c. 370
Greek
Address to Young Men on Greek Literature
Basil the Great · c. 330–379
Advice to his nephews on reading pagan authors: take what is useful as bees take from flowers, and leave the rest.
Cappadocian · OrationRead elsewhere
301–400
The Fourth Century
2 works
c. 388–390
Latin
On the Duties of the Clergy
De Officiis Ministrorum
Ambrose of Milan · c. 339–397
Cicero's treatise on duty rewritten for Christian ministers, replacing the four cardinal virtues with a version answerable to scripture and to the poor.
Western · EthicsRead elsewhere
801–900
The Ninth Century
2 works
819
Latin
On the Education of the Clergy
De Institutione Clericorum
Rabanus Maurus · c. 780–856
What a priest must know: the orders of ministry, the sacraments, the liturgical year, and then a full defence of studying grammar, rhetoric, and the pagan classics.
Western · EducationRead elsewhere
c. 828–836
Latin
The Life of Charlemagne
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.
Western · BiographyRead elsewhere
901–1000
The Tenth Century
1 work
c. 960–970
Latin
The Plays
Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim · c. 935–c. 1002
Six comedies written in imitation of Terence but with chaste heroines instead of seduced ones, including a courtesan converted by a hermit and virgins martyred under Diocletian.
Western · DramaRead elsewhere
1001–1100
The Eleventh Century
1 work
c. 1040–1075
Greek
The Poems and Letters
John Mauropous · c. 1000–c. 1092
Epigrams, hymns, and letters by a teacher at Constantinople, including a famous prayer asking Christ to exempt Plato and Plutarch from condemnation.
Byzantine · PoetryRead elsewhere
1301–1400
The Fourteenth Century
2 works
c. 1334–1336
Latin
Commentary on the Book of Wisdom
Robert Holcot · c. 1290–1349
A commentary crammed with classical anecdote, moral tales, and cheerful digression, and unusually generous about what pagans could know of God.
Dominican · CommentaryRead elsewhere
c. 1350–1366
Latin
Letters on Familiar Matters
Rerum Familiarium Libri
Francesco Petrarca · 1304–1374
Letters gathered and polished for publication, including several addressed to Cicero and Augustine as though they were living correspondents.
Western · LettersRead elsewhere