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Read Me What to read, 1101-1400

< 301-1100 | 1401-1600 >

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14th Century

One star: No or Noh plays (14th-15th Centuries) Etext: Japanese Text Initiative Criticism: post Indeed, the *no*, in an Aristotelian analysis, might not qualify as drama at all: it lacks a strong plot line, lacks moments of intense passion, and might better be described as the recollection of an action as a state of feeling rather than the imitation of action. --G. L. Anderson, Masterpieces of the Orient (1961) pp. 336-37
The classic drama of Japan, mixing poetry and prose, music, choreography, and masks... --A Guide to Oriental Classics
One star: Twenty Plays of the No Theatre, Donald Keene, ed. (1970)

Sir Thomas MALORY (c. 1394-1471) Etext: The Online Books Page Reference: Society
Two stars: Le Morte D'Arthur (1471) No one wants the Grail to overthrow the Round Table directly, by a fiat of spiritual magic. What we want is to see the Round Table sibi relictus, falling back from the peak that failed to reach heaven and so abandoned to those tendencies within it which must work its destruction. And that is what we are shown. --C. S. Lewis, from 'The Morte Darthur' in 'Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature'
Into the narrative of the adventures of Arthur and his court and the originally distinct story of the Quest for the Holy Grail, Malory, working in his prison with his French books about him, poured all the shadow life of bygone Medieval Europe. --Kenneth Rexroth

Thomas a KEMPIS (c. 1380-1471) Etext: The Online Books Page
The Imitation of Christ (c. 1420)

Christine de PISAN (1363-1431) Etext: The Song of Joan of Arc
The Book of the City of Ladies (Le Livre de la cite des dames 1405)

Vidyapati THAKUR (1352-1448?)
Love Songs

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (c. 1350-1400) Etext: The Online Books Page Study: Spark Notes Reference: Luminarium Criticism: post

KAO Ming
The Lute (14th C.; Jean Mulligan, trans., 1980) ...Ming ch'uan-ch'i drama. --A Guide to Oriental Classics (3rd Ed. 1989) p. 237

Mabinogion (The White Book of Rhydderch, c. 1320, and The Red Book of Hergest, c. 1400) Etext: The Online Books Page

Geoffrey CHAUCER (c. 1340-1400) Etext: The Online Books Page Reference: Chaucer Metapage Criticism: post
Legend of Good Women (c. 1374-1386)
Parliament of Fowls (c. 1374-1386)
One star: Troilus and Criseyde (c. 1380-1390)
The love of Chaucer's Troilus for Criseyde is misguided, but then Troilus is really still only a boy. In happier circumstances, Chaucer's Criseyde would not have betrayed her young lover. --Charles Van Doren
Five stars: The Canterbury Tales (c. 1390) Here are bawdy stories that will make your roar or blush or both, delicate tales of chivalry and romantic love, classic animal fables and ancient legends charmingly retold, scandalous tales of clerical corruption, together with edifying tales of spiritual devotion. And the style varies from the coarsest and most common street idiom to the most elegant and mock-elegant niceties. --Seymour Cain, Imaginative Literature I: From Homer to Shakespeare (1961), p. 137-138
What appears to be a simple tale of religious pilgrimage is really a study of the human condition, particularly the meaning of goodness or holiness in human life. --Constance Buchanan

Jean FROISSART (1338-1410) Etext: The Online Books Page
One star: Chronicles of England (1523-1525)

'Abd ar-Rahman bin Muhammed IBN KHALDUN (1332-1406) Etext: Muslim Philosophy
One star: The Prolegomena (Al-Muqaddima) to Kitab al-'Ibar (1375-1378; "Book of Instructive Examples")
One of the most remarkable philosophies of history ever written, Ibn Khaldun's encyclopedic discourses on the historical factors in the rise and fall of civilizations is a classic among modern world historians. --A Guide to Oriental Classics

LUO Kuan-Chung (c. 1330-1400)
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms
One star: The Water Margin or All Men Are Brothers (Shui-hu chuan) with Shih Nai-an

Mohammed Shamsuddin HAFIZ (1327-1390) Etext: The Online Books Page
Divan (1959)

