The Library
1774 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.
1001–1100
57 works
c. 1002
Armenian
Narek
Grigor Narekatsi · c. 951–1003
Ninety-five prayers of overwhelming self-accusation and equally overwhelming hope, addressed to God from a monk who piles up images faster than any translator can follow.
c. 1000–1022
Greek
Symeon the New Theologian · 949–1022
Fifty-eight poems of startling intimacy on union with God, describing the divine light seen and the body itself made a member of Christ.
c. 1010–1012
Old English
Byrhtferth of Ramsey · c. 970–c. 1020
A textbook on the calendar and the computus in Latin and English by turns, wandering into numerology, the four elements, and complaints about lazy priests.
c. 1008–1012
Latin
Burchard of Worms · c. 950–1025
Twenty books of canon law for a working bishop, the nineteenth of which is a penitential listing in detail the folk practices confessors should ask about.
1014
Old English
Sermo Lupi ad Anglos
Wulfstan of York · d. 1023
Preached as the Danes overran England: the world is hastening to its end, and the English are being punished because they betray, enslave, and sell one another.
c. 1005–1028
Latin
Fulbert of Chartres · c. 960–1028
The correspondence of a bishop and schoolmaster, including a famous letter analysing the mutual obligations of lord and vassal, and hymns still sung at Easter.
1026–1027
Arabic
Kitab al-Majalis
Elias of Nisibis · 975–1046
The record of seven courteous conversations with a Muslim vizier on the Trinity, the unity of God, and the merits of Syriac and Arabic as languages of learning.
c. 1030–1050
Latin
John of Fécamp · c. 990–1078
Prayer written in the first person, woven from Augustine and Gregory into a continuous address to God on longing, compunction, and the desire to see him.
c. 1025–1034
Latin
Adémar of Chabannes · c. 989–1034
A history of the Franks and of Aquitaine by a monk who also forged an apostolic pedigree for his own monastery's patron and staged a council to confirm it.
c. 1030–1046
Latin
Rodulfus Glaber · c. 985–c. 1047
A restless monk's account of the years around the millennium — famines, portents, relic discoveries, heretics burned at Orléans, and the world putting on a white mantle of churches.
c. 1040
Latin
Wipo of Burgundy · c. 995–c. 1050
An Easter sequence in dialogue form, asking Mary Magdalene what she saw on the way and letting her answer.
c. 1030–1043
Arabic
Firdaws al-Nasraniyya
Ibn al-Tayyib · d. 1043
A commentary on the whole Bible in Arabic by a Baghdad physician, philosopher, and priest who also wrote on Aristotle and on medicine.
c. 1042
Latin
Peter Damian · c. 1007–1072
The founder of Camaldoli, who wandered Italy establishing hermitages and once tried to get himself martyred in Hungary without success.
c. 1044
Latin
Gerard of Csanád · c. 980–1046
A commentary on the song of the three young men, digressing constantly into complaints about pagan Hungarians, false teachers, and the state of learning on the frontier.
c. 1049
Latin
Liber Gomorrhianus
Peter Damian · c. 1007–1072
An unsparing denunciation addressed to the pope concerning sexual misconduct among the clergy and the practice of confessors absolving their own partners.
c. 1040–1075
Greek
John Mauropous · c. 1000–c. 1092
Epigrams, hymns, and letters by a teacher at Constantinople, including a famous prayer asking Christ to exempt Plato and Plutarch from condemnation.
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.
1053
Greek
Leo of Ohrid · 11th century
A protest against Western practices — unleavened bread at the eucharist, fasting on Saturdays, no alleluia in Lent — sent to a bishop in southern Italy.
