c. 1488
Latin
Exposition of the Canon of the Mass
Gabriel Biel · c. 1420–1495
A detailed commentary on the eucharistic prayer combining nominalist theology with the devotional temper of the Common Life.
Scholastic · Liturgy
1401–1500
The Fifteenth Century
95 works
c. 1490–1510; recorded by disciples
Italian
Purgation and Purgatory
Catherine of Genoa · 1447–1510
Purgatory described not as punishment but as the soul's own joyful burning away of what keeps it from a love it can already see.
Western · Mystical
c. 1480–1490
Catalan
The Life of Christ
Vita Christi
Isabel de Villena · 1430–1490
A life of Christ written by an abbess for her nuns, giving unusual prominence to the women of the gospels and to Mary's own perspective throughout.
printed 1492
Latin
The Book of Revelations, Printed
Birgitta of Sweden · c. 1303–1373
The first printed edition of Birgitta's revelations, produced at Lübeck with woodcuts, which carried her visions to a European readership.
Western · Visions
1493
Latin
The Nuremberg Chronicle
Liber Chronicarum
Hartmann Schedel · 1440–1514
A world history from creation to the present in seven ages, with over eighteen hundred woodcuts of cities, saints, and the coming of antichrist.
Western · Chronicle
c. 1494
Latin
The Rosary of Spiritual Exercises
Rosetum Exercitiorum Spiritualium
Jan Mombaer · c. 1460–1501
A vast handbook of methodical meditation, with numbered steps, memory devices, and scales for examining conscience day by day.
Devotio Moderna · Handbook
1494
Italian
The Sermons on Haggai
Girolamo Savonarola · 1452–1498
Advent sermons preached as the French army entered Italy, reading the prophet's call to rebuild the temple as a summons to remake Florence as a Christian republic.
Dominican · HomiliesHaggai
1494
German
The Ship of Fools
Das Narrenschiff
Sebastian Brant · 1457–1521
A hundred and twelve kinds of folly, each given a woodcut and a verse — the book collector who cannot read, the priest who cannot preach, the man who plans to repent later.
Western · Satire
1494
Latin
On the Wonder-Working Word
De Verbo Mirifico
Johannes Reuchlin · 1455–1522
A dialogue among an Epicurean, a Jew, and a Christian on the power of the divine name, arguing that Hebrew holds a key Christians have neglected.
Western · Dialogue
c. 1484–1495
Latin
The Collectorium on the Sentences
Gabriel Biel · c. 1420–1495
A summary of Ockham's theology, teaching that God accepts those who do what lies within them and rewards it with grace.
Scholastic · Systematic theology
c. 1495–1510; recorded by disciples
Italian
The Spiritual Dialogue
Catherine of Genoa · 1447–1510
A dialogue among the Soul, the Body, and Self-Love on the long process of being stripped of self-interest, based on her own account of forty years.
Western · Dialogue
1497
Latin
The Triumph of the Cross
Girolamo Savonarola · 1452–1498
A defence of Christianity by reason alone, arranged around the image of a triumphal chariot bearing Christ, written at the height of the author's power in Florence.
Dominican · Apology
c. 1478–1510
German
The Sermons
Johann Geiler von Kaysersberg · 1445–1510
Cathedral preaching in Strasbourg full of homely images and blunt criticism of clergy, magistrates, and congregation alike — including a whole sermon cycle on the Ship of Fools.
Western · Homilies
1498
Latin
Meditation on Psalm 51
Infelix Ego
Girolamo Savonarola · 1452–1498
Written in prison after torture and days before his execution: a meditation on mercy that finds no ground of hope in itself and rests entirely on grace.
Dominican · DevotionalPsalms
c. 1490–1508
Old Church Slavonic
The Monastic Rule
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.
Rus · Rule