Giovanni BOCCACCIO (1313-1375) Etext: The Online Books Page For two centuries, when but little was known of the 'Decameron' north of the Alps, he was famous all over Europe simply on account of his Latin compilations on mythology, geography and biography. --Jacob Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, translated by S. G. C. Middlemore (1878), (Random House 1944) p. 150
Two stars: The Decameron (1353) [A] kind of diurnal Arabian Nights set just outside Florence in 1348 as the Black Death ravages the city. --Ingrid D. Rowland, The New York Times Book Review, April 22, 2001, p. 10
After the first gloomy pages of the book the reader reaches a landscape of rejuvenation, rebirth and revival. --Dante Della-Terza

PETRARCH (Francesco Petrarca, 1304-1374) Etext: Humanistic Texts lives in the memory of most people nowadays chiefly as a great Italian poet, owed his fame among his contemporaries far rather to the fact that he was a kind of living representative of antiquity, that he imitated all styles of Latin. --Jacob Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, translated by S. G. C. Middlemore (1878), (Random House 1944) p. 150 He was one of the principal causes for that great revival of Latin learning that continued almost unabated for centuries, but finally began to wane during the last century. --Patrick Harvey, The Pope's Latinist, Crisis, November, 2000 p. 31
One star: The Triumphs (Trionfi 1374)
One star: Canzoniere ([Song Book] 1374)
Letters Etext: Medieval Sourcebook

Muhammed Bin 'Abdullah IBN BATTUTA (1304-1369) There's little doubt that Ibn Buttatah was, and remains, the greatest traveler of all time. --Geoffrey Moorhouse, New York Times Book Review, August 25, 2002, p. 19 Born in Morocco, he held judicial office in such distant regions as India and the Maldive islands and attained the same dignity upon returning to his native Morocco at the end of his life. Despite the variety of government and custom, the same Sacred Law, at least in principle, applied throughtout the realm of Islam and an expert in the Law was therefore qualified to hold office anywhere. --William H. McNeill, The Rise of the West, p. 496, n. 25
Rihla [Journey] or Tuhfat an-nuzzar fi ghara 'ib al-amsar wa 'aja 'ib al'asfar [A Gift for those interested in the curiosities of cities and the wonders on the routes] Etext: Medieval Sourcebook | Medieval Sourcebook Study: Virtual Tour

13th Century

SHIH Nai-an (1296-1370)
One star: The Water Margin or All Men Are Brothers (Shui-hu chuan) with Luo Kuan-Chung Reference: Chinese Classics & History | National Museum of Japanese History
A classic of Chinese popular fiction, narrating the adventures of a band of outlaws in the Sung Dynasty. --A Guide to Oriental Classics

Juan RUIZ, Archpriest of Hita (c. 1283-1350) Etext: Poetry Archive
The Book of True Love (1790)
Irony, parody and coarse laughter are never far from the surface (we do not even know if the author was in fact an 'archpriest' at all), and the most amusing sections concern the doings of a notorious old procuress called Trotaconventos, and her attempts to obtain mistresses for the author. --Philip Ward

KENKO (Yoshida No Kaneyoshi, 1283-1350) Etext: The Online Books Page
One star: Essays in Idleness (Tsurezuregusa, (c. 1330)
Observations in journal form on life, nature, and art, with especially important articulations of Japanese aesthetic values... --A Guide to Oriental Classics

One star: Brennu-Njals Saga or Burnt Njal or Njal's Saga (c. 1280) Etext: The Online Books Page Njal is equipped with second sight, along with a good deal of simple common sense and worldly wisdom--none of which ultimately suffices either to save his own life or to avert the widening acts of vengeance that, down the decades, devastate the world of his family and neighbors. --Brad Leithauser, New York Review of Books, December 20, 2001, p. 36

Volsunga Saga (late 13th C.)

