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The Library

Forty Centuries of Christian Writing

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.

501–600

The Sixth Century

1 work

c. 550–560

Latin

The Tripartite History

Historia Ecclesiastica Tripartita

Cassiodorus and Epiphanius Scholasticus

Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret translated and woven into a single Latin narrative for readers who could no longer manage Greek.

Western · HistoryRead elsewhere

601–700

The Seventh Century

1 work

c. 612–615

Latin

The Sentences

Sententiae

Isidore of Seville · c. 560–636

Three books of doctrine and moral instruction assembled almost entirely from Augustine and Gregory the Great, arranged by topic.

Western · TheologyRead elsewhere

1201–1300

The Thirteenth Century

2 works

c. 1235–1264

Latin

The Greater Mirror

Speculum Maius

Vincent of Beauvais · c. 1190–c. 1264

Around eighty books in three parts — nature, doctrine, history — assembled by a team at a royal abbey and running to some four million words.

Dominican · EncyclopaediaRead elsewhere

1262–1268

Latin

The Golden Chain

Catena Aurea

Thomas Aquinas · 1225–1274

A continuous commentary on the four gospels assembled entirely from patristic quotations, chained together so the fathers appear to comment in sequence.

Scholastic · CommentaryMatthewMarkLukeJohnRead elsewhere

1401–1500

The Fifteenth Century

1 work

c. 1450–1465

Latin

Commentary on the Psalms

Denys the Carthusian · 1402–1471

A verse-by-verse commentary gathering the whole patristic and scholastic tradition on the psalter and adding a contemplative application to each psalm.

Western Monastic · CommentaryPsalmsRead elsewhere