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.
1400–1301 BC
1 work
c. 1400 BC
Ugaritic
Ilimilku the scribe
A king who has lost his whole household weeps until El appears in a dream and tells him to march on a distant city and demand its princess. He does, and is granted sons — then falls mortally ill, and his son asks how a son of El can possibly die.
801–900
4 works
c. 855
Latin
De Rectoribus Christianis
Sedulius Scottus · 9th century
Advice to a king in alternating prose and verse: choose counsellors well, tax lightly, protect churches, and remember that a ruler's private vices become public disasters.
860
Latin
Hincmar of Reims · c. 806–882
A long legal opinion on a king's attempt to divorce his queen, covering consent, consummation, sorcery, and the validity of trial by ordeal.
882
Latin
De Ordine Palatii
Hincmar of Reims · 806 – 882
Written for a young king in the last year of Hincmar's life, describing how Charlemagne's court was run — the officers, the twice-yearly assemblies, who advised on what — and arguing that a king who rules without counsel is a tyrant and that the bishops are owed a hearing.
893
Latin
Asser · d. c. 909
A Welsh bishop's account of the king he served, including the illness that plagued him, his late acquisition of Latin, and his reading aloud with his children.
901–1000
2 works
c. 967–973
Latin
Widukind of Corvey · c. 925–after 973
A history of the Saxon people and the Ottonian kings, dedicated to an abbess, and notably reticent about the church for a book written by a monk.
c. 960–980
Old Church Slavonic
Anonymous
The young Bohemian duke raised a Christian by his grandmother and murdered at his brother's door, with the older Slavonic and later Latin versions differing sharply.
1001–1100
1 work
1073–1085
Latin
Pope Gregory VII · c. 1015–1085
The letters of the most combative pope of the Middle Ages, including the two depositions of Henry IV and a long defence of the right to depose kings.
1101–1200
1 work
c. 1117
Old Church Slavonic
Vladimir Monomakh · 1053–1125
A prince's testament to his sons: do not kill the innocent or the guilty without cause, honour guests, learn languages, and never let the sun find you in bed.
1201–1300
3 works
c. 1265–1267; unfinished
Latin
De Regno
Thomas Aquinas · 1225–1274
Written for a king of Cyprus: monarchy is the best form of government and tyranny the worst, and a people may act against a ruler who has broken the terms of his office.
c. 1272–1275
Latin
Geoffrey of Beaulieu · d. c. 1274
The king's confessor for twenty years describes his penances, his care for lepers and the poor, and his habit of hearing legal petitions himself under an oak.
c. 1280–1290
Old Church Slavonic
Anonymous
The prince who defeated Swedes and Teutonic knights while submitting to the Mongols, presented as both a warrior and a saint.
1401–1500
1 work
c. 1441–1450
Ge'ez
Mashafa Berhan
Zar'a Ya'eqob · 1399–1468
An emperor's treatise ordering the observance of both Sabbath and Sunday, condemning magical practices, and defining correct devotion to Mary and the cross.
1601–1700
2 works
1649
English
Attributed to Charles I and John Gauden
Meditations and prayers presented as the king's own, published within days of his execution and showing him at prayer amid his troubles.
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.
15 of 1780 works