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.
1501–1600
5 works
c. 1566
Spanish
Teresa of Ávila · 1515–1582
Practical instruction for her nuns on detachment, humility, and mental prayer, structured around the Lord's Prayer and full of dry humour about convent life.
1573–1582
Spanish
Teresa of Ávila · 1515–1582
An account of founding seventeen convents — the lawsuits, the bad roads, the hostile townspeople, the money, and the sisters who turned out to be impossible.
poem c. 1578; commentary 1584
Spanish
John of the Cross · 1542–1591
A poem in the voice of a bride searching the woods for her beloved, begun in a prison cell, with a long commentary written for the nuns who asked what it meant.
c. 1578–1585
Spanish
John of the Cross · 1542–1591
A systematic account of the active night, in which memory, understanding, and will are emptied of every attachment — including attachment to spiritual consolations.
c. 1585–1587
Spanish
John of the Cross · 1542–1591
A commentary on his own short poem about the soul transformed in God, written in a fortnight for a laywoman who directed a household.
5 of 1577 works