The Library
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.
1600–1501 BC
1 work
c. 1550 BC; older material, copied for centuries after
Egyptian
The Book of Coming Forth by Day
Anonymous
Spells written on papyrus and buried with the dead to get them safely through. At the centre is the weighing: the heart set against the feather of truth while the deceased denies forty-two sins one by one — I have not stolen, I have not caused pain, I have not held back water in its season.
301–400
1 work
c. 380–400
Greek
Visio Pauli
Anonymous
An account of what Paul saw when he was caught up to the third heaven and said he could not tell. An angel takes him to watch souls met at death by their own deeds, then through the city of Christ and out to the punishments — each fitted to its sin, and clergy among the worst off. At the end the damned are granted a day's respite every Sunday, because Paul and Michael ask for it.
1101–1200
1 work
c. 1098–1101
Latin
Honorius Augustodunensis · c. 1080–c. 1154
A pupil asks and a master answers: on God, on creation, on why infants die, on what the damned suffer, on whether the blessed will see their friends in hell.
3 of 1780 works