Answered Questions

Since you're looking for a primary source, you need a document, image, or artifact that was created by a participant in or an eyewitness of the Crusades. For more help discerning what might be a primary source, see our short video about Primary and Secondary Sources on the Trustee Library's Video Tutorials page.

An easy way to start your research for primary sources is to go to Google and do an initial keyword search for Crusades. You'll see on your results page that this broad search will show you a lot of junk in addition to real sources, so click on the gray gear button in the top-right corner of the page and select Advanced Search.

On the Advanced Search page, find the section to Narrow Your Results By... Site or Domain. (Approximately in the middle of the page.) Type .edu into this box, and click the blue Advanced Search button at the bottom of the page to see all your results that are located in an academic domain.

Many of the academic websites listed in the new results include materials that professors and researchers have made available to university communities, so take a look and see what you find! Here's some examples I saw that might be helpful:

Avalon Project, Medieval Documents: 400-1399
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/medieval.asp
This repository from Yale Law School includes digital translations and reprints of documents like "Laws of Richard I (Coeur de Lion) Concerning Crusaders Who Were to Go by Sea" (1189 A.D.)

Hanover Historical Texts Collection, Medieval Europe, Letters of Crusaders
http://history.hanover.edu/project.php
Hanover College's collection includes a variety of letters written by Crusaders or about the Crusades by their contemporaries.

(Note that these webpages include the information of where the information was originally found, who translated it, or who scanned it. Make sure to give credit as appropriate when using the work.)

Since you'll be composing your work in Chicago/Turabian style, see our resources in our Chicago Manual of Style LibGuide to make sure your paper and references are in the correct format.