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.
1900–1801 BC
1 work
c. 1900 BC
Egyptian
Anonymous
A man weary of life argues with his own soul about whether to die. Death is before me today, he says, like the scent of myrrh, like the clearing of the sky, like a man's longing to see his house again after years in captivity. The soul argues back and finally agrees to stay with him.
1–100
2 works
c. AD 20–40
Greek
Legum Allegoriae
Philo of Alexandria · c. 20 BC – c. AD 50
Three books working verse by verse through Genesis 2 and 3, where Adam is the mind, Eve is sense-perception, the serpent is pleasure, and the garden is the soul's own condition.
c. AD 20–40
Greek
De Gigantibus
Philo of Alexandria · c. 20 BC – c. AD 50
On the sons of God who came down to the daughters of men, read not as a myth of fallen angels but as an account of souls that sank into bodies and stayed there, against those that rose.
201–300
5 works
c. 210
Latin
De Anima
Tertullian · c. 155–c. 220
A long enquiry into what the soul is, where it comes from, and what happens to it at death, drawing on medicine, philosophy, dreams, and the testimony of a woman in his own congregation who saw souls.
c. 200–250
Syriac
Anonymous
A prince is sent from the East to Egypt to fetch a pearl from a serpent, puts on Egyptian clothes, eats their food, forgets who he is and falls asleep — until a letter arrives from his parents that flies to him and speaks, and he remembers, takes the pearl, and goes home to a robe that has been kept for him and turns out to be his own likeness.
c. 200–250
Greek, surviving in Coptic
Anonymous
The soul as a woman who falls into prostitution, is passed between robbers, bears illegitimate children, and finally turns and weeps — at which the Father sends her own brother down to her as bridegroom, and the bridal chamber restores her.
c. 245
Greek
Origen of Alexandria · c. 185–c. 253
The stenographic record of a synod at which Origen cross-examines a bishop on the relation of the Son to the Father, and then on whether the soul is the blood.
c. 250–300
Greek, surviving in Coptic
Anonymous
A father's advice to a son in the manner of Proverbs, urging him to make reason the guide, to know that the mind is a lamp and the passions are wild beasts, and to bring Christ into the house of the soul as a guest.
301–400
2 works
386–387
Latin
Soliloquia
Augustine of Hippo · 354–430
A dialogue between Augustine and his own reason, written at a country villa in the months between his conversion and his baptism, asking to know God and the soul and nothing more.
c. 390–400
Greek
Nemesius of Emesa
A Christian synthesis of Greek medicine and philosophy on body and soul, sensation, imagination, memory, and the will, drawing on Galen throughout.
401–500
1 work
c. 470
Latin
De Statu Animae
Claudianus Mamertus · d. c. 474
An argument that the soul is wholly incorporeal, against Faustus of Riez, who had held that only God is truly bodiless and that everything created must have some kind of body. Written by a priest of Vienne with more Neoplatonism than anyone else in Gaul.
1101–1200
1 work
c. 1147–1169
Latin
Isaac of Stella · c. 1100–c. 1178
Sermons of unusual philosophical seriousness on the soul, the church as the body of Christ, and the mercy owed to sinners by a community that shares their nature.
1401–1500
1 work
1469–1482
Latin
Marsilio Ficino · 1433–1499
Eighteen books arguing the immortality of the soul from Platonic principles, placing the human soul at the centre of a hierarchy binding matter to God.
13 of 1774 works