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The Library

Forty Centuries of Christian Writing

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.

1101–1200

The Twelfth Century

2 works

c. 1100–1200

Latin

The Ordinary Gloss

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.

Scholastic · CommentaryRead elsewhere

c. 1160–1170

Latin

Summa on the Decretum

Stephen of Tournai · 1128–1203

A lucid commentary on Gratian written for French students, later followed by a bitter letter complaining that theology students now argue about the Trinity in the street.

Western · Canon lawRead elsewhere

1201–1300

The Thirteenth Century

2 works

c. 1230–1245

Latin

The Little Summaries of Logic

Summulae Logicales

Peter of Spain · c. 1215–1277

A textbook of logic covering the Aristotelian syllogism and then the medieval theory of how terms actually refer in a sentence.

Scholastic · LogicRead elsewhere

c. 1250

Latin

On the Division of the Sciences

Robert Kilwardby · c. 1215–1279

A map of all the sciences and their relations to one another, written for students entering the arts faculty and needing to know what they were studying.

Dominican · EducationRead elsewhere