The Library
1577 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.
1–100
2 works
c. AD 30–45
Greek
De Vita Mosis
Philo of Alexandria · c. 20 BC – c. AD 50
Two books making Moses king, lawgiver, priest, and prophet at once, written plainly enough for readers who had never opened the Pentateuch, and including the story of how the Seventy produced identical translations in separate cells.
c. AD 30–45
Greek
De Abrahamo
Philo of Alexandria · c. 20 BC – c. AD 50
Abraham presented to a Greek readership as a living law — a man who kept the Torah before it was given, because he had read it off the order of the world.
101–200
1 work
c. 121
Latin
De Vita Caesarum
Suetonius · c. 69 – c. 122
Twelve imperial lives assembled from rumour, archive, and gossip in roughly equal parts. Claudius expels the Jews from Rome for rioting at the instigation of one Chrestus; Nero punishes the Christians, a class given to a new and mischievous superstition.
201–300
2 works
c. 217–222
Greek
Philostratus · c. 170 – c. 250
The life of a first-century wandering Pythagorean sage commissioned by the empress Julia Domna: miraculous birth, travels to India and Egypt, healings, an exorcism, a girl raised from her bier, a trial before Domitian, a disappearance, and an appearance afterwards to a doubting disciple.
c. 258–259
Latin
Vita Cypriani
Pontius the Deacon
Written by Cyprian's own deacon within a year of his death, arguing that a bishop who lived well deserves a record as much as a layman who died well, and describing the beheading in the field at Sesti down to the cloak spread on the ground and the coins left for the executioner.
301–400
5 works
c. 337–339
Greek
Vita Constantini
Eusebius of Caesarea · c. 260–339
A frankly admiring portrait of the first Christian emperor, including the vision of the cross before the Milvian Bridge and the documents of his religious policy quoted in full.
c. 360
Greek
Vita Antonii
Athanasius of Alexandria · c. 296–373
The life of the Egyptian hermit who heard the gospel read in church, sold everything, and went into the desert — told as a spiritual biography of temptation, discipline, and eventual public authority.
c. 375–377
Latin
Jerome · c. 347–420
A short and frankly legendary life claiming that an older hermit than Antony had lived unknown in the desert, fed daily by a raven.
c. 381
Greek
Gregory of Nyssa · c. 335–c. 395
A brother's account of his elder sister, who refused marriage, turned the family estate into a community, taught her brothers theology, and died in poverty by choice.
c. 396–397
Latin
Vita Martini
Sulpicius Severus · c. 363–c. 425
The soldier who cut his cloak in half for a beggar, left the army because he was Christ's soldier and could not fight, and became a reluctant bishop of Tours.
401–500
3 works
c. 444
Greek
Theodoret of Cyrus · c. 393–c. 460
Thirty portraits of Syrian ascetics the author knew personally, including Symeon on his pillar, described without embarrassment and with considerable affection.
c. 452
Greek
Gerontius
The life of one of the richest women in the Roman world, who liquidated estates across several provinces, freed thousands of slaves, and settled on the Mount of Olives.
c. 460–500
Syriac
Anonymous
The life of the ascetic who spent nearly forty years on a pillar near Antioch, judging disputes, advising emperors, and preaching twice a day to the crowds below.
501–600
4 works
511
Latin
Eugippius · c. 465–c. 535
The life of a monk who organised the defence, provisioning, and eventual evacuation of the Roman towns along the Danube as the frontier collapsed.
c. 520
Latin
Anonymous
The life of the consecrated woman who is said to have kept Paris from panic when Attila approached, and organised grain convoys during a siege.
c. 555–559
Greek
Cyril of Scythopolis · c. 525–c. 559
Seven lives of the founders of the Judean desert monasteries, written by a monk who interviewed survivors and consulted archives, with dates given precisely.
c. 566–569
Syriac
John of Ephesus · c. 507–c. 588
Fifty-eight portraits of Syrian ascetics the author knew, many of them women, and many living in hiding during the persecution of anti-Chalcedonians.
