The Library
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.
1–100
1 work
c. AD 20–40
Greek
De Migratione Abrahami
Philo of Alexandria · c. 20 BC – c. AD 50
Get thee out of thy country read as the soul's departure from the body, from sense, and from speech, in that order, toward a homeland it has never seen.
301–400
3 works
333
Latin
Itinerarium Burdigalense
Anonymous
A bare itinerary from Bordeaux to Jerusalem listing every staging post and change of horses, with terse notes on the holy places seen at the end.
c. 366–384
Latin
Damasus I · c. 305 – 384
Some sixty verse inscriptions composed by a bishop of Rome for the tombs of martyrs in the catacombs, cut in a purpose-designed letterform by the calligrapher Filocalus and set up where pilgrims would read them.
c. 381–384
Latin
Itinerarium Egeriae
Egeria
A woman's letters home from a three-year journey to Sinai, Jerusalem, and Edessa, describing what she saw and, at length, exactly how the Jerusalem church kept Holy Week.
401–500
2 works
406
Latin
Jerome · c. 347 – 420
A Gallic priest had objected to vigils at martyrs' tombs, to lighting candles by daylight, to sending money to Jerusalem instead of to the local poor, and to the whole cult of relics. Jerome answers in a single night, and mostly by abuse.
c. 460–500
Syriac
Anonymous
The life of the ascetic who spent nearly forty years on a pillar near Antioch, judging disputes, advising emperors, and preaching twice a day to the crowds below.
601–700
1 work
c. 679–688
Latin
De Locis Sanctis
Adomnán of Iona · c. 624–704
A description of Jerusalem, Palestine, and Egypt taken down from a Frankish bishop shipwrecked on Iona, complete with sketch plans of churches.
701–800
1 work
c. 778–780
Latin
Hodoeporicon
Hugeburc of Heidenheim · 8th century
An account of a seven-year pilgrimage from England to Jerusalem and back, taken down from the traveller's own dictation, including his arrest as a spy and a smuggled jar of balsam.
1101–1200
1 work
c. 1106–1108
Old Church Slavonic
Daniil the Pilgrim · 12th century
An abbot from Rus travels to Jerusalem under crusader rule, measures distances between holy sites, and is allowed to place a lamp on the tomb for his own people.
1401–1500
1 work
c. 1436–1438
Middle English
Margery Kempe · c. 1373–after 1438
A brewer and mother of fourteen from Lynn dictates her life: a breakdown after childbirth, a vow of chastity negotiated with her husband, pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Rome, and the loud weeping that made people want her burned.
1501–1600
2 works
1518, expanded to 1533
Latin
Colloquia Familiaria
Desiderius Erasmus · c. 1466–1536
Dialogues written to teach schoolboys Latin, which grew into satires on pilgrimages, relics, monastic vows, soldiering, and arranged marriage.
dictated 1553–1555
Spanish
Acta
Ignatius of Loyola · 1491–1556
Dictated reluctantly in the third person: the cannonball at Pamplona, the convalescent reading, the year at Manresa, the pilgrimage, and repeated arrests by the Inquisition.
12 of 1774 works