Need help citing primary sources? Here's a guide that might be helpful:

You are taking a history class and you need to write a paper that includes primary documents. Some professors won't let you use electronic sources, or images of primary sources that have been posted online, and others will. Why? And how do you cite primary documents that have been digitized and posted online? Can an URL accurately describe a 15th century manuscript? How do we cite a document like this: 

This guide is an attempt to explain why some academics hesitate to include digitized sources in the category of "primary sources". It offers suggestions on how to cite such digitized documents so that it is clear you are referring to a digitized version of a 15th century manuscript. Someone else digitized the document, and they did so much later than it's original date of creation. Technology allows for the reproduction of images which might look very similar to the original, but is not the same. Our citations need to reflect this.