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The Library

Forty Centuries of Christian Writing

1780 works catalogued century by century, from the literature the Bible was written among to the present — each with a note on what it is, why it lasted, and where to read it.

1101–1200

The Twelfth Century

3 works

c. 1195

Syriac

The Chronicle

Michael the Syrian · 1126–1199

A world chronicle in parallel columns for sacred and secular events, quoting sources back to the sixth century that survive nowhere else.

Miaphysite · ChronicleRead elsewhere

1201–1300

The Thirteenth Century

2 works

c. 1259–1265

Latin

Summa Against the Gentiles

Thomas Aquinas · 1225–1274

Four books arguing the faith without appeal to scriptural authority for the first three, on the grounds that with Muslims and Jews one cannot begin from a shared text.

Scholastic · Systematic theologyRead elsewhere

c. 1274–1276

Catalan

The Book of the Gentile and the Three Wise Men

Ramon Llull · c. 1232–c. 1316

A pagan meets a Jew, a Christian, and a Muslim in a forest; each explains his faith courteously, and the book ends without saying which one the gentile chose.

Western · DialogueRead elsewhere

1301–1400

The Fourteenth Century

1 work

c. 1370–1375

Greek

Apologies and Orations Against Islam

John VI Kantakouzenos · c. 1292–1383

A former emperor's refutation of Islam, drawing on the Latin Qur'an translation and on earlier Greek polemic, written as the Ottomans crossed into Europe.

Byzantine · PolemicRead elsewhere

1401–1500

The Fifteenth Century

3 works

1453

Latin

On the Peace of Faith

De Pace Fidei

Nicholas of Cusa · 1401–1464

Written weeks after Constantinople fell: representatives of every nation and religion meet in heaven and find that beneath the variety of rites there is one faith.

Western · DialogueRead elsewhere

c. 1455

Greek

The Confession of Faith to Mehmed II

Gennadios Scholarios · c. 1400–c. 1473

A summary of Christian doctrine written at the sultan's request by the first patriarch appointed after the conquest, phrased to be intelligible to a Muslim reader.

Byzantine · ConfessionRead elsewhere

1461

Latin

A Sifting of the Qur'an

Cribratio Alkorani

Nicholas of Cusa · 1401–1464

A close reading of the Qur'an in Latin translation, looking for what in it is true and can be built on rather than only for what can be refuted.

Western · PolemicRead elsewhere

1501–1600

The Sixteenth Century

1 work

c. 1543–1559

Arabic

The Conquest of Abyssinia

Futuh al-Habasa

Arab-Faqih · 16th century

A Muslim chronicler's account of the invasion that destroyed most of Christian Ethiopia's churches and manuscripts in the 1530s and 1540s.

Ethiopian · HistoryRead elsewhere