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.
501–600
1 work
c. 501–513
Latin
Ennodius of Pavia · c. 474 – 521
A bishop of Pavia writing in prose so ornamented that readers have complained about it for fifteen hundred years. The life of his predecessor shows a bishop ransoming captives from Burgundians and Goths and negotiating with kings, because there was nobody else left to do it.
701–800
1 work
c. 787–796
Latin
Paul the Deacon · c. 720–799
The Lombard people from their origins in Scandinavia to the eighth century, told with a storyteller's ear for legend and a courtier's caution.
901–1000
1 work
c. 958–962
Latin
Antapodosis
Liudprand of Cremona · c. 920–972
A history of Italy, Germany, and Byzantium written explicitly to repay enemies, full of scandal, verse interludes, and Greek words showing off the author's learning.
1201–1300
1 work
c. 1282–1290
Latin
Salimbene de Adam · 1221–c. 1290
A gossipy friar's chronicle of everything he saw and heard across Italy and France, including his father's fury at his joining the order and his opinions of everyone.
1501–1600
2 works
assembled 1576 from earlier works
Latin
Peter Martyr Vermigli · 1499–1562
Theological topics extracted from an Italian ex-Augustinian's biblical commentaries, arranged as a system after his death.
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.
6 of 1780 works