Skip to content

The Library

Forty Centuries of Christian Writing

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

The Fourteenth Century

1 work

c. 1370–1375

Greek

Apologies and Orations Against Islam

John VI Kantakouzenos · c. 1292–1383

A former emperor's refutation of Islam, drawing on the Latin Qur'an translation and on earlier Greek polemic, written as the Ottomans crossed into Europe.

Byzantine · Polemic

1401–1500

The Fifteenth Century

3 works

c. 1455

Greek

The Confession of Faith to Mehmed II

Gennadios Scholarios · c. 1400–c. 1473

A summary of Christian doctrine written at the sultan's request by the first patriarch appointed after the conquest, phrased to be intelligible to a Muslim reader.

Byzantine · Confession

c. 1455–1462

Greek

The History

Doukas · c. 1400–after 1462

A history of the last Byzantine century culminating in the fall of Constantinople, written by a Greek in Genoese service with painful sympathy for both sides.

Byzantine · History

c. 1467

Greek

History of Mehmed the Conqueror

Michael Kritovoulos · c. 1410–c. 1470

A Greek Christian writes an admiring history of the sultan who took his city, presenting Mehmed as a legitimate heir to the Roman emperors.

Byzantine · History