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
2 works
c. 583–600
Latin
Leander of Seville · c. 534 – c. 600
A rule written for his own sister Florentina, closing with an unguarded page asking her to pray for him and grieving that their brother died before the conversion; and the sermon preached at Toledo when the Goths came over, which is pure jubilation.
c. 590
Latin
John of Biclaro · c. 540 – c. 621
A continuation of Victor of Tunnuna covering 567 to 590, by a Goth who studied at Constantinople and was exiled for ten years by an Arian king before the conversion he lived to record.
601–700
12 works
c. 598–615
Latin
De Ecclesiasticis Officiis
Isidore of Seville · c. 560–636
An account of the origin of each order of ministry and each part of the liturgy, written to explain to Spanish clergy why they do what they do.
c. 613
Latin
De Natura Rerum
Isidore of Seville · c. 560–636
A short handbook on the heavens, the seasons, thunder, tides, and pestilence, written for a Visigothic king who had asked about eclipses.
c. 612–615
Latin
Sententiae
Isidore of Seville · c. 560–636
Three books of doctrine and moral instruction assembled almost entirely from Augustine and Gregory the Great, arranged by topic.
c. 615–618
Latin
De Viris Illustribus
Isidore of Seville · c. 560 – 636
Thirty-three short notices continuing the catalogue Jerome began and Gennadius extended, weighted heavily toward Spain and Africa — Leander, Fulgentius, Martin of Braga — with a verdict on each.
c. 624–626
Latin
Isidore of Seville · c. 560 – 636
A history of the barbarian kingdoms of Spain by a Roman bishop who has stopped thinking of them as barbarians, opening with a hymn in praise of Spain herself as the fairest of all lands, and treating the Goths as its rightful and legitimate rulers.
633
Latin
The Fourth Council of Toledo
Seventy-five canons standardising the Spanish liturgy and clerical education, and regulating the status of Jews and of forcibly baptised converts.
c. 630–651
Latin
Braulio of Zaragoza · c. 590 – 651
Forty-four letters, including the exchange in which Braulio spends years nagging Isidore for the finished Etymologies and finally receives it unrevised, with a note asking him to correct it. The life of Aemilian describes a hermit of the Rioja hills.
c. 640–660
Latin
Fructuosus of Braga · d. c. 665
A severe Visigothic rule from a nobleman who gave away an enormous inheritance to found monasteries across the northwest, with a pact by which the monks bound themselves to the abbot by written contract — and a right of appeal to the bishop if he abused it.
c. 646–657
Latin
Eugenius II of Toledo · d. 657
About a hundred short poems by a reluctant bishop who complains in verse about his own bad health, the noise of the world, and being dragged from a quiet monastery to run the Spanish church — alongside epitaphs, prayers, and a poem on the nightingale.
c. 660
Latin
Ildefonsus of Toledo · c. 607–667
An ornate defence of Mary's virginity written in a deliberately elaborate style, addressed to three named unbelievers as if in court.
688
Latin
Prognosticon Futuri Saeculi
Julian of Toledo · c. 642–690
Three books on death, on the state of souls before the resurrection, and on the world to come, assembled from the fathers and arranged as answers to questions.
c. 680–695
Latin
Valerius of Bierzo · c. 630 – c. 695
A hermit of the Spanish mountains complains in the first person about everything: robbers, a rival priest who stole his congregation, the bishop who ignored him, being beaten and stripped, and the neighbours who would not leave him alone. He also copied out the pilgrimage of Egeria and so preserved it.
701–800
2 works
776, revised 784 and 786
Latin
Beatus of Liébana · c. 730–800
A compilation of earlier commentary on Revelation assembled in the Asturian mountains, and copied for centuries in manuscripts illuminated with the most startling images in medieval art.
785
Latin
Beatus of Liébana and Etherius of Osma
A furious reply to the archbishop of Toledo, who had taught that Christ in his humanity is God's son by adoption rather than by nature.
801–900
3 works
854
Latin
Paulus Albarus · c. 800–861
A defence of the Córdoba martyrs that breaks off to lament that young Christians now read Arabic poetry with delight and can barely write a decent Latin letter.
c. 851–856
Latin
Memoriale Sanctorum
Eulogius of Córdoba · c. 800–859
An account of the Christians of Córdoba who sought execution by denouncing Muhammad publicly, defended by the author against fellow Christians who thought them suicides.
c. 880–890
Latin
Anonymous
An Asturian chronicle tracing the northern Christian kingdom back to the Visigoths and telling the story of the stand at Covadonga.
1101–1200
1 work
1143
Latin
Lex Mahumet Pseudoprophete
Robert of Ketton · 12th century
The first translation of the Qur'an into any European language, made in Spain for the abbot of Cluny as part of a whole dossier on Islam.
1301–1400
1 work
c. 1399–1419
Catalan
Vincent Ferrer · c. 1350–1419
Apocalyptic preaching delivered across Spain, France, and Italy to enormous crowds, announcing that the end was near and calling for repentance and reform.
1401–1500
2 works
c. 1458–1461
Latin
Fortalitium Fidei
Alonso de Espina · d. c. 1464
A four-part attack on heretics, Jews, Muslims, and demons, urging the Spanish crown to establish an inquisition against converts suspected of relapsing.
1484, expanded 1488 and 1498
Spanish
Tomás de Torquemada · 1420–1498
The operating rules of the Spanish Inquisition: how to publish an edict of grace, take denunciations, sequester property, and conduct an auto-da-fé.
1501–1600
8 works
1527
Spanish
Francisco de Osuna · c. 1497–c. 1541
A method of recollected prayer that gathers the scattered faculties inward and lets the mind rest without images or discursive thought.
lectures 1539
Latin
De Indis
Francisco de Vitoria · c. 1483–1546
A dismantling of every justification offered for the conquest — discovery, papal grant, sin, unbelief — concluding that the Indians were true owners of their lands.
1552
Spanish
Bartolomé de las Casas · 1484–1566
A province-by-province catalogue of atrocities against the peoples of the Caribbean and the mainland, addressed to the future Philip II.
1554
Spanish
Luis de Granada · 1504–1588
A method of mental prayer with meditations for every day of the week, written in Spanish for ordinary readers rather than for religious.
1555
Spanish
Luis de Granada · 1504–1588
Motives for turning to God and a rule of life for those who do, addressed to people fully occupied with business, marriage, and property.
1562–1565
Spanish
Libro de la Vida
Teresa of Ávila · 1515–1582
Written under obedience for her confessors, describing twenty years of unsatisfying prayer, then the transverberation, with constant nervous asides about her own unreliability.
c. 1566
Spanish
Teresa of Ávila · 1515–1582
Practical instruction for her nuns on detachment, humility, and mental prayer, structured around the Lord's Prayer and full of dry humour about convent life.
1583
Spanish
De los Nombres de Cristo
Luis de León · 1527–1591
Three friars by a river discuss the names scripture gives Christ — shepherd, mountain, father of the age to come — in prose of great deliberate beauty.
1601–1700
2 works
c. 1628–1638
Spanish
Juan Falconi · 1596–1638
Letters and treatises urging a simple prayer of faith, resting on God's will without effort or reflection, addressed largely to laypeople.
c. 1655–1665; published 1670
Spanish
María de Ágreda · 1602–1665
A life of the Virgin Mary received in visions, running to thousands of pages and filling in every silence of the gospels with detail.
33 of 1780 works