The Library
1577 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
1 work
c. 1160–1162
Latin
Aelred of Rievaulx · 1110–1167
Written for his sister, enclosed as an anchoress: practical advice on visitors and servants, then a long meditation on entering the gospel scenes in imagination.
1301–1400
2 works
c. 1348–1374
Latin
Vita Christi
Ludolph of Saxony · c. 1295–1378
An enormous meditative life of Christ, gathering patristic comment and asking the reader at every scene to be present in it, to look and to listen.
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
1 work
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.
1501–1600
1 work
1554
Spanish
Luis de Granada · 1504–1588
A method of mental prayer with meditations for every day of the week, written in Spanish for ordinary readers rather than for religious.
1601–1700
3 works
1606
Latin
Johann Gerhard · 1582–1637
Fifty-one short meditations on sin, grace, the sacraments, and death, written by a twenty-four-year-old who had nearly died of illness twice.
1624
English
John Donne · 1572–1631
Twenty-three meditations written during a near-fatal fever, tracking the illness stage by stage — including the bell tolling for a neighbour and no man being an island.
1650
English
Richard Baxter · 1615–1691
Written while its author expected to die, on the heavenly rest and on the daily discipline of setting the mind on it deliberately.
8 of 1577 works