, c. 1800 BCE
Location: Babylon
Keywords: Code of Hammurabi; Law; Kingship
Course codes: ASH3200; ASH3204; EUH2000; WOH2012Legal Documents
Declaration Concerning the Laws of Naval War
Description: International code of maritime law during wartime.
Date: 1909
Location: London
Keywords: WWI; navy
Course codes: AMH2020; EUH2001; WOH2022Gregory VII's First Deposition and Banning of Henry IV
Description: As Emperor Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII competed to control the appointment of bishops and other church officials, Gregory declared that Henry was not the true ruler and that his subjects did not have to obey him.
Date: 22 February 1076
Location: Italian peninsula
Keywords: Social History; Political History; Religious History; History of Christianity
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Description: As a result of the Gulf of Tonkin incident, this resolution gave President Johnson to retaliate and promote international peace in southeast Asia.
Date: 1964
Location: USA
Keywords: Cold War; Vietnam
Course codes: AMH2020; EUH2001; WOH2022Description: U.S. aid program which provided more than $15 billion to help rebuild Europe after the Second World War.
Date: 1947
Location: USA
Keywords: WWII; Cold War
Course codes: AMH2020; EUH2001; WOH2022Peace Agreement between Alfred and Guthrum, Unknown
Description: After decades of fierce fighting between Scandinavian invaders (vikings) and kings in the British Isles, in 880 Alfred, king of Wessex, agreed a peace treaty with the Scandinavian leader Guthrum.
Date: c. 880
Location: Likely Wessex
Keywords: Social History; Military History
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Description: Describes seven conditions the withdrawal of US troops from Cuba at the end of the Spanish American War.
Date: 1901
Location: USA
Keywords: Spanish American War
Course codes: AMH2020; EUH2001; WOH2022Letters
Amarna Letter 1 (EA 1), Amenhotep III
Description: From the world's earliest known diplomatic archive. A letter from the king of Egypt to the king of Babylon discussing a diplomatic marriage.
Date: Late Bronze Age c. 1350 BCE
Location: Tell el-Amarna
Keywords: Diplomacy; letter; letter; diplomatic marriage
Course codes: ASH3200; ASH3204; EUH2000; WOH2012Amarna Letter 7 (EA 7), Burnaburniash
Description: From the world's earliest known diplomatic archive. A whiny complaint letter from the king of Babylon to the king of Egypt discussing a diplomatic gift.
Date: Late Bronze Age c. 1350 BCE
Location: Tell el-Amarna, Egypt
Keywords: Diplomacy; letter; letter; diplomatic gifts
Course codes: ASH3200; ASH3204; EUH2000; WOH2012Letter about a Civilized Barbarian, Sidonius Apollinaris
Date: 454
Location: Western Roman Empire
Keywords: Rome
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Letter from Henry IV to Gregory VII
Description: As Emperor Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII competed to control the appointment of bishops and other church officials, Henry issued this letter. Although addressed to Gregory (under his birth name Hildebrand), it was intended to influence a wider audience.
Date: 24 January 1076
Location: Romano-German Empire
Keywords: Social History; Political History; Religious History; History of Christianity
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Letter from Queen Emma to Empress Theophanu
Description: Theophanu was a Byzantine princess who married Emperor Otto II. She was a political force within his kingdom during his lifetime and became even more powerful after his death, when she ruled as regent for their son Otto III. This letter was addressed to her from her sister-in-law, Emma, who was being held hostage.
Date: late 10th century
Location: Laon
Keywords: Political History; Gender History
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Date: 409
Location: Western Roman Empire
Keywords: Principia
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Description: A secret telegram sent in January 1917 by the German Foreign Office proposing an alliance between Germany and Mexico.
Date: 1917
Location: Europe
Keywords: WWI
Course codes: AMH2020; EUH2001; WOH2022Narratives
Bonaventure's Life of St Francis
Description: Bonaventure was the leader of the Franciscans between 1257 and 1274. At his order's request, Bonaventure wrote a new account of Francis's life, and the order tried to suppress earlier accounts of Francis's life. By Bonaventure’s time, the Franciscans’ organization had expanded and changed from Francis’s day. Compare and contrast his account to first Life of St Francis, by Thomas of Celano.
Date: Commissioned 1260
Location: Italian peninsula?
Keywords: Social History; Religious History; History of Christianity
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Description: Gildas was a churchmen who lived in the British Isles in the 5th or 6th century. His work The Ruin of Britain is a rant condemning the leaders of the Britons in Gildas's lifetime. Gildas complains that these leaders have adopted lifestyles that are too close to the lifestyles of the English-speaking invaders, whom Gildas despises. As part of his rant, Gildas describes the collapse of Roman rule on the island of Britain.
Date: 5th-6th century
Location: Probably the British Isles
Keywords: Social History; Economic History; Political History; Legal History
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012“Homer,” The Iliad, Homer
Description: Epic poem set during the Trojan War and tells of the quarrels between King Agamemnon and Achilles.