DANTE Alighieri (1265-1321) Etext: The Online Books Page | Poets Reference: Virtual Tour of Hell Criticism: post
One star: The New Life (La Vita Nuova, c. 1292)
Convivio (c. 1304)
On Monarchy (De Monarchia, c. 1310-1313) The sacrum imperium has now clearly broken in two. Dante's solution was to have his universal vision, expressed in millenarian language, institutionalized in a world monarchy. --Jene M. Porter, The Review of Politics, Fall 2000, p. 800
Five stars: The Divine Comedy (c. 1321) Just as, at an earlier period of the Middle Ages, types and anti-types were sought in the history of the Old and New Testaments, so does Dante constantly bring together a Christian and a pagan illustration of the same fact. --Jacob Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, translated by S. G. C. Middlemore (1878), (Random House 1944) p. 149 At rare moments in a cultural tradition, great works are created which sum up all the strands of thought and imagination that have gone into the making of that tradition. Such a unifying work is usually the creation of a poetic genius. --Seymour Cain, Religion and Theology (1961), p. 109
It is that he give to us who do not agree with his position, and who are still troubled by the damned and the unbaptized, some sense of what it might be like to live with Dante's faith, and to experience the spiritual life which follows from it. --Anthony O'Hear
Letter to Can Grande Etext: Dean
De Vulgaria Eloquentia (1529)

YUIEN
Tannisho (Lamentations of Divergences) Etext: Living Dharma | Buddhist Information
The essential teachings of Shinran [(1173-1262)] as remembered by a devoted disciple. --A Guide to Oriental Classics

Marco POLO (c. 1254-1324) Etext: Project Gutenberg
Two stars: The Travels of Marco Polo, A Venetian (1477) the main source of Western knowledge of China for 200 years, in spite of the fact that Polo did not mention chopsticks, tea drinking, foot binding, or the Great Wall. --John Derbyshire, China Discovers the West, review of 'The Dragon and the Foreign Devils: China and the World, 1100 B.C. to the Present, Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2007, p. 57
The first European to see and record in realistic detail the splendor, magnificence, and wonder of the East... --Robert B. Downs

WANG Shih-fu (c. 1250-1337?) Criticism: Tsai Shu-hui
The Romance of the Western Chamber ...masterpiece of Yuan drama. --A Guide to Oriental Classics (3rd Ed. 1989) p. 237

The Kabbalah (13th C.) Etext: The Online Books Page Criticism: post

Aucassin et Nicolette (13th Century) Etext: The Online Books Page Reference: Literary Encyclopedia

Lady NIJO (13th Century) Etext: Other Women's Voices
Diary ...poetic diary in the tradition of Heian court ladies. --A Guide to Oriental Classics (3rd Ed. 1989) p. 275

KUAN Hanqin (1241?-1322?)
Injustice to Tou O. Criticism: Huang

Yunus EMRE (1238?-1320?) Etext: The Online Books Page
Mystical Poetry
One of the most important of Anatolian Turkish mystic poets, Yunus Emre was also one of the first to use Turkish as a serious literary language. --A Guide to Oriental Classics

JACOBUS de Varagine (c. 1227-1298) Etext: The Online Books Page
The Golden Legend (before 1264)

