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.
1201–1300
9 works
1216–1220
Latin
Dominic de Guzmán and the early Order of Preachers · c. 1170–1221
A constitution built for a preaching order: elected superiors, a general chapter of delegates, dispensation from any observance that would hinder study, and no landed endowment.
c. 1222–1225, revised 1234
Latin
Raymond of Peñafort · c. 1175–1275
A confessor's manual sorting sins by kind and circumstance, with detailed treatment of usury, marriage, restitution, and what to do about a penitent who cannot pay back what he stole.
c. 1222–1236
Latin
Jordan of Saxony · c. 1190–1237
Letters from the head of an order to a nun he loved, unembarrassed about affection, missing her, and apologising for how rarely he can write.
c. 1233
Latin
Jordan of Saxony · c. 1190–1237
The earliest account of Dominic and the founding of his order, by the man who succeeded him and recruited hundreds of students into it.
c. 1230–1240
Latin
Hugh of Saint-Cher and the friars of Saint-Jacques · c. 1200–1263
Every significant word in the Latin Bible listed alphabetically with references, produced by a team of friars working from a newly standardised chapter division.
c. 1235–1264
Latin
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.
c. 1263–1277
Latin
Humbert of Romans · c. 1200–1277
How to preach to every conceivable audience — sailors, students, lepers, the recently bereaved, women of ill repute, people at a funeral — with material for each.
c. 1260–1275
Latin
Legenda Aurea
Jacobus de Voragine · c. 1230–1298
Saints' lives for the whole year with etymologies of each name, told with relish and no anxiety about plausibility — dragons, resurrections, and improbable escapes included.
c. 1260–1286
Latin
William of Moerbeke · c. 1215–c. 1286
Aristotle rendered from Greek into Latin word for word, along with Proclus, Archimedes, and Greek commentators, at the request of his friend Aquinas.
1301–1400
7 works
c. 1294–1302
Middle High German
Die rede der underscheidunge
Meister Eckhart · c. 1260–1328
Table talk for young friars on obedience, detachment, and why a person who has learned to find God in one place will find him everywhere, including in the stable.
c. 1300–1327
Middle High German
Meister Eckhart · c. 1260–1328
Sermons preached to nuns and laypeople on the birth of the Word in the soul, the ground where God and the soul are one, and the counsel to pray God to be rid of God.
1326
Latin
Rechtfertigungsschrift
Meister Eckhart · c. 1260–1328
A reply to the inquisitors of Cologne, answering each extracted proposition and insisting that he may have erred but cannot be a heretic, since heresy is a matter of the will.
c. 1328–1330
Middle High German
Henry Suso · c. 1295–1366
A dialogue between the Servant and Eternal Wisdom, moving from the sweetness of divine love to the passion, and including a hundred short meditations for daily use.
c. 1362
Middle High German
Henry Suso · c. 1295–1366
A spiritual autobiography, partly shaped by a nun who took his confidences down without telling him, describing extreme self-mortification later renounced as misguided.
1377–1378
Italian
Il Dialogo della Divina Provvidenza
Catherine of Siena · 1347–1380
A conversation between a soul and God the Father, built on the image of Christ as a bridge over the flood, and unsparing about corrupt clergy.
1385–1395
Latin
Legenda Maior
Raymond of Capua · c. 1330–1399
The life of Catherine by her confessor, including her mystical marriage, her fasting, and her interventions in papal politics.
1401–1500
1 work
1497
Latin
Girolamo Savonarola · 1452–1498
A defence of Christianity by reason alone, arranged around the image of a triumphal chariot bearing Christ, written at the height of the author's power in Florence.
1501–1600
1 work
published 1563
Latin
De Locis Theologicis
Melchor Cano · 1509–1560
A ranking of the sources of theological argument — scripture, tradition, councils, fathers, reason, history — and how much weight each can bear.
1601–1700
1 work
c. 1630–1653
French
Juliana Morell · 1594–1653
Devotional writings and a translation with commentary of a monastic rule, by a prodigy who publicly defended theses in philosophy at twelve.
19 of 1693 works