Date: c. 800-600 BCE
Location: Greece/eastern Mediterranean
Keywords: Iliad; Homer; epic
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012"Homer,” The Odyssey, Homer
Description: Epic poem - a sequel to The Iliad - which focuses on Odysseus after the fall of Troy.
Date: c. 800-600 BCE
Location: Greece/eastern Mediterranean
Keywords: The Odyssey; Homer; epic
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Life of St Matrona, Symeon Metaphrastes
Description: There are several medieval stories about female saints who dressed and lived as men. St Matrona of Perge is notable because her historical existence can be proven through other sources.
Date: 10th century (about a 6th-century person)
Location: Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire)
Keywords: Religious History; Social History; Gender History; Queer Studies
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Description: In this work, Patrick, the bishop of Ireland, described his life: how he grew up in a Romano-British family, how he was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Ireland, how he escaped, and how he later returned to Ireland to establish churches there.
Date: 5th century
Location: Probably Ireland
Keywords: Social History; Religious History; History of Christianity
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Description: Procopius was a Greek-speaking historian. He was born in the Middle East around 500 AD and worked for Belisarius, one of Emperor Justinian’s generals (who eventually fell afoul of Empress Thedora). Procopius wrote a History of the Wars of Justinian but at the same time he also wrote a Secret History. The Secret History presented a different view of events and which was highly critical of Justinian and Theodora.
Date: 6th century
Location: Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire)
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012The Deeds of God through the Franks
Description: A narrative of the First Crusade.
Date: 1107-1108
Location: Kingdom of France
Keywords: First Crusade; franks
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012The Descent of Ishtar/Inana, Unknown
Description: Famous myth of Inana's descent and return from Kur,
Date: C. 2100 BCE
Location: Mesopotamia
Keywords: Inana
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012The Story of my Misfortunes, Peter Abelard
Description: Autobiographical work of a medieval French pioneer of scholastic philosophy.
Date: c. 1140
Location: Paris, Kingdom of France
Keywords: philosophy; Peter Abelard; France
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Thomas of Celano's Life of St Francis
Description: Thomas of Celano wrote the first account of the life of St Francis of Assisi, just three years after Francis’s death. Francis founded the Franciscan order, which went on to become a major force in European life, culture, and politics.
Date: 1229
Location: Italian peninsula
Keywords: Social History; Religious History; History of Christianity
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Oral Accounts
Description: Speech given by Woodrow Wilson which sough peace negotiations at the end of World War I.
Date: 1918
Location: USA
Keywords: WWI
Course codes: AMH2020; EUH2001; WOH2022President Franklin Roosevelt's Annual Message to Congress, 1/6/1941
Description: Known as the "Four Freedoms" speech, Franklin Roosevelt proposes four freedoms which everyone in the world should enjoy: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from fear, and freedom from want.
Date: 1941
Location: USA
Keywords: WWII; four freedoms
Course codes: AMH2020; EUH2001; WOH2022Other
95 Theses, Martin Luther
Description: A list of propositions for an academic disputation.
Date: 1517
Location: Wittenberg, Germany, Holy Roman Empire
Keywords: religion; theology
Course codes: AMH2010; EUH2000; WOH2012Account of what peasants and tenants owed to the monastery at Prüm, Unknown
Description: Some Carolingian monasteries, such as Prüm, kept detailed records of the goods and services they demanded from people living on their lands. These documents are known as polyptyques.
Date: 893 (with later additions)
Location: Prüm
Keywords: Economic History; Social History; Religious History
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Date: c. 950
Location: Kingdom of England
Keywords: noblewoman
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Bald's Leechbook, Unknown
Description: This collection of medical remedies includes salves, potions and even surgery for a cleft palate. While some remedies mentions elves, night goblins and devils, others challenge popular stereotypes about medieval medicine. An eye salve described in this collection has been texted in modern laboratory conditions and has proved effective against the antibiotic-resistant bacterium MRSA.
Date: c. 900-940
Location: Wessex
Keywords: Social History; History of Medicine
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Description: Lateran IV was an extremely important council in the history of the western European church, articulating the church's official position on a whole range of topics from transubstantiation to marriage to mendicant orders to clergy who owned dogs.
Date: 1215 AD
Location: Rome
Keywords: Social History; History of Religion; Legal History; History of Christianity; History of Judaism (cw: Antisemitism)
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Colloquy (School Exercise/Dialogue about Professions)
Description: This work was originally a language-learning exercise: students of Abbot Ælfric would use a dialogue about the different professions to expand their Latin vocabulary and grammar. This exercise mentions a number of different occupations, from the enslaved ploughman to the hunter to the blacksmith to the baker and also includes some political theory, as the different characters debate whose job is the most important.
Date: 10th/11th century
Location: Kingdom of England
Keywords: Social History; Economic History; Intellectual History
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Description: A compilation of 27 statements of powers arrogated to the pope.
Date: 1075
Location: Rome
Keywords: Pope Gregory VII
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Galerius's Edict of Toleration, Unknown
Description: At the end of his reign, Emperor Galerius issued this edict legalizing Christianity in the Roman Empire. This was a reversal of the policy of previous emperors, notably Diocletian, and set the stage for Emperor Constantine's overt support for Christianity.
