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.
701–800
2 works
787
Greek
The Second Council of Nicaea
The seventh ecumenical council restores images, distinguishing the honour offered to an icon, which passes to its subject, from the worship due to God alone.
c. 790–793
Latin
Opus Caroli Regis contra Synodum
Theodulf of Orléans · c. 750–821
A Frankish rejection of the Greek council on images, arguing from a garbled translation that pictures are useful for teaching and decoration but must not be venerated.
1101–1200
2 works
c. 1125
Latin
Bernard of Clairvaux · 1090–1153
An attack on monastic luxury that turns on carved cloisters: what are these ridiculous monsters doing where the brothers read, and would the money not be better given to the poor?
c. 1144–1149
Latin
Abbot Suger · 1081–1151
An account of rebuilding the abbey church of Saint-Denis, with the reasoning behind its light-filled choir: the dull mind rises to truth through material things.
1201–1300
2 works
c. 1260
Latin
Lignum Vitae
Bonaventure · 1221–1274
Forty-eight meditations on the life, passion, and glory of Christ arranged as fruits on a tree, designed to be memorised and pictured.
c. 1260–1275
Latin
Legenda Aurea
Jacobus de Voragine · c. 1230–1298
Saints' lives for the whole year with etymologies of each name, told with relish and no anxiety about plausibility — dragons, resurrections, and improbable escapes included.
1301–1400
2 works
c. 1310–1324
Latin
Speculum Humanae Salvationis
Anonymous
Each scene of Christ's life paired with three Old Testament or legendary prefigurations, in verse designed to be read alongside pictures.
c. 1300–1350
Latin
Meditationes Vitae Christi
Pseudo-Bonaventure
The gospel expanded with imagined detail — what Mary said to the midwife, how Joseph carried the child — and instructions to picture each scene as though present.
1401–1500
1 work
c. 1300s; block-printed from c. 1450
Latin
Biblia Pauperum
Anonymous
Pages pairing a scene from Christ's life with two Old Testament prefigurations and four prophets, designed to be read as much by picture as by text.
9 of 1774 works