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.
601–700
3 works
c. 600–650
Greek
Klimax
John Climacus · c. 579–c. 649
Thirty steps from renunciation to love, each a chapter on one virtue or vice, written by an abbot of Sinai in a compressed and aphoristic Greek.
c. 620
Greek
Antiochus of Palestine · 7th century
A hundred and thirty short chapters on the virtues and vices, compiled at the monastery of Mar Saba for monks scattered by the Persian sack of Jerusalem.
c. 700
Latin
Liber Scintillarum
Defensor of Ligugé · 7th century
Eighty-one chapters of short quotations on charity, patience, silence, and other virtues, each drawn first from scripture and then from the fathers.
701–800
3 works
c. 740–750
Greek
Sacra Parallela
John of Damascus · c. 675–749
An alphabetical anthology of scriptural and patristic passages arranged by subject, pairing virtues with the vices opposed to them.
c. 775–784
Latin
De Conflictu Vitiorum et Virtutum
Ambrosius Autpertus · c. 730 – 784
Each vice speaks in its own voice and the answering virtue replies with a verse of scripture: pride against humility, gluttony against abstinence, anger against patience. It is a debate script rather than a treatise, and short enough to memorise.
c. 799–800
Latin
Alcuin of York · c. 735–804
A short moral handbook written for a Frankish count who wanted guidance he could actually use while governing and fighting.
801–900
1 work
c. 810–820
Latin
Diadema Monachorum
Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel · d. c. 840
A hundred short chapters on the virtues, arranged for reading aloud one each evening before the monks retire.
1101–1200
1 work
c. 1151
Latin
Ordo Virtutum
Hildegard of Bingen · 1098–1179
A sung drama in which a soul is pulled between sixteen Virtues, who sing, and the Devil, who can only shout because he has no music.
8 of 1774 works