Saint THOMAS Aquinas (c. 1225-1274) Etext: The Online Books Page Reference: Thomas International Center Study: Reference: Criticism: Humor: post a flame of heavenly wisdom --Dante St. Thomas put all the power of his genius at the exclusive service of the truth. He seems to wish to disappear behind it, almost through fear of troubling its brightness, so that it, and not he, should shine forth in all its radiance. --Pope John Paul II, Insegnamentii di Giovanni Paolo II, December 25, 1982, Vol. V, 3, pp. 1688-91
Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard (1252-1256)
Concerning Being and Essence (1256)
Truth (Veritate 1256-1259) full title: Disputed Questions on Truth (Quaestiones disputatae de Veritate)
Summa Contra Gentiles (1258-1260)
...composed at the request of S. Ramon de Penafuerte, ostensibly to convert the Muslims of Spain. But the book grew into quite a different tool, aiming at nothing less than the reconciliation of reason with revelation. --Philip Ward
Hymns (c. 1264)
Certainly Aquinas' greatest hymns, 'Pange lingua (Tantum ergo)', 'Adora te devote', 'Verbum supernum (O salutaris hostia)', and the rest are amongst the very greatest poems of the West from the age of Augustus to Dante in any language... --Kenneth Rexroth
On Kingship (De regno 1267) full title: On Kingship, to the King of Cyprus (De regno [De regimine principum], ad regem Cypri)
Commentary on Aristotle's "On Interpretation" (1270-1271)
Three stars: Summa Theologica (1267-1274) Etext: Domincan | New Advent | Maritain Bookseller:Amazon First, notice the title of the article; this indicates the general subject to be discussed. Second, notice what, at the beginning, Aquinas says 'seems' to be the case. The contrary of this will usually be Aquinas' own position. Third, proceed at once to read the portion commencing 'I answer that'. This will give Aquinas own thought and his reasons for it. Fourth, return to the objections and read them together with their replies. --Peter Wolff, The Development of Political Theory and Government (1959), p. 76 Knowledge can be obtained, Aquinas argues, through either faith or natural reason. Faith derives its knowledge mainly from the Holy Scripture; the supreme examples of natural reason, derived from the senses, are found in the works of Plato and Aristotle. Both kinds of knowledge come from God, and therefore they cannot be in conflict. --Robert B. Downs, Famous Books: Ancient and Medieval (1964), p. 292 It [Scholasticism] is an immense structure, like the greatest computers, capable of absorbing all experience, if only the experience is programmed into its own terms, and producing satisfactory answers--satisfactory within the terms. --Kenneth Rexroth, More Classics Revisited (1989), p. 46

The Quest for the Holy Grail (c. 1225) Etext: The Online Books Page Criticism: Miesel

NICHIREN Daishonin (1222-1282)
The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonen, Gosho Translation Committee Etext: Bratcher

Magna Carta (1215) Etext: British Library

Roger BACON (c. 1214-1294) Etext: The Online Books Page Reference: Wikipedia
Opus Majus (1268)

Guillaume de LORRIS (c. 1212- c. 1237) and Jean de MEUN (c. 1237-c. 1305) Criticism: post
The Romance of the Rose (1237 and 1275-80) Study: Arn

Muslih SA'DI (c. 1208-c. 1292) Etext: The Online Books Page
Gulistan

Jalal ad-Din RUMI (1207-1273) Etext: The Online Books Page [T]he favorite [Islamic] poet of mystically inclined Americans... --First Things, December 2001, p. 60 Criticism: post
One star: Mathnawi
The greatest mystical poet of Persia. --A Guide to Oriental Classics
One star: Fihi ma fihi (It Contains what it Contains)

Robin Hood (early 13th Century) Etext: The Online Books Page

Medieval Latin Lyrics Helen Waddell, ed.

12th Century

Okagami [Great Mirror] (c. 1200)

DOGEN (Dogen Zenji, or Dogen Kigen, or Eihei Dogen, 1200-1253)
Treasury of the Eye of the True Dharma (Shobogenzo zuimonki, compiled 1235-1237, published 1651))

PURNABHADRA (c. 1199)
One star: Pancatantra (originally c. 200 B.C.)
This collection of ancient Indian fables has exerted a greater influence on world literature than any other Indian work. It has been called the best collection of stories in the world. --A Guide to Oriental Classics

One star: The Tale of the Heike (Heike monogatari, after 1185) Etext: The Online Books Page
Although the characters are idealized and perhaps--by our standards--romanticized, the rush and tumult of battle emerge from the Heike as they do from the Iliad, and personal feelings, though poignant and moving, occupy a small part of the narrative. --A Guide to Oriental Classics

Snorri STURLUSON (1178-1241) Etext: The Online Books Page
The Prose Edda (c. 1220)
Heimskringla (c. 1230)

The Tumbler of Our Lady (late 12th Century) Etext: The Online Books Page

DAIBU (Kenrei Mon'in Ukyo no Daibu, before 1174-after 1232) Reference: Other Women's Voices
The Poetic Memoirs of Lady Daibu ...covering a fifty-year period of her life during the opening years of the Kamakura period. --A Guide to Oriental Classics (3rd Ed. 1989) p. 275

Wolfram von ESCHENBACH (c. 1170-c. 1220) Criticism: post
Parzival (before 1217)

