Resources for Medieval Studies students
King's Manor library
The Centre has the King's Manor library on its doorstep with its particularly rich collections of books on medieval art, architecture and stained glass.
It also contains an extensive slide collection, and the collected dissertations of previous MA students.
York Minster Library and Archives
York Minster Library is a short walk from the King's Manor, with a collection of some 120,000 volumes.
It is particularly useful for books on medieval theology, ecclesiastical history, medieval art and architecture (especially stained glass), and medieval York and Yorkshire.
Students at the CMS also have access to the York Minster Archives, with its collection of archives and manuscripts.
The Borthwick Institute for Historical Research
Based on campus, the Borthwick Institute is one of the biggest archive repositories outside London, containing material from the 12th century to the present day.
Arts and Humanities Research Centre
The University's Arts and Humanities Research Centre on campus is a valuable resource available to our postgraduate students. This new centre has been created to foster interdisciplinary relationships and support activities across the arts and humanities at York.
The Centre supports the career development of postgraduate students by offering workshops and interdisciplinary training programmes, funding research projects and events, and offering scholarship funding to third year postgraduate students.
A two-floor, wireless, working area for postgrads with great views over the lake and woods on campus is also there for all postgrads to use – useful for trips to the main JB Morrell library on campus.
Working space
The King's Manor has its own PC room, and there is plenty of space for quiet work in the King's Manor library.
Many research students appreciate the supportive atmosphere of the PhD workroom, which has three PCs and a printer.
The City of York
Perhaps the greatest resource is the city of York itself. No other city in the UK can rival York as a place to study the Middle Ages, and teaching and research at the CMS makes full use of it. In terms of medieval buildings, York is still dominated by the Minster (whose treasures include the most complete collection of medieval stained glass in Britain) and its medieval city walls.
Medieval York had almost 40 parish churches, eight monasteries and friaries and countless chapels and chantries, and many of these buildings survive today. Of secular buildings medieval houses, guildhalls and the four great gates to the city, survive.
Further afield, but only a field trip's distance away, are some of the greatest medieval abbeys in England, Fountains, Rievaulx and Jervaulx, important castles like Middleham, Bolton and Skipton, and the deserted village of Wharram Percy.
