Hi everyone,
This is a brief and tentative annotated bibliography of sources for early modern texts in Spanish in OCR formats. I’m working towards a broad compilation of texts, with a focus on those which might be relevant to “cities as theaters of conversion.” There are few specialized host sites, and those that deal specifically with texts from the period tend to focus on Golden Age theater and other texts, and/or texts relating to the conquest of the Americas. Most sites do not allow for searches by year/period, which means we already need to know what we’re looking for in order to find anything.
This is by no means a final draft, and all comments and suggestions are welcome.
Online sources for early modern texts in Spanish
Host sites and portals
“AHCT: Lista de Textos.” Hispanic Classical Theater, Inc. Web. 14 Jan. 2014. http://www.comedias.org/textlist.html.
This site offers a collection of theatrical texts from the Spanish Golden Age (XVI-XVII centuries). Most files are available in plain text format, and some in PDF, HTML and/or Word (.doc).
“Biblioteca Virtual del Patrimonio Bibliográfico.” BVPB. Web. 21 Jan. 2014. http://bvpb.mcu.es/es/estaticos/contenido.cmd?pagina=estaticos/presentacion
Cooperative project between Spanish Ministry of Culture and regional governments. Offers digital editions of manuscripts and printed texts considered to be important to Spanish cultural heritage. Texts are listed by date of printing, not by original year of publication. Interesting source of rare texts, including legal documents, but all the texts are scanned. Linked to Europeana (EU initiative to produce a database of European texts).
“Cervantes Virtual.” Biblioteca virtual Miguel de Cervantes. Web. 23 Jan. 2014. http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/.
Main portal of Spanish and Latin American texts. Contains links to author portals, with large selections of their works. Texts are mostly OCR, but some are PDF or scanned images of original editions. Possibly most comprehensive source of early modern texts in terms of quantity and quality of material, as best as one of the most user-friendly and easy to browse.
“Clásicos en la biblioteca nacional.” Biblioteca Nacional de España. Web. 21 Jan. 2014. http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/bib/portal/bne/obras.shtml/.
Comprehensive and growing collection of digital texts from the Spanish National Library. Offers mostly PDF files for download. Work in collaboration with Cervantes Virtual.
“Clásicos hispánicos.” Centro virtual Cervantes. Web 21 Jan. 2014. http://cvc.cervantes.es/literatura/clasicos/default.htm.
Hosts a handful of classic Spanish texts in OCR. Although there are only a few texts on offer, all the editions are presented and annotated by leading specialists.
“Early Modern Spain: Electronic Texts.” Early Modern Spain. Web 22 Jan. 2014. http://www.ems.kcl.ac.uk/content/etext/idx_title.html.
Small collection of OCR texts from Spanish Golden Age and conquest of the Americas. All texts are OCR and produced by an Anglo-Hispanic research team.
Europeana. Web. 14 Jan. 2014. http://www.europeana.eu/portal/.
Portal with links to associated European libraries which host OCR and scanned image files of texts. Sources for most Spanish texts are the same as those for BVPB. Most texts are scanned manuscripts or facsimiles. Offers convenient search functions, especially a filter which allows limiting search results by year of publication.
“Full Texts Online (Spanish).” University of Texas Libraries. Web. 14 Jan. 2014. http://www.lib.utexas.edu/subject/iberian/fulltextspa.html.
Hosts plain text and PDF files, as well as links to other host portals and sites. Categorized by type of texts, from classical poetry to conferences and graduate theses.
Gómez –Martínez, José Luis. “Antología del ensayo hispánico.” Proyecto ensayo hispánico. 23 Jan 2014. http://www.ensayistas.org/antologia/.
Hosts a wide variety of essays in Spanish. Dates range from late Middle Ages to XXI century. Titles may be browsed alphabetically (by author) or by period (century). Texts are organized by author (some works are broken down into different links). Some texts are incomplete.
Planeta Libro. Web. 14 Jan. 2014. planetalibro.net.
Hosts “over 9.000 books in public domain,” organized by author and topic. All books are available for download in various formats. Requires scrolling through authors and knowing their respective historical periods to identify sources for early modern texts.
“Textos LEMIR.” Parnaseo. Web. 14. Jan. 2014. http://parnaseo.uv.es/Lemir/Textos/index.htm.
Hosted by the University of Valencia’s LEMIR journal (Medieval and Renaissance Spanish Literature). Hosts plain text, HTML and PDF files of texts intended for researchers and specialists. Texts range from late XV to early XVIII century. Some texts include access to scanned images of facsimiles (mainly cover pages).
Sites and portals with links to hosts and source sites
“ACILBUPER: los clásicos de las ciencias sociales” AILBUPER. 14 Jan. 2014. http://acilbuper.webcindario.com/losclasicos_a.htm#Afd.
Links to assorted and broadly varied “classic” texts in Spanish and “classic” Hispanic texts from all fields of the humanities. Most files are in PDF format, some in plain text or HTML. Unfortunately, many (if not most) of the links are dead.
López Nieves, Luis. “Bibliotecas digitales públicas.” Ciudad Seva. http://www.ciudadseva.com/enlaces/bibelec.htm.
Portal with links to most major collections of online texts. Hosted by Puerto Rican novelist. Exhaustive list of links, categorized into “general” and “specialized” sections, with brief descriptive titles. One of the best sources for portals and host sites.
“Bibliotecas virtuales.” Bibliotecas virtuales. Web. 21 Jan 2014. http://www.bibliotecasvirtuales.com/
Hosts a variety of texts and provides links to other source sites. Worth re-visiting to explore new additions (especially links). Challenging to navigate, often redundant.
“Libros colgados: 200 Sitios de Descarga de Libros En Español : Libros Colgados.” Web. 27 Jan. 2014. http://libroscolgados.blogspot.ca/2010/02/89-sitios-de-descarga-de-libros-en.html