A thermophysical study of the sulfur containing amino acids L-cysteine and L-cystine has been carried out by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Heat capacities of both compounds were measured in the temperature interval from T = 268 K to near their respective melting temperatures. DSC and variable temperature powder X-ray diffraction analysis (PXRD) gave evidence for a solid-solid phase transition close to the melting point only in the L-cysteine sample. DSC experiments show that this solidsolid transition is not reversible in the temperature interval T = 235-485 K and presents a behavior depending on heating temperature, time, and rate. This behavior is also supported by variable-temperature PXRD. The patterns for the commercial samples, at room temperature, are consistent with those simulated for the orthorhombic and hexagonal polymorphic forms from the single-crystal X-ray analysis.