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.
201–300
1 work
c. 250–300; Papyrus Rylands 470
Greek
Sub Tuum Praesidium
Anonymous
Three lines on a scrap of Egyptian papyrus, asking the Mother of God for shelter and begging her not to overlook the petitions of those in need but to deliver them from danger.
601–700
1 work
c. 660
Latin
Ildefonsus of Toledo · c. 607–667
An ornate defence of Mary's virginity written in a deliberately elaborate style, addressed to three named unbelievers as if in court.
1101–1200
1 work
c. 1119–1125
Latin
Guibert of Nogent · c. 1055–c. 1124
An attack on fraudulent relics and invented saints, prompted by a monastery claiming to own one of Christ's milk teeth, and asking how anyone could verify such a thing.
1201–1300
1 work
c. 1260
Latin
Lignum Vitae
Bonaventure · 1221–1274
Forty-eight meditations on the life, passion, and glory of Christ arranged as fruits on a tree, designed to be memorised and pictured.
1301–1400
3 works
c. 1328–1330
Middle High German
Henry Suso · c. 1295–1366
A dialogue between the Servant and Eternal Wisdom, moving from the sweetness of divine love to the passion, and including a hundred short meditations for daily use.
c. 1300–1350
Latin
Meditationes Vitae Christi
Pseudo-Bonaventure
The gospel expanded with imagined detail — what Mary said to the midwife, how Joseph carried the child — and instructions to picture each scene as though present.
c. 1348–1374
Latin
Vita Christi
Ludolph of Saxony · c. 1295–1378
An enormous meditative life of Christ, gathering patristic comment and asking the reader at every scene to be present in it, to look and to listen.
1401–1500
3 works
c. 1409–1410
Middle English
Nicholas Love · d. c. 1424
An English version of the Pseudo-Bonaventure meditations, expanded with passages defending the eucharist and the church against Lollard objections.
c. 1425–1441
Latin
Thomas à Kempis · c. 1380–1471
The fourth book of the Imitation, circulating separately for much of its history: a dialogue between Christ and the communicant on approaching the sacrament.
first printed 1471
Latin
Thomas à Kempis · c. 1380–1471
The first printed edition of the Imitation, followed by some hundred more before 1500 — one of the most reprinted books of the incunable age.
1501–1600
2 works
1520
Latin
Martin Luther · 1483–1546
Written for a dangerously ill elector as a replacement for the fourteen holy helpers: seven images of evil and seven of good, to be set before a suffering mind.
1589
Italian
Il Combattimento Spirituale
Lorenzo Scupoli · c. 1530–1610
Four weapons for the interior struggle — distrust of self, confidence in God, use of the faculties, and prayer — with no visions and no extraordinary states.
1601–1700
4 works
1605–1610
German
Vier Bücher vom wahren Christentum
Johann Arndt · 1555–1621
An argument that doctrine without a changed life is worthless, drawing openly on medieval mystics to teach repentance, the indwelling Christ, and daily renewal.
1606
Latin
Johann Gerhard · 1582–1637
Fifty-one short meditations on sin, grace, the sacraments, and death, written by a twenty-four-year-old who had nearly died of illness twice.
1609
French
Francis de Sales · 1567–1622
Written for a married noblewoman: devotion suited to the soldier, the tradesman, the married woman, and the widow, since a life of prayer belongs in the world.
1650
English
Jeremy Taylor · 1613–1667
A rule of life for laypeople written during the suppression of the English church — on care of time, purity of intention, sobriety, justice, and religion.
16 of 1780 works