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. 238
Greek
Gregory Thaumaturgus · c. 213–c. 270
A farewell speech by a departing student describing exactly how Origen taught: logic first, then physics and ethics, then philosophy read widely, and scripture last of all.
301–400
2 works
c. 370
Greek
Basil the Great · c. 330–379
Advice to his nephews on reading pagan authors: take what is useful as bees take from flowers, and leave the rest.
389
Latin
De Magistro
Augustine of Hippo · 354–430
A conversation with his teenage son Adeodatus about how words mean anything at all, concluding that no human being teaches another and that Christ teaches within.
401–500
2 works
c. 410–430
Latin
De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii
Martianus Capella
An allegorical wedding at which each of the seven liberal arts appears as a bridesmaid and delivers a summary of her discipline.
397–426
Latin
De Doctrina Christiana
Augustine of Hippo · 354–430
How to read the Bible and how to preach it: signs and things, the rule of love as the test of any interpretation, and a final book on using classical rhetoric without being used by it.
501–600
5 works
c. 500–510
Latin
De Institutione Musica
Boethius · c. 477–524
Music treated as a branch of mathematics rather than an art, dividing it into the music of the cosmos, of the human person, and of instruments.
c. 526
Latin
Institutiones Grammaticae
Priscian
Eighteen books on Latin, written at Constantinople for Greek-speaking officials, quoting several hundred Latin authors — many of whom survive only in these citations.
c. 542
Latin
Instituta Regularia Divinae Legis
Junillus Africanus
A catechism-style introduction to reading scripture — its kinds of book, its authority, its style — adapted from a Syriac original of the school of Nisibis.
c. 540–548
Latin
Expositio Psalmorum
Cassiodorus · c. 485–c. 585
A commentary on all one hundred and fifty psalms that pauses constantly to identify figures of speech, treating the psalter as a textbook of rhetoric as well as prayer.
c. 560–562
Latin
Institutiones
Cassiodorus · c. 485–c. 585
A reading programme for the monks of his own foundation: first the books of scripture and their commentators, then the seven liberal arts, with instructions on copying accurately.
601–700
2 works
c. 620–636; unfinished at his death
Latin
Etymologiae
Isidore of Seville · c. 560–636
Twenty books explaining the whole of knowledge by way of the origins of words — grammar, medicine, law, God, animals, ships, farming, furniture.
c. 670–690
Latin
The school of Theodore and Hadrian
Classroom notes from the school at Canterbury, explaining biblical words with reference to Greek, Syriac usage, and the actual geography of the Near East.
701–800
3 works
c. 765–790
Old High German
Anonymous, probably at Freising
A Latin synonym dictionary with German equivalents written above the words, beginning at abrogans and running through some thirty-five hundred entries — made so that monks whose Latin was shaky could read the fathers.
789
Latin
Admonitio Generalis
Charlemagne and his court
Eighty-two chapters ordering the clergy of the empire to correct their books, learn the creed and the Lord's Prayer, preach in a language people understand, and open schools.
c. 784–796
Latin
Epistola de Litteris Colendis
Charlemagne, drafted by Alcuin · Charlemagne, c. 748 – 814
A circular to the monasteries observing that letters arriving from them are devout in sentiment and illiterate in grammar, and reasoning that if men cannot get the words right they will get the meaning wrong. Every house is to teach letters properly.
801–900
3 works
802
Latin
Alcuin of York · c. 735–804
A summary of Augustine's trinitarian teaching in three short books, followed by twenty-eight questions and answers for classroom use.
819
Latin
De Institutione Clericorum
Rabanus Maurus · c. 780–856
What a priest must know: the orders of ministry, the sacraments, the liturgical year, and then a full defence of studying grammar, rhetoric, and the pagan classics.
c. 890–896
Old English
Alfred the Great · 849–899
Gregory's handbook for bishops translated into English by a king, with a preface lamenting that learning had so decayed that few south of the Humber could understand Latin.
