Library Guides: ITALIAN STUDIES: Reference Sources

Reference Sources for Italian Studies

Use the following types of reference sources to look up information related to Italian Studies:

Dictionaries, Thesauri and Quotations • Biographical Sources • Encyclopedias and Almanacs • Atlases, Maps and Gazetteers • Web Portals

Dictionaries, Thesauri, and Quotations

General and subject specific dictionaries in any language, dual language dictionaries, thesauri, dictionaries of quotations, and acronym lists.

*Blue asterisk indicates that the resource was recently added to the guide.

Online Resources

A complete list of licensed databases is available through the Library's Electronic Resource Finder.

Oxford Language Dictionaries Online (OLDO) This link opens in a new window
Online versions of the following titles: Oxford-Hachette French Dictionary, Oxford-Duden German Dictionary, Oxford-Paravia Italian Dictionary, Oxford Spanish Dictionary, and the Oxford Russian Dictionary.
Oxford Reference Online - Bilingual Dictionaries This link opens in a new window
Access to several bilingual dictionaries published by Oxford University Press including English to French, Spanish, German, Italian, and Latin. Includes several bilingual business dictionaries.

Available in Print Only

Grande dizionario della lingua italiana. by [Redazione, direttore: Giorgio Bárberi Squarotti]
Call Number: Doe Reference PC1625 .B3 Dictionaries v.1-21
Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso by Tullio De Mauro
Call Number: Doe Reference PC1625 .D38 1999 Dictionaries v.1-7
Lessico universale italiano by Roma : Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana
Call Number: Main Stacks AE35 .L431 v.1-24
Nuovo Devoto-Oli : il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo by Giacomo Devoto, Gian Carlo Oli, Luca Serianni, Maurizio Trifone., comp.
Call Number: Doe Reference PC1625 .D385 2018 Dictionaries
Oxford-Paravia Italian dictionary : English-Italian, Italian-English = Oxford Paravia il Dizionario : Inglese/Italiano, Italiano/Inglese . 3rd ed
Call Number: Doe Reference PC1640 .O95 2010 Dictionaries
Il Ragazzini : dizionario inglese italiano, italiano inglese by Giuseppe Ragazzini
Call Number: Main Stacks PC1640 .R35 2007
Il vocabolario Treccani. by Roma : Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana
Call Number: Doe Reference PC1625 .V53 1997 Dictionaries v.1-5 & online
Il vocabolario Treccani : neologismi by Roma : Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana
Call Number: Doe Reference PC1625 .V536 2008 Dictionaries & online
*Lo Zingarelli 2019 : Vocabolario della lingua italiana : vocabolario della lingua italiana by Nicola Zingarelli
Call Number: Doe Reference PC1625 .Z25 2018 Dictionaries

Biographical Sources

Online Resources

Biography Reference Bank This link opens in a new window
Contains biographical information on approximately 500,000 individuals from antiquity to the present. Contains the full text of well-known biographical resources like Current Biography, the World Authors Series, Nobel Prize Winners, World Artists, World Film Directors and many other sources.

Il Dizionario biografico degli Italiani (Trecccani.it)

Grove Music Online This link opens in a new window
Includes the full text of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. Includes biographical information on composers, performers and music writers.
Literature Resource Center (LRC) This link opens in a new window
Provides access to content of numerous print counterparts including Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Literary Criticism Select, and Dictionary of Literary Biography.
Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new window
Gateway to art research and access point for Oxford art reference resources, including Grove Art Online, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms.
World Biographical Information System This link opens in a new window
Indexes the complete contents of 38 microfiche sets of biographical archives, providing short biographies on more than 3.6 million persons from all periods, countries and regions worldwide. Based on K. G. Saur's microfiche Biographical Archives, which consolidates biographical articles from a wide variety of printed reference works published from the 16th to the 20th century. UCB owns virtually all the microfiche sets which the WBIS indexes.

Available in Print Only

Catalogo dei viventi : 5062 italiani notevoli, 2007 by Giorgio Dell'Arti, Massimo Parrini
Call Number: Doe Reference CT1133 .D45 2006
Dizionario autori italiani contemporanei by Milano : G. Miano
Call Number: Doe Reference PQ4057 .D58 2006
Dizionario critico della nuova letteratura italiana by saggi introduttivi di Marino Biondi, Giancarlo Quiriconi, Silvio Ramat ; con testi di Lia Bronzi [and four others].
Call Number: Main Stacks PQ4057 .D63 2017
Dizionario biografico degli Italiani by Alberto M. Ghisalberti
Call Number: Doe Reference DG463 .D58 v.1-99 (A-Verrazzano-Vittorio Amedeo III) & online
Dizionario ragionato degli scrittori italiani del '900 by Rodolfo Tommasi ; prefazione di Silvio Ramat
Call Number: Main Stacks PQ4057 .T66 2004
Indice biografico italiano = Italian biographical index = Italienischer biographischer Index by Tommaso Nappo
Call Number: Doe Reference CT1131 .I54 2002 v.1-10
The New Century Italian Renaissance Encyclopedia by Catherine B. Avery, ed.
Call Number: Doe Reference DG537.8.A1 N48

Encyclopedias and Almanacs

General or subject-specific encyclopedias, almanacs, and other collections of factual information.

