The Library
1693 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.
801–900
56 works
c. 858–886
Greek
Photius of Constantinople · c. 815–c. 893
Correspondence and a long series of answers to theological and literary questions, including a famous letter of advice to the newly converted prince of Bulgaria.
c. 866–872
Greek
George Hamartolos · 9th century
A world chronicle from Adam to 842 written by a monk for monks, long on iconoclasm and moral judgement and short on secular politics.
c. 863–871
Old High German
Evangelienbuch
Otfrid of Weissenburg · c. 800–c. 870
A harmony of the gospels in rhymed German verse, prefaced by a defence of writing sacred poetry in a language the author admits is unpolished.
c. 850–880
Old High German
Anonymous
A fragmentary alliterative poem on the fate of the soul at death and the end of the world in fire, with Elijah fighting Antichrist and the mountains burning.
c. 870–876
Latin
Rimbert · d. 888
The career of a missionary to Denmark and Sweden, including a shipwreck, a Viking raid that destroyed his church, and the calm return to start again.
c. 870–880
Old Church Slavonic
Anonymous
The life of the missionary called Cyril, who devised an alphabet for the Slavs, translated the liturgy, and defended vernacular worship against those who allowed only three sacred languages.
c. 884
Latin
Liber Ymnorum
Notker the Stammerer · c. 840–912
Sequences written to fit the long wordless melismas sung after the alleluia, a form the author says he learned from a refugee monk fleeing Viking raids.
c. 885
Greek
Photius of Constantinople · c. 815–c. 893
A sustained argument that the Spirit proceeds from the Father alone, and that the Latin addition to the creed is both unauthorised and incoherent.
c. 883–887
Latin
Notker the Stammerer · c. 840–912
Anecdotes about Charlemagne collected two generations later — the bishop caught out by a trick, the iron king glimpsed by an approaching enemy, the emperor testing his courtiers' vanity.
c. 885–890
Old Church Slavonic
Anonymous
The career of Cyril's brother, who continued the Slavonic mission in Moravia, was imprisoned by Frankish bishops, and translated most of the Bible before his death.
c. 890–896
Old English
Alfred the Great · 849–899
Gregory's handbook for bishops translated into English by a king, with a preface lamenting that learning had so decayed that few south of the Humber could understand Latin.
begun c. 890, continued to 1154
Old English
Anonymous
Year-by-year annals kept at several monasteries, from Julius Caesar to the twelfth century, terse for most years and vivid in crisis.
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.
begun c. 890, compiled later
Arabic
Anonymous
Serial biographies of the Coptic patriarchs, drawn from earlier Coptic sources and continued for centuries, recording church life under successive Muslim rulers.
893
Latin
Asser · d. c. 909
A Welsh bishop's account of the king he served, including the illness that plagued him, his late acquisition of Latin, and his reading aloud with his children.
c. 890–899
Old English
Alfred the Great and his circle · 849–899
The Consolation of Philosophy rendered into English with substantial additions, Christianising Lady Philosophy and adding discussions of fate, free will, and kingship.
41–56 of 56 matching · 1693 in the Library