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HIS3135 Renaissance and Reformation


About this Page - Secondary Sources

This page will assist you in locating secondary sources for your topic.


Common secondary sources for historical research include books and scholarly articles.

Finding Secondary Sources for Renaissance & Reformation history

Finding Books

Search Library Search to find scholarly books and monographs on historical topics.

When searching Library Search, try the advanced search feature.  For example, use the "Subject" field to find books about a particular person, e.g. "Calvin, Jean, 1509-1564."

When searching Library Search, use the "Book" limiter under "Resource Type".

Finding Articles

Search Library Search to find scholarly articles from a range of disciplines.  Limit your search to "Articles" under "Resource Type" and "Peer Reviewed Journals" under "Availability".

Search JSTOR to find full-text, full-image, scholarly articles on history topics.  JSTOR is an archival database for selected titles in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Google Scholar

Search Google Scholar to find citations to scholarly articles.  While some articles are freely available via the web, many are not.  If you find a useful article citation using Google Scholar, check the Berntsen Library's Journal Title Search to see if you can access the journal via the library. Otherwise, you may request the article via Inter-Library Loan by submitting a request through Library Search.

Google Scholar Search

ATLA Religion Database

Journal Title Search

Search for periodicals available full text.

Featured Journal

Browse through the articles in this journal if you'd like some ideas/sources for your paper.