Subject encyclopedias can provide detailed and authoritative background information that can help you to begin your research. The articles can define terms, give an overview of a topic and suggest directions for narrowing your research. They can also provide bibliographies of books and articles for more in-depth research.
Cambridge Companion to Machiavelli -- Article-length essays covering various aspects of Machiavelli's life, thought, and influence.
Encyclopedia of the Renaissance. 6 volumes. Available in hard copy in Shannon Library Reference Room, call # CB361 .E52 1999. Covers topics and personalities of the era in which Machiavelli formed his thought.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Scholarly essays on Machiavelli and related topics like "Civic Humanism," and "Political Realism in International Relations." Useful for setting Machiavelli's ideas within a broader philosophical tradition, and for stimulating topic ideas and further reading.
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy -- Concise essays summarizing Machiavelli's life, writings, and thought. Useful for getting a sense of different interpretations of Machiavelli's ideas, and for stimulating further reading.
VIRGO-- The U.Va. Library Catalog
Keyword search should be "Google-like," just enter whatever terms you want; no need for connectors like and.
Will search the title, author's name or description of the item.
There are also some Subject keyword searches that will be helpful [Change drop-down menu to "Subject," will search only the subject headings that have been applied to the item]:
VIRGO Classic In Basic Search mode choose "Begins With" and then select "Subject" when searching for terms like Inquisition--will reveal different subdivisions--like Influence or Political and Social Views.
Google Books Searches the full text of thousands of books. If used in conjunction with Amazon.com full text search of a book, can most of the text of a title for terms of interest and preview quite a few pages. Printing not an option.
Online Books by Niccolo Machiavelli -- Bibliography compiled by John Mark Ockerbloom, a librarian at the University of Pennsylvania. Includes different English translations of The Prince, as well as other works in English and Italian. Use in combination with Google Books and VIRGO's Online facet to find Machiavelli's works online.
Early English Books Online (EEBO) Every significant work published in English from 1475 to 1700. Searchable text and page images. Early English Books includes translations of Machiavelli's works as well as controversial works responding to his ideas. (See for example, Innocent Gentillet's A discourse vpon the meanes of vvel governing ... Against Nicholas Machiavell the Florentine, published in 1602.)
Because of early modern variants in spelling, it may be easier to take advantage of the subject terms. Take advantage of the "Select from a List" options. (You can search within the list.) You can do the same thing for full text keywords, as well as search for variant spellings.)
Historical Abstracts Find articles about the history of the world from 1450 to the present, published in over 2,000 journals from many countries. Includes book reviews. Does not include articles about the US or Canada. For these see America: History & Life.
Can use a wildcard to expand searches: Ha?sburgs (for Habsburgs or Hapsburgs)
Or truncate: reform* to search for reforms, reformers, Reformation
Limit search to a specific time period- Historical Period from 1600 CE to 1700 CE
Philosopher's Index -- Lists and abstracts books and articles in over 300 journals from philosophy and related disciplines.
ATLA Religion Database -- The ATLA database is the most comprehensive collection of scholarly literature related to religious topics, especially theology. Can use wildcard or truncate similar to Historical Abstracts, but there is no way to limit to historical period except by keyword search (ex., Machiavelli and Reformation).
Philosopher's Index
International Medieval Bibliography Citations for articles, books and essays in books on any topic relating to the European Middle Ages (ca. 400-1500). Click the blue Enter Databases button to start and choose Medieval Bibliography from the menu on the next page.
ITER Bibliography Citations to books, essays in books and journal articles on all topics for the Middle Ages and Renaissance (ca. 400-1700). Can sort results by publication type, broad date range, subject or geographical area. Will need to look up citations in VIRGO or Google Scholar to get to full text.
JSTOR Full-text backfiles of many important scholarly journals. Coverage is usually from the first issue to 3-5 years before the present.
Project Muse Full-text articles from humanities and social science journals, in some ways updating content found in JSTOR. A good database for articles related to gender studies and social history.
Unavailable through VIRGO or unavailable in full-text via our article databases does not mean inaccessible or even seriously inconvenient. U.Va. Library has a great interlibrary loan service that should put the needed article in your inbox or the book in your hands within a few days of your requesting it.
Create an account with our Interlibrary Loan Department (log on as first-time user).
Use Worldcat to identify other libraries which should have your book. (Best to stay on UVa Worldcat).
Also, don't forget to Recall items that have been checked out in VIRGO. The borrower of the item has 10 days to return it or have his/her borrowing privileges blocked. (You can also request the title through ILL should recall prove to be a delay.)