Finally following on from my previous post here. I present the next lot of my chronologically arranged listing of the Great Books derived from several different lists.
This time we go from Dante to the year 1600, which splits Shakespeare’s works pretty much in half. I know that seems rather random, but it’s mostly a space thing. You’ll come to see this when I get to later periods; the closer we get to now.
If you see any mistakes, or think I’m missing something, feel free to comment.
Year | Genre | Author | Title | Country | ||||||
1293 | Essays | Dante Alighieri | The New Life (La Vita Nuova) | Italy | ||||||
1313 | Essays | Dante Alighieri | “On Monarchy” | Italy | ||||||
1320 | Epic | Dante Alighieri | Divine Comedy | Italy | ||||||
1327 | Poetry | Petrarch | Lyric Poems; Selections | Italy | ||||||
1353 | Fiction | Boccaccio | Decameron | Italy | ||||||
1400 | Fiction | Geoffrey Chaucer | The Canterbury Tales | England | ||||||
1400 | History | Jean Froissart | Chronicles | France | ||||||
1400 | Poetry | Geoffrey Chaucer | Troilus and Criseyde | England | ||||||
1405 | Philosphy / Religion | Christine de Pisan | Book of the City of Ladies | France | ||||||
1427 | Philosphy / Religion | Thomas à Kempis | The Imitation of Christ | Germany | ||||||
1463 | Poetry | François Villon | Poems | France | ||||||
1479 | Poetry | Jorge Manrique | Coplas | Spain | ||||||
1485 | Epic | Malory | Morte d’Arthur | England | ||||||
1492 | Fiction | Diego de San Pedro | Prison of Love | Spain | ||||||
1494 | Fiction | Luo Guanzhong | Romance of the Three Kingdoms | China | ||||||
1495 | Epic | Boiardo | Orlando Innamorato | Italy | ||||||
1498 | History | Philippe de Commynes | Memoirs | France | ||||||
1499 | Drama | Fernando de Rojas | La Celestina | Spain | ||||||
1511 | Philosphy / Religion | Desiderius Erasmus | The Praise of Folly | Netherlands | ||||||
1513 | Philosphy / Religion | Niccolò Machiavelli | The Prince | Italy | ||||||
1516 | Philosphy / Religion | Thomas More | Utopia | Italy | ||||||
1517 | History | Niccolò Machiavelli | Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy | Italy | ||||||
1518 | Drama | Niccolò Machiavelli | The Mandrake | Italy | ||||||
1518 | Philosphy / Religion | Desiderius Erasmus | Colloquies | Netherlands | ||||||
1519 | Science | Leonardo da Vinci | Notebooks | Italy | ||||||
1528 | Philosphy / Religion | Castiglione | The Book of the Courtier | Italy | ||||||
1529 | Poetry | John Skelton | Poems | England | ||||||
1532 | Epic | Ariosto | Orlando Furioso | Italy | ||||||
1532 | Poetry | Michelangelo | Sonnets & Madrigals | Italy | ||||||
1536 | Philosphy / Religion | John Calvin | Institutes of the Christian Religion | Switzerland | ||||||
1542 | Poetry | Sir Thomas Wyatt | Poems | England | ||||||
1543 | Philosphy / Religion | Martin Luther | Table Talk | Germany | ||||||
1543 | Philosphy / Religion | Martin Luther | Three Treatises | Germany | ||||||
1543 | Science | Nicolaus Copernicus | On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres | Poland | ||||||
1544 | Poetry | Maurice Scève | Délie | France | ||||||
1547 | Poetry | Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey | Poems | England | ||||||
1549 | Fiction | Marguerite de Navarre | The Heptameron | France | ||||||
1550 | Biography | Vasari | Lives of the Painters | Italy | ||||||
1551 | Poetry | Gaspara Stampa | Sonnets & Madrigals | Italy | ||||||
1554 | Fiction | Unknown | Lazarillo de Tormes | Spain | ||||||