901–1000
4 works
c. 10th century
Latin
Attributed to Theodulus
A singing contest in thirty-seven verse exchanges: Pseustis the shepherd offers a pagan myth, Alithia the shepherdess answers with the scriptural story that matches and outdoes it, and Phronesis judges. Deucalion is answered by Noah, Prometheus by Adam.
c. 995–1005
Latin
Ælfric of Eynsham · c. 955–c. 1010
A Latin conversation practice in which a teacher questions boys playing a ploughman, a shepherd, a fisherman, a hunter, and a merchant about their work.
c. 992–1002
Old English
Ælfric of Eynsham · c. 955 – c. 1010
Latin grammar explained in English for boys who had none, with a glossary of some three thousand words grouped by subject — parts of the body, birds, tools, church furnishings — and a preface saying he wrote it because the teaching had decayed.
c. 991–998
Latin
Richer of Reims
A monk of Reims on the last Carolingians and the Capetian accession, written for his teacher Gerbert and preserving a long account of Gerbert's own schooling — the abacus, the armillary sphere, the organ, and a public disputation lasting a full day.
1001–1100
1 work
c. 1010–1012
Old English
Byrhtferth of Ramsey · c. 970–c. 1020
A textbook on the calendar and the computus in Latin and English by turns, wandering into numerology, the four elements, and complaints about lazy priests.
1101–1200
4 works
c. 1125–1130
Latin
Hugh of Saint Victor · c. 1096–1141
What to read and in what order, dividing all knowledge into theoretical, practical, mechanical, and logical, and insisting the mechanical arts belong in the scheme.
1159
Latin
John of Salisbury · c. 1120–1180
A defence of the study of logic and grammar against those who want students hurried to profitable subjects, with vivid recollections of the masters he studied under in Paris.
1179
Latin
The Third Lateran Council
Twenty-seven canons requiring a two-thirds majority for papal elections, a free school in every cathedral, and measures against usury, Cathars, and lepers' exclusion from churches.
c. 1167–1185
Latin
Hortus Deliciarum
Herrad of Landsberg · c. 1130–1195
An illustrated compendium of theology, history, and natural science compiled by an abbess for the education of her nuns, with over three hundred miniatures.
1201–1300
1 work
c. 1250
Latin
Robert Kilwardby · c. 1215–1279
A map of all the sciences and their relations to one another, written for students entering the arts faculty and needing to know what they were studying.
1401–1500
1 work
c. 1400–1430
Latin
The Brethren of the Common Life
Arrangements for households of men or women living together in shared work and prayer without vows, supporting themselves by copying manuscripts.
1501–1600
2 works
1518, expanded to 1533
Latin
Colloquia Familiaria
Desiderius Erasmus · c. 1466–1536
Dialogues written to teach schoolboys Latin, which grew into satires on pilgrimages, relics, monastic vows, soldiering, and arranged marriage.
1560
Scots
John Knox and colleagues
A blueprint for a reformed Scotland: a school in every parish, a college in every burgh, universities reformed, and church lands used for ministry, education, and the poor.
1601–1700
6 works
1619
Latin
Johann Valentin Andreae · 1586–1654
An ideal Christian city on an island where labour is shared, education is free and scientific, and no one is rich or idle.
written c. 1633; published 1657
Latin
Jan Amos Comenius · 1592–1670
A complete art of teaching all things to all people, proposing universal schooling for girls and boys, in the vernacular, in graded stages, without beating.
1658
Latin
Orbis Sensualium Pictus
Jan Amos Comenius · 1592–1670
A picture book teaching Latin and the world together, with numbered images of trades, animals, and the soul, each keyed to a numbered phrase.
1681
French
Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet · 1627–1704
World history written for the dauphin as a single providential design running from creation through Israel and Rome to the church of the present.
1694; second part 1697
English
Mary Astell · 1666–1731
A plan for a religious college where women could study, pray, and teach, free from the marriage market — argued from the equal rationality of women's souls.
1699
French
François Fénelon · 1651–1715
A didactic romance written for the king's grandson, in which a young prince learns that war is a calamity, luxury a poison, and a king exists for his people.
37 of 1780 works