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The Library

Forty Centuries of Christian Writing

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

The Eleventh Century

57 works

c. 1080–1083

Latin

The Book of Encouragement

Liber Confortatorius

Goscelin of Saint-Bertin · c. 1035–c. 1107

A long letter of consolation from a monk to a young woman who has enclosed herself as an anchoress, mixing spiritual counsel with unmistakable personal grief at the separation.

Western · Letter

c. 1080–1088

Old Church Slavonic

The Life of Theodosius of the Caves

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.

Rus · Biography

c. 1082

Latin

The Saxon War

Bruno of Merseburg · 11th century

A partisan account of the Saxon revolt against Henry IV, quoting letters and speeches and treating the rebellion as a just resistance to tyranny.

Western · History

c. 1073–1082

Latin

The Chronicle

Marianus Scotus · 1028–1082

A world chronicle by an Irish monk enclosed as a recluse in Germany, arguing that the received date of the incarnation was twenty-two years out.

Celtic · Chronicle

c. 1080–1085

Latin

On Truth

De Veritate

Anselm of Canterbury · 1033–1109

A search for what truth is in statements, in thought, in the will, and in things themselves, arriving at truth as rightness perceived by the mind.

Scholastic · Dialogue

c. 1081–1083

Latin

The Collection of Canons

Anselm of Lucca · 1036–1086

A canon law collection assembled to support the reform papacy, with a book on the lawful use of force against schismatics that had no real precedent.

Western · Canon law

founded 1084; customs written c. 1121

Latin

The Customs of the Grande Chartreuse

Bruno of Cologne and the early Carthusians · c. 1030–1101

The arrangements of a house where each monk lives in a separate cell with a garden, meets the others chiefly in choir, and copies manuscripts as his work.

Western Monastic · Rule

c. 1085

Latin

To Gebhard

Liber ad Gebehardum

Manegold of Lautenbach · c. 1030–c. 1103

A defence of the pope against Henry IV, arguing that a king holds office under something like a contract with his people, and forfeits it if he becomes a tyrant.

Western · Political theory

c. 1080–1090

Greek

The Taktikon

Nikon of the Black Mountain · c. 1025–c. 1100

A compilation on monastic discipline and canon law for houses in Syria, addressing what to do when different monasteries follow incompatible rules.

Byzantine · Canon law

c. 1085–1090

Latin

On the Fall of the Devil

Anselm of Canterbury · 1033–1109

How a creature made good and made free could choose evil, when evil is nothing and God gave no evil will to choose with.

Scholastic · Dialogue

c. 1085–1100

Greek

The Gospel Commentaries

Theophylact of Ohrid · c. 1050–after 1107

Clear, compressed commentaries on the gospels and epistles distilling Chrysostom and the earlier fathers into something a parish priest could actually use.

Byzantine · CommentaryMatthewJohnRomans

c. 1092–1094

Latin

On the Incarnation of the Word

Anselm of Canterbury · 1033–1109

A refutation of Roscelin's claim that if the three persons are one thing then all three became incarnate, turning on what it means for a universal to be real.

Scholastic · Theology

27 November 1095; recorded later

Latin

The Sermon at Clermont

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.

Western · Sermon

c. 1093–1096

Latin

The Decretum and Panormia

Ivo of Chartres · c. 1040–1115

Canon law collections with a prologue on what to do when authoritative texts contradict each other — distinguish strict law from dispensation, and read each canon in its circumstances.

Western · Canon law

1094–1098

Latin

Why God Became Man

Cur Deus Homo

Anselm of Canterbury · 1033–1109

A dialogue asking why the incarnation was necessary, answered in terms of honour and satisfaction: only a human being owes the debt, only God can pay it, so only a God-man can settle it.

Scholastic · DialogueRomansHebrews

c. 1099–1100

Latin

On the Virgin Conception and Original Sin

Anselm of Canterbury · 1033–1109

A sequel to Cur Deus Homo asking how Christ could be sinless if he took his humanity from a descendant of Adam, and defining original sin as an absence of owed righteousness.

Scholastic · Theology

c. 1090–1115

Old French

The Song of Roland

La Chanson de Roland

Anonymous

Charlemagne's rearguard is destroyed at Roncevaux through treachery; Roland refuses to sound his horn until too late, and dies offering his glove to God.

Western · Poetry