Shota RUSTAVELI (fl. 1200) Etext: The Online Books Page
The Man in the Panther's Skin

KAMO No Chomei (1153-1216)
One star: An Account of My Hut (Hojoki, 1212) Etext: Humanistic Texts He can sit in his hut and contemplate eternity and at the same time poetically observe the passing of the world of the here and now. --G. L. Anderson, Masterpieces of the Orient (1961) pp. 293-94
A short account of a reclusive life, with meditations on the vicissitudes of worldly life, the beauties of nature, and the satisfactions of simplicity... the opening paragraph is particularly well known and loved. --A Guide to Oriental Classics

CHRETIAN de Troyes (12th Century) Etext: The Online Books Page Criticism: Cooper
Yvain: The Knight of the Lion

JAYADEVA (12th Century)
One star: Gitagovinda Etext: Sanskrit Classical Literature Reference: Mewari
'Krishna Praised in Song' is a unique operatic lyric in Sanskrit, regarded both as a great poem and as a major work of medieval devotionalism. --A Guide to Oriental Classics

TROUBADOURS of Provence (12th Century) Reference: Azema The Troubadours of the Provencal movement had already begun to take that turn or twist towards Oriental fancies and the paradox of pessimism, which always comes to Europeans as something fresh when their own sanity seems to be something stale. --G. K. Chesterton
Songs

GOTTFRIED von Strassburg (died c. 1210)
Tristan (1210)

One star: Poem of the Cid (c. 1140) Criticism: Ward Etext: The Online Books Page

HSIN Ch'i-chi (1140-1207) Etext: Stanford University | Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Poems

ATTAR (Farid ad-Din Abu Hamid Muhammad ben Ibrahim, c. 1136-c. 1230) Etext: The Online Books Page Reference: Columbia Enc.
Ilahinama [The Book of Divine Wisdom]
One star: Mantiq at-Tair [The Parliament of Birds] ... an allegory of the soul's progress to God. --M. S. Merwin, New York Review of Books, June 13, 2002, p. 40
A sophisticated literary treatment, in fable form, of the stages of religious experience in man's contemplative journey toward union with God, by a Persian Sufi. --A Guide to Oriental Classics

MAIMONIDES (Moshe Ben Maimon, 1135-1204) Etext: The Online Books Page Study: Koons Criticism: post
Guide for the Perplexed (Dalalat al-Ha'irin 1190)
...attempts to reconcile Judaic revelation with Aristotelian philosophy, and concludes that reason alone is insufficient to explain religious and scientific phenomena. --Philip Ward
Preservation of Youth (1190)

CHU Hsi (1130-1200) Etext: Humanistic Texts Chu's influence on Chinese thought was not unlike that of Aquinas in Christendom ... --Leslie Marchant, The Fourth Moon of Little Fulfilment, Salisbury Review, Autumn 2000 p. 33
One star: Chin-ssu lu
Leading exponent and synthesizer of Neo-Confucianism in the twelfth century, which became orthodox state teaching in later centuries and spread throughout East Asia. --A Guide to Oriental Classics

AVERROES (Ibn Rushd, 1126-1198)
On the Harmony of Religion and Philosophy (Kitab fasl al-maqal) Etext: Mohammed Jamil-al-Rahman translation
A classic attempt to reconcile religion and philosophy. --A Guide to Oriental Classics

LU Yu (1125-1210) Reference: Quotations
Chien-nan shih-kao (1220)

SAIGYO (1118-1190) Etext: Poetry Hunter Reference: Hermitage
Mirror for the Moon: A Selection of Poems by Saigyo William R. LaFleur, trans.
A collection of poems by a great court poet of the late Heian period. --A Guide to Oriental Classics

JOHN of Salisbury (c. 1115-1180)
One star: The Statesman's Book (Policraticus, before 1159) Etext: Medieval Sourcebook

ABUBACER (Abu Bakr Muhammed bin 'Abdulmakik Ibn Tufail, c. 1105-1185) Reference: Routledge
Alive, Son of Awake

< 301-1100 | 1401-1600 >



Revised September 12, 2010.

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