WWW VL Search Facility. World Wide Web Virtual Library central catalogue. WWW VL Main History Index andSites Maintainers. About the WWW VL History Project. EUI's Library and History & Civilisation Department Web Sites.

The Historical Index of Religious Missions lists more than 800 sites providing information for the study of the proselytisms in the past and present. Proselytism is understood here in a broad perspective, as the movement of faiths, rituals, beliefs, practice and people... continues at the bottom of the page

Historical Index of Religious Missions Indexes of Virtual Resources of Religious Missions: Materials Bibliographies, Databases, Encyclopedias-Dictionaries, Maps, Media-News, Pictures, Statistics, Texts

WWW VL European History Project at the European University Institute - Florence - Italy:

Film History | Dutch History | European Integration History | Finnish History | History and Images | Italian History | Romanian History
Russian History | Spanish History | Swedish History

Bibliographies

• Bibliografia Internacional dos descobrimentos e encontros ultramarinos (by Alfredo Pinheiro Marques, Prof. of History at the University of Coimbra, Portugal). E-mail: alfmarq.cemar@mail.telepac.pt.
• WWW-VL: HISTORY: BIBLIOGRAPHY AND GATEWAYS. Lists some 50 sites. E-mail: lhnelson@raven.cc.ku.edu.

Databases

• American Memory (National Digital Library, Library of Congress). "A gateway to rich primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States. The site offers more than 7 million digital items from more than 100 historical collections.
• The Barren Lands (University of Toronto Library, Canada). "...Drawing on materials from the J.B. Tyrrell, James Tyrrell and related collections at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto, it includes over 5,000 images from original field notebooks, correspondence, photographs, maps and published reports."
• Biblioteca Electrónica Cristiana (Perú). Offers a long list of Catholic texts, pictures, data.
• English Literature and Religion (by William S. Peterson, Professor of English, University of Maryland, College Park, U.S.A.). Excellent site: "The main feature of this Web site is a large bibliographical database about religious aspects and backgrounds of English literature, from the Middle Ages to the present century, with primary (though not exclusive) emphasis upon writers within the Anglican tradition." E-mail: wsp@wam.umd.edu.
• Grace For Today. Partially on-line Database with articles, sermons, pictures on religious matters. E-mail: philmar7@cfl.rr.com.
• Index to the Mission Mobilizers Database v.98. "This database is an organized collection of all the Mission Mobilization Resources covered in the Brigada-orgs-missionmobilizers conference from March 1995 through June 1998." E-mail: info@cproject.com.
• Malaspina. Database of full-text Great Books, from Antiquity to the Present.
• Trinity Communications Research Database. A list of databases provided by PetersNet, a catholic search and documentary service by Trinity Communications.
• WWW Database of Chinese Buddhist texts. "Comprehensive list of Chinese Buddhist texts. It currently contains 4418 texts by 1513 authors/translators/compilers." By Christian Wittern. E-mail: cwitter@gwdg.de.
• WWW-VL History Index-Databases. Offers some 50 sites with databases. E-mail: lhnelson@raven.cc.ku.edu.

Encyclopedias-Dictionaries

• Britannica.com. Electronic site of the famous Encyclopaedia Britannica.
• Cartage. (Central Array of Relayed Transaction for the Advance of General Education; Opus Libani, Lebanon). "A network of operation that include a network and an information technology system in order to provide support to the education community in Lebanon and the Middle East. CARTAGE enables participating schools and individuals to share various data and resources through a central facility.
• The Catholic Encyclopedia. An excellent tool for research. E-mail: knight@newadvent.org.
• The Ecole Intitiative, Creating a Hypertext Encyclopedia of Early Church History on the WWW (by Karen Rae Keck and Norman Hugh Redington, St. Pachomius Library-General editors). "The Early Church On-Line Encyclopedia (Ecole) Initiative is a cooperative effort on the part of scholars across the internet to establish a hypertext encyclopedia of early Church history (to the Reformation) on the World-Wide Web. In principle, authors of the various articles that make up the encyclopedia maintain their own articles at their own locations."
• Enciclopedia Multimediale delle Scienze Filosofiche (Italy).
• Encyclopedia Astronautica (by Mark Wade). E-ncyclopedia of space matters. E-mail: markwade@compuserve.com.
• Encyclopedia.com (by Electric Library). Really interesting encyclopedia: "the Internet's premiere free encyclopedia! Newly updated and expanded with more than 50,000 articles plus links giving you access to millions of articles and pictures in Electric Library, Encyclopedia.com puts tons of information right at your fingertips."
• The Encyclopaedia of the Orient. Very interesting encyclopedia on oriental topics.
• Episcopologio de la Iglesia Católica en Cuba - Diccionario Biográfico (by Salvador Miranda).
• Kirchenlexikon (by Verlag Traugott Bautz, Herzberg, DE). Extraordinarily helpful and large encyclopedia-dictionary of the Church. E-mail: www@mail.bautz.de.
• Vidaslusofonas (coord. F. Correia Da Silva. Lisboa-PT). Includes some biographies to important Portuguese historical figures.

