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.
1–100
1 work
c. 50–70; reconstructed, no manuscript survives
Greek
Reconstructed
A collection of sayings of Jesus — beatitudes, woes, the Lord's Prayer, the mission charge, the coming judgement — with almost no narrative and no passion account. It exists only as a reconstruction from the material Matthew and Luke share against Mark.
101–200
2 works
c. 100–150
Greek, surviving in Coptic
Anonymous
A philosophical letter to disciples, arguing that the three opinions about the world — chance, providence, and fate — are all wrong, and setting out instead an unbegotten Father and the immortal beings unfolding from him.
c. 150–200
Greek, surviving in Coptic
Sophia Jesu Christi
Anonymous
The risen Saviour appears on a mountain in Galilee as an invisible spirit of light and answers twelve disciples and seven women, delivering the contents of Eugnostos as revelation rather than argument.
301–400
2 works
c. 313–320
Greek
Praeparatio Evangelica
Eusebius of Caesarea · c. 260–339
Fifteen books arguing that Christians were right to prefer Hebrew scripture to Greek philosophy, assembled from enormous quotations of pagan authors.
374–377
Greek
Panarion
Epiphanius of Salamis · c. 315–403
Eighty heresies described and refuted in order, each presented as a snakebite for which the book supplies the antidote, quoting sources now lost.
501–600
1 work
c. 500–530
Latin
Regula Magistri
Anonymous
An enormously detailed and controlling rule for an Italian monastery, prescribing everything from the abbot's absolute authority to who inspects the loaves.
701–800
1 work
c. 740–750
Greek
Sacra Parallela
John of Damascus · c. 675–749
An alphabetical anthology of scriptural and patristic passages arranged by subject, pairing virtues with the vices opposed to them.
801–900
1 work
c. 850
Syriac
Ishodad of Merv · 9th century
Commentaries on the whole Bible in the Antiochene manner, preserving the readings of Theodore of Mopsuestia and other authors whose Greek texts were destroyed.
901–1000
2 works
c. 942
Arabic
Kitab al-Unwan
Agapius of Hierapolis · 10th century
A history from creation to the tenth century preserving material from lost Syriac and Greek chronicles, including notices about the first century.
c. 970–1000
Greek
Anonymous
Thirty thousand alphabetical entries on words, authors, and events, compiled from earlier lexica and scholia by editors who often did not understand their sources.
1001–1100
1 work
27 November 1095; recorded later
Latin
Pope Urban II · c. 1035–1099
The appeal that launched the First Crusade, surviving only in five differing accounts written after the expedition succeeded, each shaped by knowing how it turned out.
1101–1200
3 works
c. 1125
Latin
William of Malmesbury · c. 1095–c. 1143
English history from the Saxon settlement to his own day, written by a librarian who compared his sources and said so when he doubted them.
c. 1140–1150
Greek
John Zonaras · 12th century
A world history from creation to 1118, preserving long stretches of Roman historians whose own texts have since been lost.
c. 1195
Syriac
Michael the Syrian · 1126–1199
A world chronicle in parallel columns for sacred and secular events, quoting sources back to the sixth century that survive nowhere else.
1501–1600
2 works
published 1563
Latin
De Locis Theologicis
Melchor Cano · 1509–1560
A ranking of the sources of theological argument — scripture, tradition, councils, fathers, reason, history — and how much weight each can bear.
recorded 1531–1544; published 1566
German
Tischreden
Martin Luther · 1483–1546
Remarks taken down by students boarding in Luther's house, on theology, marriage, music, his own doubts, his bowels, and the devil.
1601–1700
1 work
1664
French
Louis Abelly · 1604–1691
The first life of Vincent, written four years after his death by a colleague with access to the archives of his congregations.
17 of 1780 works