Date: 311 AD
Location: Roman Empire
Keywords: Social History; History of Religion; Legal History
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Gilgamesh Flood Story, Tablet XI, Unknown
Description: The world's original epic. The flood story, first known from a Sumerian version, shares traits in common with the beloved tale known from the Hebrew Bible.
Date: Standard Babylonian (c. 600 BCE)
Location: Babylon
Keywords: Gilgamesh; flood; Literary; Epic
Course codes: ASH3200; ASH3204; EUH2000; WOH2012Description: The longest of a number of hymn-poems written to the sun-disk deity Aten.
Date: c. 1350 BCE
Location: Egypt
Keywords: poems
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Description: A satirical work by Desiderius Erasmus which attacks the Western Church and superstitions of European society.
Date: 1509
Location: Europe
Keywords: Erasmus
Course codes: EUH2000; EUH2001; WOH2012Invitation to a birthday party, Claudia Severa
Description: Claudia Severa was the wife of a commander of a Roman fort in Britannia, on the borders of the Roman empire. This invitation gives an insight into her life and the lives of other Roman women in the area. There is a note at the end which may be in Claudia's own writing, making this tablet the earliest known example of a woman's writing in Latin from the British Isles (and arguably the earliest from the empire as a whole).
Date: 97-103 AD
Location: Vindolanda (north of what is now England)
Keywords: Social History; Gender History
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Latin graffiti from the city of Pompeii, Unknown
Date: c. 79
Location: Pompeii, Roman Empire
Keywords: Pompeii; graffiti
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Description: Dialogue regarding the Roman government.
Date: 54 BCE
Location: Roman Republic
Keywords: Cicero; political history
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Description: Surviving medieval Hebrew poetry written by women is very rare. The first of these two poems as written by a woman whose name has not been recorded. She is known only as the wife of Dunaš (Dunash), a noted scholar. Her poem worries about whether Dunaš will remember her, now that he has gone to Spain. In the second poem, Dunaš replied: ‘Could I betray a woman so wise?’
Date: 10th century
Location: North Africa (?) and al-Andalus (Spain)
Keywords: Poetry; Social History; Gender History; History of Judaism
Course codes: WOH2012Politics Derived from Holy Writ, Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
Description: A work of political theory prepared by Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet as part of his duties as tutor for Louis XIV's heir apparent, Louis, le Grand Dauphin. It is one of the purest expressions of the branch of political absolutism which historians have labeled "Divine Right Absolute Monarchy."
Date: 1670-1709
Location: Kingdom of France
Keywords: Political history; political theory; Louis XIV; Louis XV
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Description: As Christian monasticism spread throughout Africa, Asia, and Europe, different leaders developed different rules for the communities. One of the most influential set of rules was written by Benedict of Nursia in the early 6th century. It spread throughout Western Europe and was later promoted by Charlemagne and other leaders. Benedictine communities were some of the wealthiest and most powerful religious houses throughout the Middle Ages.
Date: Early 6th century
Location: Italian peninsula
Keywords: Religious History; Intellectual History; Social History
Second Treatise of Government, John Locke
Description: Outlines a theory of civil society. Locke begins by describing the state of nature, a picture much more stable than Thomas Hobbes' state of "war of every man against every man," and argues that all men are created equal in the state of nature by God
Date: 1689
Location: Kingdom of Great Britain
Keywords: theory of civil society
Course codes: AMH2010; EUH2000; WOH2012The Book of the Dead, Unknown
Description: The book of the dead was used to provide information about the perilous journey into the afterlife.
Date: c. 1500 BCE
Location: Egypt
Keywords: Afterlife; Religious text
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012; ASH3200; ASH3204The Deeds of the Divine Augustus
Description: First-person record of the life and accomplishments of Augustus.
Date: 14
Location: Roman Empire
Keywords: Augustus
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012Description: Andrew George's magnum opus, the definitive critical edition on the ancient Epic of Gilgamesh.
Date: Sumerian-Babylonian
Location: Mesopotamia
Keywords: Gilgamesh; critical edition
Course codes: ASH3200; ASH3204; EUH2000; WOH2012The Hebrew Bible, Anthology
Description: The scholarly NRSV version of the Bible online with ability to cross-reference other translations.
Date: c. 500 BCE
Location: Israel
Keywords: Bible; Historical; Political; Legal; Religious
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012; ASH3200; ASH3204The Story of Sinuhe, Unknown
Description: A classic literary tale of an Egyptian prodigal son who travels north to Syria and returns home once more.
Date: Middle Kingdom, c. 1850
Location: Egypt
Keywords: Sinuhe; literary
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012; ASH3200; ASH3204The University of Paris’s proposed solutions to the papal schism, Unknown
Description: A split within the Catholic Church in which two men simultaneously claimed to be the true pope, and each excommunicated the other.
Date: 1393
Location: Paris, Kingdom of France
Keywords: Western Schism
Course codes: EUH2000; WOH2012
Tuesday, March 23, 2021
All OER History Primary Sources
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