Maps

• Cultural Maps. "Dedicated to the graphical presentation of non-graphical information -- whatever that turns out to mean. At present, it has something to do with maps in the ordinary and normal sense of the term; the immediate goal is to build a digital American Historical Atlas... Eventually, this space will come to include graphs, charts, and images, in fact anything that serves as a concrete and physical representation of abstract ideas and intangible feelings." There are some interesting articles about cosmography and mapmaking. E-mail: asgrp@virginia.edu.
• David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. Excellent collection of electronic historical maps: "The David Rumsey Collection focuses on 18th and 19th century North and South American cartographic materials. The collection includes atlases, globes, school geographies, maritime charts, and a variety of separate maps including pocket, wall, children’s and manuscript maps." E-mail: rumsey@luna-img.com.
• Formation of the California Missions (by Ed Stephan). Maps on the California Missions' History. E-mail: stephan@cc.wwu.edu.
• Historical and Political Maps of the Modern Age (by Joaquín de Salas Vara de Rey). Personal page with elctronic historical maps. E-mail: naoero1968@eresmas.net.
• Historical Maps (by the University of Illinois Library). "The 84 records contained here show North America, the Northwest Territory, the state of Illinois, and counties and townships within the state, as well as historical maps of North America. These range in time from 1650 to 1994."
• Historical Maps Index (by Michael Ritz). Search Index for map collections in the Internet. E-mail: mritz@gmx.de.
• Nationalgeographic.com-Maps and Geography (by the National Geographic Society). Interesting page providing historical maps and exploration maps. E-mail: webmaster@nationalgeographic.com.
• Map images and GIS data (by the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, U.S.A.). Site providing electronic access to map images and GIS (Geographic Information Systems). E-mail: ebm@larp.umass.edu.
• Mappe di citta (by Marco Capurro, Genova-IT). Site providing some very interesting map scans. E-mail: capurromrc@colrag.ge.it.
• Perry-Castañeda Map Collection (by the University of Texas). Marvellous collection of on-line maps. E-mail: www@lib.utexas.edu.
• The World of Maps: Internet catalogue ("Maps - worldwide"). Provides a very good catalog of maps in the Internet. E-mail: juerg.buehler@library.ethz.ch.
• WWW-VL: HISTORY: MAPS . Provides a list with some 50 sites. E-mail: lhnelson@raven.cc.ku.edu.

Media-News

Pictures

• AltaVista - Image Search. Mail.
• Art & Architecture (by Michael Greenhalgh, The Sir William Dobell Foundation Professor of Art History, The Australian National University). Contains "some 185,000 images - about 95 gigabytes of material", mainly from the Mediterranean Basin. E-mail: Michael.Greenhalgh@anu.edu.au.
• Art History: Resources on the Web. A very interesting art site created by Dr. Christopher L.C.E. Witcombe, a Professor of Art History at Sweet Briar College, Sweet Briar, Virginia, U.S.A. E-mail: witcombe@sbc.edu.
• Christus Rex Index.
• Historic Cities (the Historic Cities Center of the Department of Geography, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Jewish National and University Library, Israel). "This site contains maps, literature, documents, books and other relevant material concerning the past, present and future of historic cities and facilitates the location of similar content on the web."
• Mission Churches of the Sonoran Desert (by Dr. James S. Griffith, University of Arizona Library's Southwest Folklore Center, U.S.A., teacher and lecturer on Southern Arizona folkarts). Very interesting article providing text, bibliography and pictures of Jesuit Missions in Arizona. E-mail: jgriffit@bird.library.arizona.edu.
• Papal Symbols. Some images related to the Papal figure.
• Space Pix. Provides many detailed pictures of space machinery. E-mail: Webmaster@SpacePix.net.