1560 | Poetry | Joachim Du Bellay | The Regrets | France | ||||||
1563 | Biography | Cellini | Autobiography | Italy | ||||||
1564 | Fiction | François Rabelais | Gargantua and Pantagruel | France | ||||||
1569 | Poetry | Antonio Ferreira | Poetry | Portugal | ||||||
1572 | Epic | Luis de Camoes | The Lusiads | Portugal | ||||||
1578 | Drama | Robert Garnier | Mark Antony | France | ||||||
1580 | Essays | Michel de Montaigne | Essays | France | ||||||
1581 | Epic | Tasso | Jerusalem Delivered | Italy | ||||||
1583 | Drama | Robert Garnier | The Jewesses | France | ||||||
1583 | Essays | Sir Philip Sidney | An Apology for Poetry | England | ||||||
1584 | Philosphy / Religion | Bruno | The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast | Italy | ||||||
1584 | Poetry | Fray Luis de Leon | Poems | Spain | ||||||
1585 | Poetry | Pierre Ronsard | Odes, Elegies, Sonnets | France | ||||||
1589 | Drama | William Shakespeare | The Two Gentlemen of Verona | England | ||||||
1590 | Drama | William Shakespeare | The Taming of the Shrew | England | ||||||
1590 | Poetry | Edmund Spenser | Prothalamion | England | ||||||
1591 | Drama | William Shakespeare | Henry VI, Part 2 | England | ||||||
1591 | Drama | William Shakespeare | Henry VI, Part 3 | England | ||||||
1591 | Drama | William Shakespeare | Henry VI, Part 1 | England | ||||||
1591 | Drama | William Shakespeare | Titus Andronicus | England | ||||||
1591 | Poetry | Sir Philip Sidney | Astrophel and Stella | England | ||||||
1591 | Poetry | St. John of the Cross | Poems | Spain | ||||||
1592 | Drama | Thomas Kyd | The Spanish Tragedy | England | ||||||
1592 | Drama | William Shakespeare | Richard III | England | ||||||
1592 | Drama | William Shakespeare | Edward III | England | ||||||
1593 | Drama | Christopher Marlowe | Poems and Plays | England | ||||||
1593 | Poetry | Sir Philip Sidney | The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia | England | ||||||
1594 | Drama | William Shakespeare | The Comedy of Errors | England | ||||||
1594 | Drama | William Shakespeare | Love’s Labour’s Lost | England | ||||||
1594 | Fiction | Thomas Nashe | The Unfortunate Traveller | England | ||||||
1595 | Drama | William Shakespeare | Romeo and Juliet | England | ||||||
1595 | Drama | William Shakespeare | Love’s Labour’s Won | England | ||||||
1595 | Drama | William Shakespeare | Richard II | England | ||||||
1595 | Drama | William Shakespeare | A Midsummer Night’s Dream | England | ||||||
1596 | Drama | William Shakespeare | King John | England | ||||||
1596 | Drama | William Shakespeare | Henry IV, Part 1 | England | ||||||
1596 | Epic | Edmund Spenser | The Faerie Queene | England | ||||||
1597 | Drama | William Shakespeare | The Merry Wives of Windsor | England | ||||||
1597 | Drama | William Shakespeare | Henry IV, Part 2 | England | ||||||
1597 | Philosphy / Religion | Francis Bacon | Essays | England | ||||||
1598 | Drama | William Shakespeare | Much Ado About Nothing | England | ||||||
1599 | Drama | William Shakespeare | Henry V | England | ||||||
1599 | Drama | William Shakespeare | Julius Caesar | England | ||||||
1599 | Drama | William Shakespeare | As You Like It | England | ||||||
1599 | Drama | William Shakespeare | Hamlet | England | ||||||
1600 | Drama | William Shakespeare | Troilus and Cressida | England | ||||||
1600 | Science | William Gilbert | On the Lodestone and Magnetic Bodies | England |