Online Resources

Brill's Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages

Brill's New Pauly This link opens in a new window
Over 27,000 articles which provide comprehensive coverage of the ancient world from the prehistory of the Aegean (2nd millennium BCE) to late antiquity (600-800 CE). The New Pauly Online combines English versions of 1) the Realencyclopadie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, published in German in 68 volumes and 15 supplementary volumes between 1839 and 1980; 2) the abridged version of the Pauly, Der kleine Pauly, published in five volumes between 1964 and 1975; 3) Der neue Pauly, which was published in German in 15 volumes between 1996 and 2003.

L'enciclopedia italiana

Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics This link opens in a new window
Covers the topics in contemporary linguistics from fundamental linguistic disciplines such as phonetics, syntax, and morphology to applications in other disciplines such as anthropology, education, psychology, language acquisition, cognitive science, media, computer science, sociology, medicine, and the law. Includes video, audio, and image files.
Oxford Reference Online - Encyclopedias This link opens in a new window
Access to Oxford University Press encyclopedias including: World Encyclopedia, World Flags, World Maps and more.
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy This link opens in a new window
Includes the entire content of the 10-volume Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Includes links to web resources. (Encyclopedia of Philosophy Online (Routledge))

Available in Print Only

Encyclopedia of Italian Literary Studies by Gaetana Marrone
Call Number: Doe Reference Reference Hall PQ4006 .E536 2007
Enciclopedia italiana di scienze, lettere ed arti by [Roma] : Istituto Giovanni Treccani
Call Number: Doe Reference AE35 .E6 v.1-36
The Feminist Encyclopedia of Italian Literature by Rinaldina Russell
Call Number: Doe Reference PQ4063 .F45 1997
Machiavelli : enciclopedia machiavelliana by / direttore scientifico Gennaro Sasso ; redazione enciclopedia, responsabile: Monica Trecca
Call Number: Graduate Services DG738.14.M2 M15 2014 v.1-3
Medieval Italy : An Encyclopedia by Christopher Kleinhenz
Call Number: Doe Reference Reference Hall DG443 .M43 2004
The New Century Italian Renaissance Encyclopedia by Catherine B. Avery, editor
Call Number: Doe Reference DG537.8.A1 N48

Atlases, Maps and Gazetteers

Online Resources

Columbia Gazetteer of the World This link opens in a new window
Geographical encyclopedia of names, descriptions, and characteristics of more than 165,000 places in the world. Entries include: demography; physical geography; political boundaries; industry, trade, and service activities; agriculture; cultural, historical, and archeological points of interest; transportation lines; longitude, latitude, and elevations; distance to relevant places; pronunciations; official local government place-names and changed or variant names and spellings.

Country studies

David Rumsey Map Collection This link opens in a new window
Contains to date over 8,000 maps online and focuses on rare 18th and 19th century North and South America cartographic history materials. Historic maps of the World, Europe, Asia and Africa are also represented. [Note: This collection is also part of the UC Image Service and can be viewed in two ways: the Insight Browser allows users to view the collection using a web browser; the Luna Insight software provides greater functionality but must be downloaded.]

Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative (ECAI)
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Portal for global mapping, imagery, and texts. Presents combinations of data from multiple disciplines visually and immediately.

Perry-Castaneda Library Map Collection This link opens in a new window
Provides electronic access to approximately 4,000 maps for all regions of the world. Maps cover mostly the 19th and 20th centuries though some represent time periods as far back as 980 C.E.
The World Factbook This link opens in a new window
Provides fundamental and factual reference material on a country or issue including current economic statistics and indicators by country including population, GDP, external debt and birth and death rates. Includes maps.

Available in Print Only

Atlas de la Sardaigne rurale aux 17e et 18e siècles by John Day
Call Number: Earth Science/Map Collection G1989.51.G1 A85 1993 Reference
Atlante della storia d'Italia by Instituto geografico de Agostini
Call Number: Earth Science/Map Collection f G1989.2 .I57 1997
Atlante delle province d'Italia by enna, Alberto.; Rossi, Massimo (Geographer); Gnoli, Bartolomeo.
Call Number: Earth Science/Map Collection G1984.F47 P46 1991
Atlante linguistico italiano by U. Pellis [and others] ; redatto da L. Massobrio [and others].
Call Number: Main Stacks fff PC1711 .A89 1995 v.1 -9
Grande Atlante d'Europa de Agostini by Istituto geografico De Agostini
Call Number: Earth Science/Map Collection f G1797.2 .I8 1992
Lessico universale italiano by Touring club italiano. Servizio cartografico.
Call Number: Doe Reference AE35 .L431 Atlas
*Paesaggi frantumati : atlante d'Italia in numeri by Fabrizia Ippolito.
Call Number: Main Stacks GF91.I8 I76 2019

Web Portals

Web sites and subject-specific search engines available without restriction. See also Italian Libraries and C atalogs under the Research Tools tab.

Europeana This link opens in a new window
Provides open access to more than 15 million digital objects, including film material, photos, paintings, sounds, maps, manuscripts, books, newspapers and archival papers from more than 1500 European institutions. Europeana -- the European digital library, museum and archive -- launched in 2008 and is funded by the European Commission and its member states. This current prototype is one of many parallel projects of The European Library.

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ITALIAN STUDIES: Reference Sources

Reference Sources for Italian Studies

Dictionaries, Thesauri, and Quotations

Biographical Sources

Encyclopedias and Almanacs

Atlases, Maps and Gazetteers

Web Portals