The Holy Library is Sixtus of Siena's survey of the whole science of holy Scripture, complete here in English for the first time in its eight books: the canon of the sacred volumes and their order; a lexicon of the books and writers named in Scripture; the art of expounding it, in twenty-four methods; a catalogue of all its Catholic expositors; annotations and censures upon the interpreters of the Old Testament and of the New; and the defense of both Testaments against the heresies that have assailed them. Each book may be read online below, and downloaded as a PDF or an EPUB from its own page; or the whole work may be downloaded as one volume.
Scripture commentary · 16th century
The Holy Library
The Bibliotheca Sancta of Sixtus of Siena, O.P. (1520–1569) · translated from the Latin of the edition of 1566
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Front matter of the whole work
- Title Page
- The Number and Order of the Eight Books
- Dedication to Pope Pius V
- Preface upon the Eight Books of the Holy Library
The eight books
- I On the Divine Volumes The canon of the sacred books set in order — their names, authors, arguments, and times, with the apocryphal writings distinguished from the canonical.
- II The Books and Writers Mentioned in Scripture An alphabetical lexicon of the books, writers, and writings of which mention is made in the holy Scriptures — and of those falsely fathered upon them.
- III The Art of Expounding Scripture The whole art of expounding the sacred volumes, digested into its parts and its twenty-four methods of interpretation.
- IV The Catholic Expositors of the Divine Volumes A catalogue, in the order of the alphabet, of every Catholic expositor of Scripture from three hundred years before Christ to Sixtus’s own day.
- V Annotations on the Old Testament A preface and 264 annotations and censures upon the interpreters and expositors of the Old Testament, from Genesis to the Machabees.
- VI Annotations on the New Testament 348 annotations and censures upon the interpreters and expositors of the New Testament, from Matthew to the Apocalypse.
- VII The Defense of the New Testament The defense of the New Testament against the ten heresies that have assailed its volumes, from Matthew through the epistles to the Apocalypse.
- VIII The Defense of the Old Testament The defense of the Old Testament against the thirteen heresies of its destroyers, from the books of the Law through the Prophets.