Chronology of wisdom literature in the Western tradition
This Chronology is not complete and may to an extent be misleading, but will identify many of the key contributions to wisdom literature. It does not yet go beyond 1700CE other than to mention a couple works. Readers are requested to suggest additions to this list, and by all means to notify me of any errors. There are undoubtedly some!
That this Chronology juxtaposes quite disparate writings may raise an eyebrow or cause a smile, but all things in due time. There does not seem to exist a comprehensive overview of the concept of wisdom, either globally or in the West. Of course, wisdom has been used in such varying senses that a primary task would seem to be to specify what criteria the historian is using to include a work of literature, or historic example, in hir account. In his anthology, Babylonian Wisdom Literature, W. G. Lambert (1960:1) pointed out that “‘Wisdom’ is strictly a misnomer as applied to Babylonian literature. . . . used for a group of texts which correspond in subject-matter with the Hebrew Wisdom books.”
The criterion for inclusion in this Chronology is that the author discusses wisdom itself (although this does not hold for the sages of the ancient Near East), or at least describes or defines wisdom in significant (perhaps detailed) manner. Authors who do not describe wisdom explicitly may be included if their use of the concept reveals a definite, although implicit, understanding of wisdom. Once what has been said about wisdom has been gathered together, the task of sorting out what wisdom has meant to human beings, and how that understanding has varied according to time and place, can be taken up. At present, the Chronology is still a “first round”, an initial examination of the literature, the criterion is subject to refinement, and I have not always followed it strictly.
Wisdom has usually been considered to signify an ultimate achievement for a human being, or rather a particular sort of ultimate, involving knowledge, judgment, and character. It signified the highest knowledge, the highest value, or at least, the highest virtue. The fact that it was of central importance to thoughtful people in the West for so many centuries, until the last two or three centuries in fact, and that over the past fifty years a renewed interest in wisdom has steadily grown, indicates that a thorough investigation of human interest in and insights into wisdom would be useful. It might provide a particularly valuable perspective on our options at a time when the choices humans make will determine the fate of our planet. Contemporary understandings of the universe are markedly different from those of earlier writers on wisdom, but the search for insight into priorities and optimal choices is the same. For the past couple centuries we have grown unaccustomed to bother with this search, but it seems to be urgent at the moment, and our need for wisdom may become more pressing before long. In this need, key insights and methods might be found in the heritage of wisdom literature.
A final prefatory note: Although many of these works have never been translated into English, or have not been translated in recent centuries--a reality that gives credibility to the claim that Alisdair MacIntyre's "disquieting suggestion" regarding moral philosophy in After Virtue may indeed be a fact in regard to contemporary understanding of wisdom--most of these works are available on the internet (see the "Wisdom links" page). I have recently made the first English translation of Charles de Bovelles' Liber de Sapiente, and am seeking a publisher with my collaborator Michel Ferrari of the University of Toronto. If, by chance, any visitors are interested in this work, please contact me.
Compiled by RH Trowbridge, PhD. rht@wisdomcenteredlife.org.
July 17, 2009
c2600-c600BCE Mesopotamian, including Sumerian, Old Babylonian,
Akkadian, Cassite, and Assyrian. Roughly, from the
Instructions of Shuruppak to Words of Ahiqar.
c2500-c100 BCE Egyptian, roughly, from Instructions of Hardjedef to the Papyrus Insinger.
c600-c150 BCE Jewish, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes (and to lesser extent other sections of the Tanakh); Ecclesiasticus and Book of Wisdom (Apocrypha) Book of Enoch.
469-399 Socrates. See Xenophon, Memorabilia; Plato, Apology
c450 Perictione. On wisdom. (fragments in Stobaeus III.I.120-121).
427-347 Plato. Republic, Apology, Protagoras, etc.
384-322 Aristotle. Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics, etc.
c300 Pythagorica. Carmen Aureum.
c106- 43 Marcus Tullius Cicero. De Officiis, Tusculanae Disputationes, etc.
c20BCE-50CE Philo of Alexandria.
4BCE-65CE Lucius Annaeus Seneca. De Constantia Sapientis, Epistolae Morales, De Tranquillitate Animi, De Vita Beata
c60-c150 New Testament (particularly Gospels, 1Cor, Ep. James)
c130-c202 Irenaeus. Against the Heresies, “Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching”.
c150-c215 Clement of Alexandria. Stromata.
185-254 Origen. Philokalia. Commentariorum in Evangelium Ioannis (PG14).
flca230 Gregory Thaumatourgos. Oratio Panegyrica in Origenem (PG10:1051-1104).
204-270 Plotinus. Enneads (particularly, I believe, I.2,3,46; IV.4; V.1,8)
3rd c? Sophia Jesu Christi.
3rdc? Hermetica
c300? Pirkei Avoth (Hebrew: Chapters of the Fathers, פרקי אבות ).
c240 – c320 Lactantius. Divinae Institutiones, (esp. books III: de falsa sapientia & IV: de vera sapientia et religione).
339-397 Ambrose of Milan. De Officiis Ministrorum, De Paradiso, De excessu fratris Satyrus.
flc600 Gregorius Magnus. Moralia (Expositio in Librum
Beati Job), Regula Pastoralis.
\780-849 Walafridus Strabo Fuldensis. Liber Proverbiorum.
Liber Ecclesiastes. Liber Sapientiae. Liber
Ecclesiasticus.
1085 - 1148(?) Guillelmus a Sancto Theoderico. Tractatus De Natura et Dignitate Amoris. Tractatus de Contemplando Deo.
12thc? Auctor Incertus. Vitis Mystica Seu Tractatus De Passione Domini (in the Works of S. Bernardi Claraevallensis).
12thc Turba Philosophorum. Alchemical work.
1235-1315 Raymond Lull. Book on the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit; De Virtutibus et Peccatis. Liber de gentili et tribus sapientibus
1256-1301/2 Gertrude von Helfta. Legatus divinae pietatis.
c1295-1358 Jean Buridan. Quaestiones super decem libros Ethicorum. In Metaphysicen Aristotelis Quaestiones
1300-1366 Henry Suso. Büchlein der Ewigen Weisheit (Horologium Sapientiae).
c1413-1454/5 Ambrosius de Spiera. Quadragesimale (i.e., Sermones Quadragesimae) de floribus sapientiae (printed 1476).
1462-1525 ? Pomponazzi, Pietro. De Immortalitate Animae (1516). De Fato.
1463-1494 Pico della Mirandola. Oratio de hominis dignitate (On the Dignity of Man).
1477-1547 Jacobo Sadoleto. De Laudibus Philosophiae.
1479-1567 Carolus Bovillus (Charles de Bouelles). Liber de
Sapiente (1509).
1575-1624 Jacob Boehme. Von der Gnadenwahl, 1623 (On predestination, i.e. On election by grace); Tafel der Drey Principen, 1619 (Chart of the three principles) [check this.] XL Questions concerning the Soule.
1629. Aurora sapientiae.
1607-1681 John Pordage. Sophia, das ist, Die holdseelige ewige Jungfrau der göttlichen Weisheit, oder, Wunderbahre geistliche Entdeck- und Offenbahrungen, so die theure Weisheit einer heiligen Seele gegeben [1699] Amsterdam.