LibGuides: ENGL 3159: English Colloquium Fall 2020 (Akbari): Getting Started

About this guide

Welcome! In this guide, you'll find resources and strategies you can use as you research and curate your own virtual gallery of Renaissance art, for the English Colloquium (Professor Akbari).

Resources to research background and contextual information on your topic and the approaches you might be bringing to your research (see links below)
Strategies and tools to find images of visual art from the Renaissance
Strategies and tools for researching the history and criticism of these works of visual art (and other critical, secondary sources)
Resources for citing your sources
Updated information on remote library services available via Barnard, Columbia, and other libraries
Guidelines for getting required course texts for free via the Library

Please feel free to book an appointment with me on my calendar page, for further support with your research!

Image: Durer, Albrecht (1515). The Rhinoceros. Via Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.

Finding Search Terms

LINK TO OUR GROUP KEYWORD CLOUD

Here are some tips for finding search terms. It's a great idea to start thinking about these before you search in catalogs, databases, and other search tools.

Write down keywords and key phrases that relate to your topic(s) and can lead you to the texts you are seeking. Think of alternative terms. If you want to visualize them spatially, start a concept map, or mind map. Some types of terms you might want to list for yourself:
- Regions/parts of the world that interest you (these could be places where art was being made, or places depicted/imagined)
- Subjects/ depictions that interest you (i.e. rebellion, food, cats)
- Themes that interest you, related to historical context (i.e. Spain and colonialism)
- Artistic and/or literary forms or genres that interest you
- When known, names of artists and/or specific works
Research backgrounds and contexts, if you would like (see Reference Sources for some reference sources that can help with this). Reference sources can give you additional ideas for key words and phrases to try in your searches.
Make room for alternate spellings of terms, or names. especially ones translated/transliterated from languages other than English.
Use the words and phrases on your concept map in your searches across catalogs and databases. Try out different combinations!

Keyword Concept Map
A diagram you can use to create a concept map, which you can use to develop search terms (via Claremont College Libraries)

Reference Sources

A Biographical Encyclopedia of Early Modern Englishwomen by Carole Levin (Editor); Anna Riehl Bertolet (Editor); Jo Eldridge Carney (Editor)
ISBN: 9780754669005
Publication Date: 2016
Includes entries on women in Early Modern England, organized by thematic categories including: witches, writers, political women, and immigrants, expatriates, and world travelers. You can browse entries within these categories, or alphabetically via the list at the end.
Encyclopedia of African History by Kevin Shillington (Editor)
ISBN: 1579582451
Publication Date: 2004
Includes A-Z entries ranging from the earliest evolution of human beings in Africa to the beginning of the twenty-first century. Also includes 99 maps. You can run searches around specific terms, browse entries in alphabetical order, or browse entries thematically. For histories concurrent with the European Renaissance, you might look under the themes entitled "Iron Age to End of the Eighteenth Century."
Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire by Gabor Agoston and Bruce Masters (editors)
ISBN: 9780816062591
Publication Date: 2008
Provides a thorough overview of the history and civilization of the Ottoman Empire, from the 14th through the 20th centuries, with approximately 450 A-to-Z entries focusing on major events, personalities, institutions, and terms. Covers imperialism and emerging Balkan, Arab, and Turkish nationalism; the demise of the empire; and Ottoman legacy in the Balkans and the Middle East. Includes a chronology, glossary, bibliography, and index.
Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism Since 1450 by Macmillan Reference
ISBN: 9780028660851
Publication Date: 2006
Provides historical background and context on histories of colonialism and expansion. The work describes and analyzes the many aspects of the history of Europe's colonial and imperial presence and violence in Americas, Asia, Africa and the Pacific, beginning in the 15th century, and the building and collapse of empires (Spanish, Portuguese, British, French, Dutch, German, American). A number of the more than 400 articles in the set address the ideology and theories behind colonialism and imperialism.
Europe, 1450-1789 by Jonathan Dewald
ISBN: 068431200X
Publication Date: 2003
European history from 1450-1789, from the print revolution to the French Revolution. The1,150 articles cover art, government and education as well as providing biographical entries on key figures of the period. In addition, the set covers topics specific to the era, such as apocalypticism, guilds, food riots, royal mistresses and lovers, the Spanish inquisition, Utopia and others.

Oxford Art Online
Oxford Art Online enables access and cross-search functionality to Grove and Oxford reference content in one location. Provides access to Grove Art Online, Benezit Dictionary of Artists, The Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms. Includes image partnerships with ARTstor, the British Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Images for College Teaching, Art Resource, Artists Rights Society and numerous international art galleries and artists.

The Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance by Gordon Campbell
ISBN: 0198601751
Publication Date: 2003
Entries provide detailed coverage of the Renaissance in 14th to 17th century Europe. Topics include art, literature, science, culture, philosophy, religion, economics, history, and conflict of the period.Nearly half the entries are biographical, covering artists, thinkers, statesman, and reformers.
Oxford Encyclopedia of African History by Thomas Spear (editor)
ISBN: 9780190277734
Publication Date: 2015
Collects thoroughly researched articles in many areas of African history, including intellectual history, legal history, and medical history, as well as histories of enslavement and the slave trade. Searchable by keyword or browseable (either thematically or alphabetically).
Oxford encyclopedia of Mesoamerican cultures by David Carrasco (editor)
ISBN: 0195188438
Publication Date: c2006
Chronicles pre-colonial, colonial, and modern Mesoamerica, defined as the lands stretching from Mexico to the southern tip of Central America. Topics include art, archaeology, religious studies, anthropology, Indigenous history, and historiography of the region in fully cross-referenced articles.
The Silk Road Encyclopedia by Jeong Su-il (author and editor)
ISBN: 9781624120664
Publication Date: 2016
The more than 2,000 entries in this encyclopedia explore exchanges that occurred between cultures and regions as a direct result of the Silk Road, which included land routes connecting East Asia and Southeast Asia with South Asia, Persia, the Arabian Peninsula, East Africa and Southern Europe. You can search for terms appearing within the book, or browse entries alphabetically.