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[≤ 450BC]  [449-400BC]  [399-350BC]  [349-1BC]  [1AD-199]  [200-1499]  [1500-1599]  [1600-1649]  [1650-1699]  [1700-1749]  [1750-1789]  [1790-1829]  [1830-1859]  [1860-1889]  [1890-1909]  [1910-1929]  [≥ 1930] 

Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 2000?-1400? BC)
The Vedas (c. 2000?-200 BC)
Code of Hammurabi (c. 1700? BC)
(Old Testament) (c. 1400?-300? BC)
Genesis (Bible) (c. 1400? BC)
Exodus (Bible) (c. 1400? BC)
Leviticus (Bible) (c. 1400? BC)
Numbers (Bible) (c. 1400? BC)
Deuteronomy (Bible) (c. 1400? BC)
Joshua (Bible) (c. 1050?-950? BC)
Judges (Bible) (c. 1000? BC)
Psalms (Bible) (c. 1000-300 BC)
Ruth (Bible) (c. 950? BC)
Ecclesiastes (Bible) (c. 950? BC)
Song of Songs (Bible) (c. 950? BC)
Proverbs (Bible) (c. 950-680 BC)
Job (Bible) (c. 950?-400? BC)
I-II Samuel (Bible) (c. 900? BC)
Iliad (c. 850? BC)
Odyssey (c. 850? BC)
The Upanishads (c. 800?-400? BC)
Amos (Bible) (c. 750 BC)
Hosea (Bible) (c. 750 BC)
Micah (Bible) (c. 750-686 BC)
Jonah (Bible) (c. 725? BC)
Shield of Heracles (c. 700? BC)
Theogony (c. 700? BC)
The Works and Days (c. 700? BC)
The Spartan Creed (c. 650? BC)
Zephaniah (Bible) (c. 630 BC)
Jeremiah (Bible) (c. 626-586 BC)
Nahum (Bible) (c. 615? BC)
Habakkuk (Bible) (c. 605 BC)
Isaiah (Bible) (c. 600 BC)
The Ramayana (c. 600? BC)
Ezekiel (Bible) (593-571 BC)
Lamentations (Bible) (c. 586-575 BC)
Obadiah (Bible) (c. 580? BC)
Joel (Bible) (c. 550? BC)
I-II Kings (Bible) (c. 550? BC)
The Mahabharata (c. 540-300 BC)
Daniel (Bible) (c. 530 BC)
Haggai (Bible) (520 BC)
Zechariah (Bible) (520-480 BC)
Analects (Confucius) (c. 500 BC)
Tao Te Ching (c. 500 BC)
Nemean Odes (c. 476? BC)
Olympian Odes (c. 476 BC)
The Persians (472 BC)
Pythian Odes (c. 470 BC)
Seven Against Thebes (467 BC)
The Suppliant Maidens (Aeschylus) (463 BC)
Esther (Bible) (c. 460-330 BC)
Agamemnon (458 BC)
The Eumenides (458 BC)
Isthmian Odes (c. 458? BC)
The Oresteia (458-450 BC)
I-II Chronicles (Bible) (c. 450? BC)
The Choephori (450 BC)
Rhesus (450 BC)

 
"The student is half afraid to meet one of the great philosophers face to face. He feels himself inadequate and thinks he will not understand him. But if he only knew, the great man, just because of his greatness, is much more intelligible than his modern commentator. The simplest student will be able to understand, if not all, yet a very great deal of what Plato said; but hardly anyone can understand some modern books on Platonism." - C.S. Lewis, On the Reading of Old Books

Etext Digitization Projects

Before I can link to these texts for you to read them online, someone has to do the work to get them online in the first place. Scanning the printed texts and converting them using OCR is just the first step; someone then has to compare the original text with the new etext and correct the scanning errors. This is something you can help with!

The site FreeLiterature.org has a digitization project where you sign up to make a complete pass through one book. If you don't have that much time available, Distributed Proofreaders divides up a book between multiple people, so you can just proofread a page or two, or whatever you are able to do. For those who have asked me "what can I do to help?", this is a great way to help!


Most Recent Updates/Additions
April 11, 2010:    Links page    Added listing for domain un-ltd, the best collection of links to etext collections and indices I've come across. Be sure to check out their digitization project (converting public domain texts to etexts), and sign up to help out if you can!
March 7, 2010:    Ludovico Ariosto    Found Italian paperback of Orlando Furioso at Amazon.com.
   Voltaire    Found Portuguese etexts of Candide, Philosophical Dictionary and Zadig to replace broken etext links.
   'A' Authors    Finished link-checking all authors with last names beginning with 'A' including Dante (Alighiere) and Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet), plus Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson, and the American Historical Documents page.
 

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