Bibliography of English Women Writers, 1500-1640, has evolved from an effort to compile a “comprehensive” record of often quaint past scholarship on some 180 known women writers into a still-growing list of scholarship about over 700 recovered writers and located texts, canonical and non-canonical. Identifying many hitherto unknown English women writers, 1500-1640, and including among them not only already familiar figures, but also women refugees such as the recusants, women in the colonies, women translators and English women writers in French, Greek, Latin, Spanish, Gaelic and Welsh, the bibliography functions not only as a listing of mushrooming scholarship, but also as a roster of English women writers, 1500-1640.

Preliminaries consist of bibliographies, background studies (i.e., studies providing extended narrative or analysis), reference works (i.e., compendia of entries), anthologies of essays, special issues of journals, genre studies, handbooks (or pedagogical tools), and anthologies of primary sources. Individual listings, the bulk of the bibliography, begin with a main heading supplying the writer’s name and dates, and contain lists of texts (including English Short Title Catalogue numbers or locations of manuscripts), of editions, of anthologies containing parts of texts, of contemporary references (where applicable), of scholarship, and genre notes. “Added entries” supply alternate forms of names and titles; notes provide essential information and acknowledgments to many individual scholars who have kindly responded to the compiler's queries. Travitsky’s goal has been “comprehensiveness,” except for celebrated authors such as Elizabeth I, for whom the scholarship is limited to studies of their writings.

The electronic format facilitates study of these traditionally hard-to-locate writers and their often scattered works; after the initial mounting of this 1,000+ page resource, it will enable its seamless updating and enhancement.

Both individual subscriptions and institutional site licenses will soon be available.

This bibliography is an extensive revision and continuation of Milton: A Bibliography for the Years 1624-1700, published by Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies (MRTS), Binghamton, New York, in 1984, and it is the only Milton bibliography that covers the eighteenth century. The bibliography tries to bring together all manuscripts and editions of Milton's works and all studies and critical statements concerning Milton's life and works, all allusions and quotations, and all significant imitations during the years 1624-1799. Users can browse by century or year, or perform Boolean, keyword or phrase searches. Cross references within the bibliography are hypertext links, allowing for ease of navigation. Shawcross's work represents an invaluable resource for Milton scholars, and literary, history, and publication scholars of both the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Both individual subscriptions and institutional site licenses are available with a subscription to the Iter Bibliography. Complimentary trial subscriptions can also be arranged upon request.

Excerpt from the Preface of Volume 1, New Techologies and Renaissance Studies: "Most certainly, near the forefront of any examination of disciplinary pursuits in the academy today, among the many and very important issues being addressed one will inevitably find the role of computing and its integration into, and perhaps revolutionizing of, central methodological approaches. Published by Iter and the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, the series…addresses this context from both broad and narrow perspectives, with anticipated discussions rooted in literature, art history, musicology, culture, and more in the medieval and Renaissance periods."

Complimentary access to the first volume in the series, New Technologies and Renaissance Studies, edited by William R. Bowen and Raymond G. Siemens, is available to institutional and individual subscribers of any of Iter's resources.