Prosopography, Database Design, and Linked Data in the Medieval Londoners Project

Medieval Londoners is a WordPress project designed by Maryanne Kowaleski (Distinguished Professor of History and Medieval Studies) that aims to introduce resources available for research about medieval London and its people, focusing on documentary and narrative sources in print, but also highlighting archaeological and cartographic sources that illuminate the physical and material world that medieval Londoners inhabited. The second and more digitally-innovative component is the Medieval Londoners Database (MLD), which will record the activities of London residents between c. 1100-1520, and will be searchable by name, gender, citizen status, location (ward, parish, and street if available), occupation, civic office, and guild. By offering a curated guide to the plethora of sources for medieval London, this project will provide a useful portal for scholars, students, and the general public seeking to learn more about the medieval capital of England, which was also one of the largest and most important cities in medieval Europe.