Contents
Preface ix
How to Read a Document xiii
Part I The Origins of Western Civilization and the Classical World 1
Creation Epics 3
1. The Epic of Gilgamesh (ca. 2000 b.c.) 3
2. The Creation Epic (ca. 2000 b.c.) 5
3. The Book of Genesis (ca. 10th—6th century b.c.) 11
4. Hesiod, Works and Days (ca. 700 b.c.) 16
The Ancient Near East 20
5. Code of Hammurabi (early 18th century b.c.) 20
6. The Book of the Dead (ca. 16th century b.c.) 23
7. The Book of Exodus (ca. 10th—6th century b.c.) 26
8. The Book of Isaiah (ca. 8th—6th century b.c.) 30
Ancient and Classical Greece 34
9. Homer, Iliad (9th—8th century b.c.) 34
10. Sappho of Lesbos, Poems (ca. 600 b.c.) 37
11. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War (ca. 400 b.c.) 39
12. Xenophon, The Spartan Constitution (ca. 360 b.c.) 44
13. Plato, Apology (399 b.c.) 48
14. Plato, The Republic (ca. 327 b.c.) 53
15. Aristotle, Politics (4th century b.c.) 61
16. Plutarch, The Life of Alexander (ca. a.d. 116) 65
The Roman World 72
17. Polybius, The Roman Constitution (ca. 150 b.c.) 72
18. Cicero, The Trial of Aulus Cluentius Habitus (66 b.c.) 76
19. Virgil, Aeneid (30—19 b.c.) 81
20. Juvenal, Satires (ca. a.d. 116) 84
21. Plutarch, The Life of Cato the Elder (ca. a.d. 116) 88
22. Suetonius, The Life of Augustus (ca. a.d. 122) 92
23. The Sermon on the Mount (ca. a.d. 28—35) 96
24. St. Paul, Epistle to the Romans (ca. a.d. 57) 98
Part II Medieval Europe 103
The Early Middle Ages 105
25. Tacitus, Germania (98) 105
26. Eusebius, In Praise of Constantine (336) 108
27. Augustine of Hippo, The City of God (413—426) 113
28. Benedict of Nursia, Rule of Saint Benedict (ca. 535—540) 117
29. The Burgundian Code (ca. 474) 121
30. Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks (ca. 581—591) 126
31. Bede, The Ecclesiastical History of England (731) 129
32. Einhard, The Life of Charlemagne (ca. 829—836) 133
Islam and The Eastern Empire 137
33. Justinian, Code (529—565) 137
34. Procopius, Secret History (ca. 560) 141
35. The Koran (7th century) 145
36. Michael Psellus, Chronographia (ca. 1075—1077) 148
37. Ibn Al-Qalanisi, The Damascus Chronicle (ca. 1150) 152
38. Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad (after 733) 155
The High Middle Ages 160
39. Feudal Documents (11th—13th centuries) 160
40. Bernard of Angers, Miracles of St. Foy (ca. 1010) 164
41. Fulcher of Chartres, The First Crusade and the Siege of Jerusalem (1101—1127) 169
42. The Song of Roland (ca. 1100) 175
43. Magna Carta (1215) 179
44. Francis of Assisi, Admonitions (ca. 1220) 182
45. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (1266—1273) 187
46. Dante, The Divine Comedy (ca. 1320) 192
47. Catherine of Siena, Letters (1376) 196
48. Christine de Pisan, The Book of the City of Ladies (ca. 1405) 200
49. Margaret Paston, Letters (1441—1448) 206
50. Witchcraft Documents (15th century) 209
Part III Renaissance and Reformation 215
The Renaissance 217
51. Francesco Petrarca, Letters (ca. 1372) 217
52. Leon Battista Alberti, On the Family (1435—1444) 222
53. Giorgio Vasari, The Life of Leonardo da Vinci (1550) 227
54. Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince (1513) 231
55. Desiderius Erasmus, In Praise of Folly (1509) 235
56. Sir Thomas More, Utopia (1516) 239
The New Worlds 243
57. Christopher Columbus, Letter from the First Voyage (1493) 243
58. Ludovico di Varthema, Travels (ca. 1508) 247
59. Gomes de Zurara, Chronicle of Guinea (1453) 250
60. Bartolomé de Las Casas, Apologetic History of the Indies (1566) 254
61. Bernal Díaz, The True History of the Conquestof New Spain (1552—1568) 258
62. Juan Gonzalez de Mendoza, The History of the Great and Mightie Kingdom of China (1585) 261
Religious Reform 265
63. Martin Luther, The Freedom of a Christian (1520)and Of Marriage and Celibacy (1566) 265
64. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (1534)and Catechism (ca. 1540) 271
65. Ignatius Loyola, Spiritual Exercises (1548) 279
66. Teresa of Ávila, The Life of St. Teresa (1611) 283
The Early Modern World 287
67. Anonymous, Lazarillo de Tormes (1554) 287
68. The Twelve Articles of the Peasants of Swabia (1524); Martin Luther, Admonition to Peace (1525) 290
69. Francis Xavier, Letter from India (1543) 295
70. Marguerite de Navarre, Heptameron (1558) 299
71. Philippe Duplessis-Mornay, A Defense of LibertyAgainst Tyrants (1579) 304
72. Magdalena and Balthasar Paumgartner, Letters (1592—1596) 309
73. Anonymous, The Debate About Women: Hic Mulierand Haec Vir (1620) 312
Part IV The Ancien RéGime 317
The Wars of Religion 319
74. Henry IV, The Edict of Nantes (1598) 319
75. Cardinal Richelieu, The Political Testament (1638) 321
76. Hans von Grimmelshausen, Simplicissimus (1669) 324
Subjects and Sovereigns 329
77. James I, True Law of a Free Monarchy (1598) 329
78. Sir William Clarke, The Putney Debates (1647) 334
79. Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651) 340
80. John Locke, Second Treatise of Government (1689) 343
81. The English Bill of Rights (1689) 347
82. Duc de Saint-Simon, Memoirs (1694—1723) 352
Acknowledgments 357
Photo Credits 363