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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.

1101–1200

The Twelfth Century

1 work

c. 1142

Latin

The Mirror of Charity

Aelred of Rievaulx · 1110–1167

Written at Bernard's insistence, on charity as the sabbath of the soul, and including a grief-stricken passage on the death of a friend.

Cistercian · TheologyRead elsewhere

1301–1400

The Fourteenth Century

2 works

c. 1308–1318

Middle High German

The Book of Divine Consolation

Meister Eckhart · c. 1260–1328

Written for a queen in grief: consolation not by softening loss but by arguing that whoever is wholly given over to God cannot be robbed of anything that matters.

Dominican · TreatiseRead elsewhere

c. 1375–1400

Middle English

Pearl

Anonymous

A father grieving a daughter dead before her second birthday sees her across a river as a queen of heaven, and argues with her about whether that can be just.

Western · PoetryMatthewRevelationRead elsewhere

1601–1700

The Seventeenth Century

1 work

1650; enlarged posthumously 1678

English

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America

Anne Bradstreet · c. 1612–1672

Poems on faith, marriage, the deaths of grandchildren, and the burning of her house — published in London by her brother-in-law without her knowledge.

Reformed · PoetryRead elsewhere