Primary sources are materials that provide firsthand testimony to a subject under investigation. Researchers often use these firsthand accounts of specific events to understand events from the viewpoint of people living during that time period. Primary sources include letters, diaries, photographs, newspaper articles, and pamphlets. Primary sources also include writings and recordings by witnesses who experienced the events or conditions being documented. For example, oral histories, autobiographies, and memoirs are primary sources.
Primary source materials can be found in a variety of locations, including within books, newspapers, article bibliographies, and archives or manuscripts collections. In this case, the source will be from the EEBO database.
Resources for Reading the Primary Sources:
Orthography and Latin Place Names: http://rbms.info/lpn/
Glossary of Common Latin Terms: https://net.lib.byu.edu/~catalog/people/rlm/glossary/glossary.htm
Enigma: Unpuzzling Difficult Latin Readings: http://enigma.huma-num.fr
Note: “Some features of orthography common to many languages in early modern Europe include:
In general, spelling was not fixed at the time, and can vary greatly. During the medieval period, scribes used various contractions and abbreviations, and printers carried on using these. Each language has its own idiosyncratic usages, and each printing house had its own customs. All this can make deciphering early printed books an exciting adventure.”
--University of Chicago, Guide to Early Printed Books
Early English Books Online (EEBO) is the definitive online collection of early printed works in English. With over 125,000 titles from before 1700, the EEBO contains virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700.
Online archive of eBooks and complete backruns of scholarly journals in a variety of academic fields.
Early Modern Books covers material from the British Isles and Europe for the period 1450-1700. An integrated search across both Early English Books Online and Early European Books allows scholars to view materials from over 225 source libraries worldwide. EEBO's content draws on authoritative short-title catalogues of the period and features many text transcriptions specially created for the product. Content from Europe covers the curated Early European Books Collections from 4 national libraries and London's Wellcome Library.