The Library
1277 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.
201–300
1 work
c. 248
Latin
Ad Quirinum
Cyprian of Carthage · c. 210–258
Scripture passages gathered under headings — on the Jews, on Christ, on Christian conduct — with almost no comment, assembled as ammunition for argument.
301–400
1 work
382–405
Latin
Jerome · c. 347–420
A new Latin Bible made, against loud objection, from the Hebrew rather than the Greek Septuagint, with prefaces defending each decision.
401–500
1 work
c. 400–450 in its standard form
Syriac
Anonymous
The standard Syriac Bible, its Old Testament translated directly from Hebrew and its New Testament settled in the fifth century, replacing the Diatessaron.
501–600
1 work
c. 542
Latin
Instituta Regularia Divinae Legis
Junillus Africanus
A catechism-style introduction to reading scripture — its kinds of book, its authority, its style — adapted from a Syriac original of the school of Nisibis.
601–700
1 work
c. 690–725
Latin
Collectio Canonum Hibernensis
Anonymous
Canons arranged by topic and drawn as readily from the Old Testament and Irish synods as from Roman councils, with each source named.
1101–1200
2 works
c. 1100–1200
Latin
Glossa Ordinaria
The school of Laon and later hands
Patristic comment set in the margins and between the lines of the Bible itself, so that text and interpretation were read together on the page.
c. 1169–1173
Latin
Historia Scholastica
Peter Comestor · d. c. 1178
The narrative books of the Bible retold as continuous history, with pagan history synchronised alongside and difficulties explained as they arise.
1201–1300
1 work
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.
1301–1400
2 works
1377–1378
Latin
John Wycliffe · c. 1328–1384
An argument that scripture is wholly true and sufficient, that it belongs to every Christian, and that church tradition must be measured against it rather than the reverse.
c. 1382–1395 in two versions
Middle English
John Wycliffe's circle
The whole Bible translated from the Vulgate into English, first word for word and then revised into readable idiom, with a prologue defending vernacular scripture.
1401–1500
2 works
c. 1409–1420
Latin
Jean Gerson · 1363–1429
The four gospels harmonised into a single continuous narrative in a hundred and fifty chapters, with the sources marked throughout.
c. 1470–1489
Latin
Wessel Gansfort · c. 1419–1489
Writings on prayer, the eucharist, indulgences, and the authority of scripture over papal decree, circulated in manuscript among a small circle.
1501–1600
9 works
1516
Latin
Desiderius Erasmus · c. 1466–1536
A preface wishing that the gospels were translated into every tongue, so that the farmer might sing them at the plough and the weaver hum them at the shuttle.
1516
Greek
Novum Instrumentum Omne
Desiderius Erasmus · c. 1466–1536
The Greek text printed alongside a fresh Latin translation and annotations, produced in haste from a handful of late manuscripts.
printed 1514–1517; issued 1520
Latin
Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros and his team · 1436–1517
The Bible in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin in parallel columns, with grammars and a Hebrew dictionary, produced at a Spanish university by Jewish converts and Greek scholars.
March 1525
German
The peasants of Swabia
Twelve demands — to choose their own pastors, to end serfdom, to fish and hunt freely, to have tithes used locally — each supported by a scripture reference.
1526, revised 1534
English
William Tyndale · c. 1494–1536
The first English New Testament translated from Greek and printed, smuggled into England in bales of cloth and publicly burned by the bishop of London.
1528
English
William Tyndale · c. 1494–1536
An argument that scripture should be read in the plain literal sense, that kings are answerable to God alone, and that the clergy have usurped both.
New Testament 1522; complete Bible 1534
German
Martin Luther · 1483–1546
The whole Bible from Hebrew and Greek into a German shaped, as its translator said, by listening to the mother in the house and the common man in the market.
1567
Latin
Clavis Scripturae Sacrae
Matthias Flacius Illyricus · 1520–1575
A biblical dictionary and a treatise on interpretation arguing that scripture is clear in itself and must be read according to its own idiom, context, and aim.
1581
Old Church Slavonic
Ivan Fyodorov and the Ostrog circle
The first complete printed Church Slavonic Bible, prepared in Volhynia from Greek and Slavonic manuscripts under the patronage of a Ruthenian prince.
1601–1700
6 works
1611
English
The forty-seven translators
A revision by six companies of scholars working to fifteen rules, told to follow the Bishops' Bible where they could and to avoid marginal notes on doctrine.
1651
English
1653–1657
Latin
Brian Walton and colleagues · c. 1600–1661
The Bible in nine languages in parallel columns — Hebrew, Samaritan, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic, Persian — with a critical apparatus of variants.
c. 1655–1660; published 1825
Latin
De Doctrina Christiana
John Milton · 1608–1674
A private systematic theology arguing from scripture alone, and arriving at a subordinationist view of the Son, mortalism of the soul, and the lawfulness of polygamy.
1670
Latin
Tractatus Theologico-Politicus
Baruch Spinoza · 1632–1677
An argument that scripture must be interpreted by its own history and language alone, that Moses did not write the Pentateuch, and that the state should leave belief free.
1678
French
Richard Simon · 1638–1712
A Catholic priest argues that the Hebrew text reached us through many hands and cannot be the sole rule of faith, since tradition is needed to establish it.
27 of 1277 works