The Library
1693 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.
1301–1400
2 works
c. 1374–1384
Latin
Geert Groote · 1340–1384
The correspondence and resolutions of a licensed preacher who gave up a comfortable career, attacked clerical concubinage, and gathered men and women into households of shared life without vows.
c. 1395–1398
Latin
Gerard Zerbolt of Zutphen · 1367–1398
A practical method of self-examination and meditation in ordered steps, written for the lay brothers and sisters of the Common Life.
1401–1500
6 works
c. 1400–1430
Latin
The Brethren of the Common Life
Arrangements for households of men or women living together in shared work and prayer without vows, supporting themselves by copying manuscripts.
c. 1425–1440
Latin
Thomas à Kempis · c. 1380–1471
Conferences to young canons on humility, silence, the danger of curiosity, and the ordinary discipline of a house of the Common Life.
c. 1440
Latin
Thomas à Kempis · c. 1380–1471
Short lives of the founders and early members of the Devotio Moderna, written by a man who had known many of them personally.
c. 1425–1441
Latin
Thomas à Kempis · c. 1380–1471
The fourth book of the Imitation, circulating separately for much of its history: a dialogue between Christ and the communicant on approaching the sacrament.
first printed 1471
Latin
Thomas à Kempis · c. 1380–1471
The first printed edition of the Imitation, followed by some hundred more before 1500 — one of the most reprinted books of the incunable age.
c. 1494
Latin
Rosetum Exercitiorum Spiritualium
Jan Mombaer · c. 1460–1501
A vast handbook of methodical meditation, with numbered steps, memory devices, and scales for examining conscience day by day.
8 of 1693 works