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.
1101–1200
4 works
c. 1173–1175
Latin
William FitzStephen · d. c. 1191
The archbishop's career by a clerk who was present at the murder, prefaced by a famous description of London — its schools, cookshops, and boys skating on bone skates.
1201–1300
6 works
c. 1213–1215
Latin
James of Vitry · c. 1160/70–1240
A married woman who persuaded her husband to live in continence, gave away their goods, and lived a life of extreme penance and eucharistic devotion outside any religious order.
1228–1229
Latin
Thomas of Celano · c. 1185–c. 1265
The official life commissioned for the canonisation, written by a friar who had known him, covering the conversion, the crib at Greccio, and the stigmata.
1246–1247
Latin
Thomas of Celano · c. 1185–c. 1265
A second life drawing on memories gathered from Francis's closest companions, franker about his severity, his illnesses, and his disappointment with the order.
1260–1263
Latin
Bonaventure · 1221–1274
A life of Francis written by the order's minister general to settle its internal quarrels, presenting him as a figure of contemplative ascent rather than of dispute.
c. 1272–1275
Latin
Geoffrey of Beaulieu · d. c. 1274
The king's confessor for twenty years describes his penances, his care for lepers and the poor, and his habit of hearing legal petitions himself under an oak.
c. 1280–1290
Old Church Slavonic
Anonymous
The prince who defeated Swedes and Teutonic knights while submitting to the Mongols, presented as both a warrior and a saint.
1301–1400
2 works
c. 1368
Greek
Philotheos Kokkinos · c. 1300–1379
The life of the hesychast theologian by the patriarch who canonised him nine years after his death, written to settle the controversy for good.
1385–1395
Latin
Legenda Maior
Raymond of Capua · c. 1330–1399
The life of Catherine by her confessor, including her mystical marriage, her fasting, and her interventions in papal politics.
1401–1500
2 works
c. 1418
Old Church Slavonic
Epiphanius the Wise · c. 1350–c. 1420
The monk who founded the Trinity monastery north of Moscow, blessed Prince Dmitry before Kulikovo, refused the office of metropolitan, and made his own shoes.
c. 1440
Latin
Thomas à Kempis · c. 1380–1471
Short lives of the founders and early members of the Devotio Moderna, written by a man who had known many of them personally.
1601–1700
1 work
1664
French
Louis Abelly · 1604–1691
The first life of Vincent, written four years after his death by a colleague with access to the archives of his congregations.
41–52 of 52 matching · 1693 in the Library