Medieval Studies Subject Guide — Overview

Please remember that spellings and terms can and do vary from document to document:

• The same person can have his or her last name given as Wiclif, Wicliffe, Wyclif, Wycliff, and Wycliffe. 
• Book can be spelled as bok, boke, and bokke, and dog can be spelled as dogg, dogge, and even as doke.  
• Material on Moors might be written about using such terms as Mudejars, Moriscos, and Saracens.
• Bratislava, Pozsony, Pressburg, and Prešpurská are all names for the same place. Similarly, the same city can have its name spelled Florentia, Fiorenze, Florenz, Firenze, and Florence.  Madrid was at one time Mayrit.

Researchers should whenever possible consult the database's thesaurus or, if none exists, consider the variant spellings and alternative terms that may be used.  External sources such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names, available from the Getty Research Institute, may be of assistance.