16 July 1054
Latin
Humbert of Silva Candida · c. 1000–1061
The document a papal legate laid on the altar of Hagia Sophia, excommunicating the patriarch and his followers in intemperate terms — its author's authority already lapsed, the pope having died.
c. 1054
Greek
Niketas Stethatos · c. 1005–c. 1090
A disciple's account of his teacher's visions, his conflict with the church authorities, his exile, and the eventual rehabilitation of his memory.
c. 1057–1058
Latin
Humbert of Silva Candida · c. 1000–1061
An argument that ordinations bought with money are not merely illicit but void, and that lay rulers have no business investing bishops with ring and staff.
1059
Latin
Pope Nicholas II · d. 1061
A ruling that the cardinal bishops shall choose the pope, with the rest of the clergy and people assenting afterwards and the emperor's role reduced to a courtesy.
c. 1040–1070
Occitan
Chanson de Sainte Foy
Anonymous
The martyrdom of a young girl under Diocletian, told in nearly six hundred lines of assonanced Occitan verse meant to be sung.
c. 1044–1065
Georgian
Giorgi Mtatsmindeli · 1009–1065
A revision of the Georgian scriptures and service books against Greek originals, undertaken to bring the Georgian church into line with Byzantine usage.
c. 1059–1078
Greek
Michael Psellos · 1018–c. 1078
A history of fourteen emperors by a courtier who served most of them, written as psychological portraiture and unusually candid about his own manoeuvring.
11th century; attribution debated
Greek
Michael Psellos · 1018–c. 1078
A dialogue classifying demons by the element they inhabit, reporting the practices of a heretical sect, and treating some possession as physical illness.
c. 1065–1067
Latin
Peter Damian · c. 1007–1072
Prompted by a dinner conversation: can God restore a woman's virginity, or undo the past? An argument that logical rules must not be allowed to bind God.
c. 1065–1070
Latin
De Sacra Coena
Berengar of Tours · c. 1010–1088
A defence, using grammatical and logical analysis, of the claim that the bread remains bread while becoming a sign that truly conveys Christ's body.
c. 1063–1070
Latin
Otloh of Sankt Emmeram · c. 1010–c. 1070
A monk's record of his own doubts — whether scripture is true, whether God exists at all — and the visions and reasoning by which he worked through them.
c. 1063–1070
Latin
Lanfranc of Bec · c. 1005–1089
The reply to Berengar, arguing that the substance of the bread is converted while its appearances remain, and using the very dialectic Berengar had deployed.
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. 1070–1080
Latin
Anselm of Canterbury · 1033–1109
Prayers written for individuals to use alone and slowly, addressed to Christ and the saints with an emotional directness quite unlike the liturgy.
1075
Latin
Pope Gregory VII · c. 1015–1085
Twenty-seven bald propositions entered in the papal register: the Roman church has never erred, the pope alone may depose emperors, and he may be judged by no one.
c. 1073–1076
Latin
Adam of Bremen · d. c. 1085
A history of the northern mission whose fourth book describes Scandinavia, the pagan temple at Uppsala, and lands to the west including Vinland.
1076
Latin
Anselm of Canterbury · 1033–1109
An attempt, made at his monks' request, to establish the existence and nature of God by reason alone, without once quoting scripture.
c. 1077
Latin
Lanfranc of Bec · c. 1005–1089
Customs for Canterbury covering the whole year, including the sign language monks used during the hours of silence — signs for bread, for a book, for a psalter.
c. 1077–1080
Latin
Lampert of Hersfeld · c. 1028–c. 1085
A hostile account of Henry IV's reign, containing the celebrated description of the king waiting barefoot in the snow at Canossa for three days.
1077–1078
Latin
Proslogion
Anselm of Canterbury · 1033–1109
A prayer that turns into an argument: seeking God, Anselm arrives at the thought of that than which nothing greater can be conceived, and concludes that such a being cannot exist in the mind alone.
c. 1075–1078
Greek
Kekaumenos · 11th century
Advice from a provincial soldier to his sons: trust no one, avoid the capital, do not lend money to friends, and be very careful whom you invite into your house.
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.
1–40 of 57 matching · 1774 in the Library