Notes

Primitivism and Related Ideas in Antiquity: Arthur O. Lovejoy, George Boas
This seemed to be one of the more complete works on what I'm trying to research, though it is the first book in an unfinished trilogy, apparently
The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus: Oxford translation
Cited as a contemporary example of the trope, and one of the few contemporary examples I could find an example of
The History of Hayy Ibn Yaqzan: Abu Bakr Ibn Tufail, translated by Simon Ockley, revised by A. S. Fulton
Both a medieval and non-European example, also only major non-European example I could find
Discourse on Inequality: Jean Jacques Rousseau
Claimed to be the original inspiration for the modern concept of the Noble Savage
The Debate on Primitivism in Ancient Rhetoric, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes
A general history of where the public interest in the trope comes from, from the 1960s
The Conquest of Granada by the Spaniards in Two Parts (Acted at thee Theater-Royall): John Dryden
The first use of the actual term in the English language, in the 1700s
The Noble Savage: A Study in Romantic Naturalism: Hoxie Neale Fairchild
A seemingly comprehensive look at it through the ages, as my material for the medieval and early colonial is lacking

This might be expanded, but I don't think I'll have enough time to read all of it as it is. I am almost certainly in over my head, but at this point it's go big or go home! And I could probably get away with reading only the first and last books, and still have enough to write a sufficiently long essay, so we'll see how it plays out.