The British Columbia Digital Library

Digital Library Collections By Subject: French Texts

Includes medieval illuminated manuscripts.

See also Canadian Texts Literature: General Works and literature time periods Performing Arts and Women.

• ABU: la Bibliothèque Universelle (l'Association des Bibliophiles Universels, France). As of November 2000, close to 300 online texts by 94 French authors. Established in 1993, site also includes electronic French dictionaries.
• The Age of King Charles V (1338-1380): 1,000 Illuminations from the Department of Manuscripts (Bibliothèque Nationale de France).
• ARTFL Project: Project for American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language (Robert Morrissey, director hosted by the University of Chicago). Collaborative research and digital content production project between the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique's Institut National de la Langue Française and the University of Chicago's Divisions of the Humanities and Social Sciences. Free access to some digital facsimiles with searches of these digital versions restricted to ARTFL subscribers. ARTFL is also involved in production of electronic versions of public domain English language dictionaries and thesauri.
• ATHENA: textes français: la bibliothèque française (Compiled by Pierre Perroud, Switzerland).
• Cefael, Collections de l'Ecole française d'Athènes en ligne (Online Collections of the French School of Athens). Athens, Ecole française d'Athènes, 2003-. Browsable/searchable collection of publications issued by the French School of Athens since the 1870s. The school, founded in 1846,  mainly studies the prehistory and history of Greece, primarily through archaeological data. Date accessed: 2005-10-22. Date added: 2005-10-22.
• The Charette Project (Princeton University and University of Poitiers). Digital version of 12th century romance by Chrétien de Troyes, Le Chevalier de la Charrette.
• Les Classiques des sciences sociales (Jean-Marie Tremblay, Cégep de Chicoutimi, Québec hosted by l'Université du Québec à Chicoutimi). As of November 2001, this digital collection contains over 100 original French language or French translations of works in other languages considered classics of the social sciences. Publications are available as downloadable  Microsoft Word,  Adobe Acrobat PDF files, or as links to external HTML files. Thumbnail digital facsimiles of the monograph's covers are also available.
• Early Modern French Women Writers (Electronic Text Research Center, University of Minnesota).
• France in America = La France en Amérique. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress Paris, France: Bibliothèque nationale de France, 2005-. A Collaborative Digital Library, part of the Global Gateway section of the Library of Congress, this bilingual site " tells the story of the French presence in America and the interactions between the French and American peoples from the early 16th to the late 19th centuries." Date accessed: 2005-05-23. Date added: 2005-05-23.
• French Online Resources (Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library). Searchable/browsable collection of electronic versions of French language works (chiefly literature). Some works are restricted works.
• French Revolutionary Pamphlets (Mark Olsen, ARTFL Project, University of Chicago). As of February 2001, three digital facsimiles of 1790s pamphlets are available.
• Gallica. Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France. Multilingual digital library collection, along with many special contextual presentations most of the digital content, as is the site interface,  is in French. Date added: 2004-04-21.
• Histoire de France: World Wide Web Virtual Library. Extensive links to online publications organized by subject category.
• Laboratoire de Français Ancien, Faculty of Arts, University of Ottawa (Canada). Select the Activités link to access full-text versions of French texts from the 12th through 18th centuries.
• Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution (Center for History and New Media, George Mason University, and American Social History Project (City University of New York). Multimedia browsable/searchable site featuring over 300 transcribed French texts (mostly translated into English), song lyrics (bilingual), maps, images and original essays.
• La Louisiane française, 1682-1803 = French Louisiana, 1682-1803. France: Ministère de la culture et de la communication, 2003. A virtual exhibit on the history of France in the southeastern United States, this bilingual site includes digitized archival and published sources. Date accessed: 2005-05-23. Date added: 2005-05-23.
• The MARGOT Group (University of Waterloo, ON, Canada). The MARGOT (Middle Ages and Renaissance research Group - cOmputers and Texts) group " analyses and publishes texts from the Early Modern period electronically and in paper format." The texts are chiefly French and by women writers. Free registration is required to access the texts which can be searched and displayed in HTML format or downloaded as Adobe Acrobat PDF files.
• New France, New Horizons: On French Soil in America = Nouvelle-France, Horizons Nouveaux: Histoire d'une terre française en Amérique. Ottawa: Library and Archives Canada Paris: Archives de France, 2004-2005. A bilingual site that marks the 400th anniversary of France in North America (1604-2004), featured here are a virtual exhibit based on 350 archival documents that trace the history of New France, and a descriptive database linking to thousands of digitized documents from Canadian and French archives. System requirements: Adobe SVG Viewer for digitized documents. Date accessed: 2005-05-23. Date added: 2005-05-23.
• Pamphlets and Periodicals of the French Revolution of 1848 (University of Chicago Library). Digital facsimiles browsable by title or searchable by title keyword or call number.
• The Songs of Jaufré Rudel by Rupert Pickens. Second, electronic edition of a work originally published by Pickens in 1978 which reproduces and documents seven songs attributed to the medieval troubadour Jaufré Rudel.
• Tennessee Bob's Famous French Links: Books and Literature (Bob Peckham, University of Tennessee, Martin). Most links are cited only by title, but some include a brief description which assists in deciding how relevant the link would be.
• textes rares. Site in French and some English. " Texts and pictures from the 15th to the 19th century." The focus of this site is on the illustrations themselves, not the printed words. Both published and unpublished (manuscript) works are included. Some works are represented as a mixture of digital facsimiles and HTML transcriptions. Date accessed: 2002-02-07. Date added: 2002-02-07.
• University of Alberta, Faculté Saint-Jean, Bibliothèque virtuelle. This collection consists of transcriptions in Rich Text Format (RTF) files of various literary works by several French-Canadian authors.
• Voltaire Foundation (Oxford University). A department of Oxford, the foundation's Web site offers a digital library of Voltaire's writings and research materials into his life and the world of the Enlightenment.

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