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.
801–900
2 works
c. 860–867
Greek
Photius of Constantinople · c. 815 – c. 893
Includes the two sermons preached while a Rus fleet lay off the city in 860 — an obscure nation, unreckoned, become famous, he says, and the whole city expecting to die — and the homily at the unveiling of the apse mosaic in Hagia Sophia after iconoclasm.
830–882
Latin
Prudentius of Troyes and Hincmar of Reims
The year-by-year record of the West Frankish kingdom kept by two bishops in succession: the division of the empire, the Viking fleets on the Seine and the Loire, the Gottschalk affair, and the embassy of 839 whose members called themselves Rhos and turned out to be Swedes.
901–1000
3 works
c. 948–952
Greek
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus · 905–959
A private handbook from an emperor to his son on the peoples surrounding the empire — Rus, Pechenegs, Serbs, Croats — and how to manage each of them.
c. 967–968
Latin
Adalbert of Magdeburg · d. 981
A continuation of Regino's chronicle to 967 by a monk who had led a failed mission to the Rus and returned with nothing to show for it.
c. 989–992
Greek
Leo the Deacon · c. 950–after 992
An account of the Byzantine wars in Bulgaria, Syria, and against the Rus, written by a court cleric who accompanied one campaign himself.
1001–1100
3 works
c. 1037–1050
Old Church Slavonic
Hilarion of Kyiv · 11th century
A rhetorically brilliant sermon contrasting the law given to one nation with the grace poured out on all, and praising the prince who baptised the Rus.
1073
Old Church Slavonic
Anonymous
An anthology of patristic extracts on doctrine and morals copied for a prince of Kyiv from a Bulgarian original, illuminated with a portrait of the ruling family.
c. 1080–1088
Old Church Slavonic
Nestor the Chronicler · c. 1056–c. 1114
The founder of the Kyiv Caves monastery, who ran away from a wealthy mother to become a monk and insisted on doing the heaviest work himself.
1101–1200
5 works
c. 1106–1108
Old Church Slavonic
Daniil the Pilgrim · 12th century
An abbot from Rus travels to Jerusalem under crusader rule, measures distances between holy sites, and is allowed to place a lamp on the tomb for his own people.
c. 1113
Old Church Slavonic
Povest' vremennykh let
Attributed to Nestor the Chronicler · c. 1056–c. 1114
The history of the Rus from the flood to 1110, including the envoys sent to compare religions who reported that in Constantinople they did not know whether they were in heaven or on earth.
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.
c. 1147–1155
Old Church Slavonic
Kliment Smoliatich · 12th century
A metropolitan of Kyiv defends himself against the charge of vanity for citing Homer, Plato, and Aristotle, and argues for allegorical reading of scripture.
c. 1160–1182
Old Church Slavonic
Kirill of Turov · c. 1130–c. 1182
Festal sermons of high rhetorical polish, giving speeches to biblical figures and describing spring as the resurrection of the world.
1201–1300
4 works
c. 1220–1230
Old Church Slavonic
Anonymous
Stories of the monks of the Caves monastery — an icon painter, a doctor, a miser, a monk tormented by demons — collected from an exchange of letters between two churchmen.
c. 1238–1246
Old Church Slavonic
Anonymous
A short fragment recalling the beauty and strength of the land before the Mongol invasion, breaking off before it reaches the disaster itself.
c. 1270–1275
Old Church Slavonic
Serapion of Vladimir · d. 1275
Five sermons preached after the Mongol devastation, reading the catastrophe as judgement and denouncing the burning of accused witches as pagan cruelty.
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.
1301–1400
2 works
c. 1376–1406
Old Church Slavonic
Cyprian of Kyiv · c. 1336–1406
The correspondence and service-book revisions of a Bulgarian-born metropolitan who brought Byzantine hesychast practice and corrected texts into the Russian church.
c. 1396–1400
Old Church Slavonic
Epiphanius the Wise · c. 1350–c. 1420
The missionary who devised an alphabet for the Komi people, translated the liturgy into their language, and cut down their sacred birch — told in an ornate style of word-weaving.
1401–1500
3 works
c. 1418
Old Church Slavonic
Epiphanius the Wise · c. 1350–c. 1420
The monk who founded the Trinity monastery north of Moscow, blessed Prince Dmitry before Kulikovo, refused the office of metropolitan, and made his own shoes.
c. 1468–1475
Old Church Slavonic
Afanasy Nikitin · d. c. 1475
A merchant from Tver travels to India and records, with real distress, that he has lost track of the Christian calendar and cannot keep the fasts or Easter.
c. 1490–1508
Old Church Slavonic
Ustav
Nil Sorsky · c. 1433–1508
A rule for small skete communities built on hesychast prayer of the heart, on the analysis of the passions, and on monasteries owning no villages or serfs.
1501–1600
4 works
c. 1518–1556
Old Church Slavonic
Maximus the Greek · c. 1475–1556
Translations, textual corrections, and treatises by an Athonite monk brought to Moscow to revise the service books, who was imprisoned for decades for his corrections.
c. 1550
Old Church Slavonic
Attributed to Sylvester of Novgorod
A manual for the Orthodox household covering prayer, obedience, servants, cooking, laundry, brewing, and the correction of wives and children.
1551
Old Church Slavonic
Stoglav
The Council of Moscow
A hundred rulings on icon painting, clerical conduct, folk customs, and liturgical practice, including the two-fingered sign of the cross and the double alleluia.
1564–1579
Old Church Slavonic
Ivan IV and Andrei Kurbsky
A defector accuses the tsar of murdering his own servants; the tsar replies at enormous length that a ruler answerable only to God may do as he pleases with them.
1601–1700
2 works
1666–1667
Russian
The Council of Moscow
The council that deposed Patriarch Nikon, confirmed his liturgical corrections, and anathematised those who kept the old rites and the two-fingered cross.
c. 1672–1675
Russian
Avvakum Petrov · 1620/21–1682
An Old Believer priest's account of exile in Siberia, his wife stumbling in the mud and asking how long it will go on, and his refusal to accept Nikon's corrected books.
28 of 1780 works