601–700
5 works
c. 641–642
Greek
Leontius of Neapolis · 7th century
The life of a patriarch of Alexandria who kept a register of the city's poor, called them his lords and masters, and ran hospitals and hostels from church funds.
c. 639–643
Latin
Jonas of Bobbio · 7th century
The life of the Irish founder of Luxeuil and Bobbio, written a generation later by a monk of his own house, including his quarrel with the Frankish court.
c. 640–660
Greek
Leontius of Neapolis · 7th century
The life of a monk who left the desert for the city and feigned madness — dragging a dead dog through the gate, upsetting market stalls — to hide his holiness and shame the respectable.
c. 650–680
Latin
Cogitosus · 7th century
The life of the abbess of Kildare, full of miracles of provision — butter multiplied, beer for churches — and a description of her double monastery of men and women.
c. 697–700
Latin
Adomnán of Iona · c. 624–704
The founder of Iona in three books of prophecies, miracles, and angelic visions, written by his ninth successor from the community's own memories.
701–800
4 works
c. 710–720
Latin
Stephen of Ripon · 8th century
The combative career of the bishop who argued the Roman case at Whitby, was repeatedly expelled from his see, and twice appealed to Rome over the head of his king.
c. 716–725
Latin
The Venerable Bede · c. 673–735
The history of his own monastery through its founders, including the book-buying journeys to Rome that built the library Bede worked in.
c. 730–740
Latin
Felix · 8th century
A warrior of noble birth becomes a hermit on an island in the fens, where he is tormented by demons who speak British and drag him to the mouth of hell.
c. 760–768
Latin
Willibald · 8th century
The career of the missionary from Devon who felled the oak of Thor at Geismar, reorganised the Frankish church, and was killed in Frisia holding a book over his head.
801–900
4 works
c. 828–836
Latin
Vita Karoli Magni
Einhard · c. 775–840
A short life on the model of Suetonius by a courtier who knew him — his campaigns, his family, his swimming, his failure to learn to write, his dislike of foreign clothes.
c. 836
Latin
Rudolf of Fulda · d. 865
The English abbess whom Boniface summoned to Germany, learned in scripture and canon law, consulted by bishops, and buried beside him at his own request.
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.
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.
901–1000
3 works
c. 930
Latin
Odo of Cluny · c. 878–942
The life of a layman and landholder presented as a saint — a lord who fought with the flat of his sword, refused to despoil the poor, and never married.
c. 978–984
Latin
John of Saint-Arnoul · 10th century
The life of a monastic reformer, including his long embassy to the caliph at Córdoba, where he was warned that repeating his message would cost him his head.
c. 999
Latin
John Canaparius · d. 1004
The bishop who twice abandoned his see in despair at his flock and was killed preaching to the Prussians, written within two years of his death.
1001–1100
3 works
c. 1042
Latin
Peter Damian · c. 1007–1072
The founder of Camaldoli, who wandered Italy establishing hermitages and once tried to get himself martyred in Hungary without success.
c. 1054
Greek
Niketas Stethatos · c. 1005–c. 1090
A disciple's account of his teacher's visions, his conflict with the church authorities, his exile, and the eventual rehabilitation of his memory.
c. 1080–1088
Old Church Slavonic
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.
1101–1200
4 works
c. 1100–1110
Greek
Gregory the Cellarer · 11th century
A stylite near Ephesus who lived on a pillar for decades, receiving visitors, arbitrating disputes, and quarrelling with his own monks about the food.
c. 1112–1125
Latin
Eadmer of Canterbury · c. 1060–c. 1126
A secretary's record of his archbishop's conversation, temper, table talk, and exile, taken down while Anselm was alive and hidden when he ordered it destroyed.
c. 1140–1160
Latin
Anonymous
A young Englishwoman refuses the marriage her parents arranged, escapes disguised as a man, and lives hidden in a tiny cell for years before founding her own community.
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.
1–40 of 51 matching · 1577 in the Library