Statistics

• General Gazetter of the Known World 1823. On-line text (up to now only partially available) of an important historical document. E-mail: cda@vii.com.
• Rulers. "This site contains lists of heads of state and heads of government (and, in certain cases, de facto leaders not occupying either of those formal positions) of all countries and territories, going back to about 1700 in most cases. Also included are the subdivisions of various countries (the links are at the bottom of the respective country entries), as well as a selection of international organizations." E-mail: editor@rulers.org.
• TAG Net (Three Angels Global Networking Statistics). Offers statistics related to Christian and Adventists sites.
• World Roots-Genealogy Archives (by Brigitte Gastel Lloyd). A personal page devoted to Royal families and genealogies. E-mail: Brigitte@qrz.com.
• World Statesmen. This site is a collected database of the leaders of nations, colonies, international and religious organizations, and other polities since about the year 1700. Including flags, political parties, links to maps, constitutions, and national anthems.

Texts

• All Ecumenical Councils - All the Decrees. Hungarian site with a long list of catholic counciliar texts. E-mail: csm@privigye.piar.hu.
• The Book of Abraham Project. Hosted at the Brigham Young University. Web project aimed at providing texts of early Christianity as well as of latecomers such as the Mormons, of whom it has an interesting collection : "Journals, Diaries, Biographies and Autobiographies of Some Early Mormons and Others Who Knew Joseph Smith, Jr. and/or His Contemporaries." E-mail: boap@rhapsody.math.byu.edu.
• The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church (Florida International University Library, University Park, Miami, FL-USA). Very useful site providing a General list of Cardinals since 1059, links to Cardinal Pages, Photo Galleries and Bibliograpghy. E-mail: mirandas@fiu.edu.
• CARRIE: An Electronic LIbrary: Catholic Church (by the University of Kansas, U.S.A.). Gate to Catholic sites. E-mail: carrie@falcon.cc.ku.edu.
• The Catholic Goldmine. A well managed personal site Dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus & The Immaculate Heart of Mary. Includes many Catholic texts and sites.
• The Church and Computer Culture (by John Paul II). "The Church Must Learn to Cope With the Computer Culture": a very interesting text that deserved to be presented here. Hosted at St. Michael's Call.
• Fields International. "One one of our goals is to produce multimedia publications which help motivate Christians to fulfill their God-ordained responsibilities in world evangelism. These publications are designed to encourage Christians in three vital areas: Praying, Giving, Going!". They have an excellent A/Z Index of mission sites. E-mail: dfowler@peakonline.com.
• In Defense of the Roman Catholic Church. "This web site was developed mainly for non-Catholic Christians, but is also for Catholics who want to defend their faith against Protestantism/Fundamentalism." E-mail: catholic1966@home.com.
• Gallica (Bibliothèque Nationale de France)." Excellent site offering on-line an extensive list of full-text documents, among them of missionaries and explorers.
• In Parentheses (hosted at Your University, UK). Devoted to distributing texts, translations, and commentaries from a wide variety of areas and disciplines in an elegantly presented form.
• InterGalactic Library. "This web presentation contains Links to many of the Electronic Texts that are stored on the Internet, particularly those texts and sites that deal with the following subjects: Religion, Psychology, Alchemy, Philosophy, Mysticism, Languages, the Arts, and the Sciences." E-mail: Dennis@DHouchin.Com.
• Internet Quick Reference: Electronic Journals and Texts : Religious Texts. List of Texts and Journals related to Christianity, Bible, Mormons, etc. By the Indiana University Bloomington Libraries. E-mail: libweb@www.indiana.edu.
• IPL General/Reference Collection: Sacred & Other Religious Texts. Interesting and numerous links to religious and sacred resourcesInternet Public Library. E-mail: ipl@ipl.org.
• Gospel Doctrine Lesson Links. List of resources from various religious groups. By the LDSCN. E-mail: lynne@ldscn.com.
• The Magisterium: Encyclicals, Catechisms, Papal Documents. "This web page (under construction) has the unique aim of listing all kinds of papal and magisterial documents on one page."
• Materials on igo's and law (Michigan State University Libraries, U.S.A.). Excellent list of materials. It is presented as a "brief guide to the some of the more useful research tools related to the international governmental organization (IGO) materials collected at MSU." E-mail: schaubm1@mail.lib.msu.edu.
• Mother Teresa: In Memoriam. Pictures and texts from and related to Mother Teresa.
• RCNet - A Catholic Network. "Our mission is twofold: to offer safer Internet access to individuals, families, and organizations, and to assist Catholic dioceses, parishes, schools and organizations in establishing their presence on the Web, thus helping to strengthen the Catholic Community on the Internet." Contains a long list of Documents of the Roman Catholic Church. E-mail: info@rc.net.
• Religion-Online. "Designed to assist professors, scholars and general "seekers" who are interested in exploring religious issues. Contains more than 2,100 articles and chapters. Topics include Old and New Testament, Theology, Ethics, History and Sociology of Religions, Comparative Religion, Religious Communication, Pastoral Care, Counseling, Homiletics, Worship, Missions and Religious Education." E-mail: fore@home.com.
• Religious and Sacred Texts (by Davidwiley.com.). "Can two religious systems whose teacings are in direct conflict both be correct? The truth is out there. These religious texts are presented for your exploration, in the hope that you will find it." E-mail: david@davidwiley.com.
• Religious Studies Web Guide-Electronic Texts. "The following links provide access to variety of sites for religious texts." By the University of Calgary. E-mail: lipton@acs.ucalgary.ca.
• Religious Texts and Resources. This is a very interesting site with many links to texts from all religions and cults. By the University of Pennsylvania, Shcool of Arts and Sciences, Department of Religious Studies. E-mail: kbanner@ccat.sas.upenn.edu.
• Religious.Texts in the ETEXT Archives (by Paul Southworth). "Home to electronic texts of all kinds, from the sacred to the profane, from the political to the personal. E-mail: www@etext.org.
• Roman Catholic Documents. Texts from many religious traditions. By the Flora Lamson Hewlett Library • Graduate Theological Union Berkeley, California. E-mail: gtuweb@gtu.edu.
• Sion Herald of Mission. "A shared resources of mission theology for missiological studies in Christian theology and modern culture, highlighting the themes of preaching and mission in our modern culture."
• The Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz Project. The Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Project consists of an electronic edition of her complete works based on the text of Adolfo Méndez Plancarte and Alberto G. Salceda. Sponsored by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire.
• Theology Resources. "Links to theological resources, church presence, and creative ministry on the Web." E-mail: cybrmin@aol.com.
• Thesaurus Precum Latinarum Treasury of Latin Prayers (by Michael Martin). This site offers various religious texts in Latin, such as Symbola, Orationes, Calendarium, Liturgua and Sacramenta. E-mail:martinus@unidial.com.
• Two Thousand Years of Catholic Writings. "This page lists Catholic writings that can be read on the Net, listed by author in roughly chronological order." E-mail: spok+catholic@cs.cmu.edu.
• World History Archives. "A collection of documents for teaching and learning about world history from a working class perspective." E-mail: brownh@hartford-hwp.com.
• WWW-VL HISTORY: ELECTRONIC TEXTS. Provides some 50 sites. E-mail: lhnelson@raven.cc.ku.edu.

