Monasterium.net is entirely committed to the scientific cooperation between archives, universities and individual researchers. Therefore, the descriptive units and images can be edited, amended and annotated after a successful registration. By means of the online Editor and annotation tool for images, the community of researchers is able to apply their knowledge to the benefit of everyone, as well as continuously enhance the provided data in a dynamic way.

Free Access

The European archives document the political, economic and cultural development of said geographical space back to the Early Middle Ages. Monasterium.net is dedicated to providing a wide range of historic documents as digital facsimiles at no charge. Monasterium.net, therefore, is the most comprehensive online charters resource of the Middle and Early Modern Ages worldwide.

Highest Standards

The standards, which have been established within the Charters Encoding Initiative for digital, scientific indexing of charters, are implemented in Monasterium.net and help their further development within the context of international research.

International Network

Behind the virtual archive Monasterium.net stands ICARUS, the consortium of archives and international scientific institutions, which continuously exchanges its knowledge and experience. This enables the enlargement of the “Monasterium idea” in terms of general accessibility and contextual development.

Sustainability

With more than 500.000 charters, Monasterium.net has reached a volume that can be called an inimitable “critical mass”. The Medieval and Early Modern chronicles of individual European regions (i.e. Vorarlberg) can already be accessed online almost 100%!

Monasterium has risen to be the biggest, one-of-a-kind virtual archive in the world. Therefore, in comparison with any other type of historical source, it is the most comprehensive, online source of “charters” within Central Europe. It is our goal to continuously develop this online archive, keep its content unfailingly accessible and connect it with further online resources.