About the Historical Index of Religious Missions

(Continues from the top of the page) Although a large amount of the information concerns only Christian missions, I intend to provide information regarding other confessions, such as Buddhism, Islam or Judaism, and also proselytisms from the secular world: IGO's, NGO's, etc. The Index could also be used as a source of data in itself, a research tool on the ways traditional and new confessions try to communicate through the Internet.

The Historical Index of Religious Missions is made of different pages which are always under construction. You will find Virtual Resources produced all over the world world dealing with the past and present of the Religious Missions. The documents and materials found on this site should not be taken to reflect the view of the editor.
The URL of this page is [http://vlib.iue.it/hist-religious-missions/Index.html].
The Religious Missions Index is a joint project between the European University Institute's Library and theHistory & Civilisation Department .
The Religious Missions Index became part of the WWW-VL History Network in May 2001.


About the WWW-VL and the WWW-VL History Network

The World Wide Web Virtual Library is a collection of subject related Websites maintained by institutions throughout the world, each administering a different subject. The project is now managed by an independent committee made up of maintainers of various subject areas. For more information on the WWW-VL Main Project, go to [ http://www.vlib.org/AboutVL.html ] and for more information on the History Network Project, go to
[ http://vlib.iue.it/history/about/about.html ]

About the Maintainer

The page is managed by Andreu Martínez d'Alòs-Moner [andres.martinez@iue.it].
Please direct your notices of new URL's or inoperative links to him here.

This page is updated every two/three months. Last updated: 1st of May 2003.