1251 In Literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of the 13th century.

Events

*1202 – Leonardo Fibonacci writes ''Liber Abaci'', about the ''modus Indorum'', the Hindu–Arabic numeral system, including the use of zero; it is the first major work in Europe to move away from the use of Roman numerals.
*1204 – The Imperial Library of Constantinople is destroyed by Christian knights of the Fourth Crusade and its contents burned or sold.
*1211 – Hélinand of Froidmont begins compiling his ''Chronicon''.
*1215 – Bhiksu Ananda of Kapitanagar completes writing the Buddhist book ''Arya Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita'' (Sutra), in gold ink in Ranjana script.
*1216 – Roger of Wendover, English monk and chronicler, at St Albans Abbey, begins to cover contemporary events, in his continuation of the chronicle ''Flores Historiarum''.
*1217 – Alexander Neckam, English scholar and theologian, writes ''De naturis rerum'' ("On the Nature of Things"), a scientific encyclopedia.
*1220 – A new shrine built at Canterbury Cathedral in England to house the remains of St Thomas Becket quickly becomes one of Europe's major places of pilgrimage, and the destination of the fictional pilgrims in Geoffrey Chaucer's set of narrative poems ''The Canterbury Tales'', written about 170 years later.
*1226: By August – The biographical poem ''L'histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal'', commissioned to commemorate William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke (died 1219), a rare example at this time of a life of a lay person, is completed, probably by a Tourangeau layman called John in the southern Welsh Marches.
*1240 – Albert of Stade joins the Franciscan order and begins his chronicle.
*1249: September 27 – Chronicler Guillaume de Puylaurens is present at the death of Raymond VII of Toulouse.
*1251 – The carving is completed of the ''Tripitaka Koreana'', a collection of Buddhist scriptures recorded on some 81,000 wooden blocks, thought to have been started in 1236.
*1258: February 13 – The House of Wisdom in Baghdad is destroyed by forces of the Mongol Empire after the Siege of Baghdad. The waters of the Tigris are said to have run black with ink from the huge quantities of books flung into it, and red from the blood of the philosophers and scientists killed.
*1274: May 1 – In Florence, the nine-year-old Dante Alighieri first sees the eight-year-old Beatrice, his lifelong muse.
*1276 – Merton College, Oxford, is first recorded as having a collection of books, making its Library the world's oldest in continuous daily use. During the first century of its existence the books are probably kept in a chest.
*1283 – Ram Khamhaeng, ruler of the Sukhothai Kingdom, creates the Thai alphabet (อักษรไทย), according to tradition.
*1289 – Library of the Collège de Sorbonne, earliest predecessor of the Bibliothèque de la Sorbonne, is founded in Paris.
*1298–1299 – Marco Polo dictates his '' Travels'' to Rustichello da Pisa while in prison in Genoa, according to tradition.
*1300, Easter – The events of Dante's ''Divine Comedy'' take place.

New works

*13th century
**'' Huon of Bordeaux''
**''Sagas of Icelanders (Íslendingasögur)''
** Beatrice of Nazareth – ''Seven Ways of Holy Love'', the earliest prose work in Dutch
** Conrad of Saxony – ''Speculum Beatæ Mariæ Virginis''
**Śivadāsa – "The five and twenty tales of the genie" (version of the ''Baital Pachisi'')
**Zhou Mi – ''Miscellaneous observations from the year of Guixin'' (癸辛雜識)
*c. 1200
**Layamon – '' Brut''
**''Nibelungenlied''
*Early 13th century
**''Ancrene Wisse''
**''Færeyinga saga''
** Farid al-Din Attar – ''Mantiqu 't-Tayr'' (The Conference of the Birds)
**''Codex Gigas''
**''Le Conte de Poitiers''
**Gautier de Coincy – ''Les miracles de Nostre-Dame''
**Anonymus (notary of Béla III) – ''Gesta Hungarorum''
** Guido delle Colonne – '' Historia destructionis Troiae''
**''Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks'' (The Saga of Hervar and Heidrek)
** Gerbert de Montreuil – ''Le Roman de la Violette''
** Raghavanka – ''Harishchandra Kavya''
**Jean Renart – '' Guillaume de Dole''
**''Roi Flore et la belle Jeanne''
**Wolfram von Eschenbach – ''Parzival''
*c. 1203 – Hartmann von Aue – ''Iwein''
*1205 – ''Lancelot-Grail''
*1205–1234 – ''Estoire d'Eracles'' (Old French translation of William of Tyre's ''Historia'')
*c. 1208 – Saxo Grammaticus – ''Gesta Danorum''
*c. 1210
**Herbers – ''Li romans de Dolopathos'' (translation of ''Seven Wise Masters'')
**Raimon Vidal de Bezaudun – ''Razós de trobar''
**Gottfried von Strassburg – ''Tristan''
*1210–1225 – Sa'ad al-Din Varavini – '' Marzban-nama'' (مرزبان‌نامه)
*1212 – Kamo no Chōmei (鴨 長明) – '' Hōjōki'' (方丈記, Account of a Ten-Foot-Square Hut)
*1214 – Gervase of Tilbury – '' Otia Imperialia''
*c. 1215
**Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube – ''Girard de Vienne''
**Rumi – ''Diwan-e Shams-e Tabrizi'' (masnavi in Persian)
*c. 1217–1235 – Andayya – ''Kabbigara Kava'' (Poets' Defender)
*c. 1217–1263 – ''Strengleikar'', Old Norse translation of the ''Lais'' of Marie de France, perhaps (partly) by Brother Robert
*1220 – Ibn Hammad – ''Akhbar muluk bani Ubayd''
*c. 1220s – Snorri Sturlusson – ''Prose Edda''
*c. 1225
**Francis of Assisi – ''Laudes creaturarum'' or ''Cantico delle creature'' (Praise of God's creation), the oldest known Italian poetry
**''King Horn'', the oldest known English verse romance
*1225 or 1226 – ''L'Histoire de Guillaume le Marechal'' (early example of a political biography, in Norman French)
*1227 – Brother Robert – ''Tristrams saga ok Ísöndar'', an Old Norse translation of the ''Tristan and Iseult'' legend
*c. 1227 – Henry of Latvia – ''Livonian Chronicle of Henry''
*c. 1230
**''La Mort le roi Artu'', French prose romance
**Guillaume de Lorris – First section of '' Romance of the Rose''
**Johannes de Sacrobosco – '' De sphaera mundi''
** Snorri Sturlusson – ''Heimskringla''
*c. 1230s – ''Post-Vulgate Cycle''
*Mainly before 1235 – Henry de Bracton – ''De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae'' (The Laws and Customs of England)
*c. 1240
**''Bartholomeus Anglicus'' – ''De proprietatibus rerum''
**''Egil's Saga''
** Johannes de Garlandia – '' De Mensurabili Musica''
** Rudolf von Ems – ''Alexanderroman''
*c. 1240–1250 – Roger Bacon – ''Summa Grammatica''
*mid-13th century
**Black Book of Carmarthen completed
**'' Doön de Mayence''
**Franco of Cologne – ''Ars cantus mensurabilis''
** Jean de Mailly – ''Chronica universalis Mettensis''
**''Old incidents in the Xuanhe period of the great Song Dynasty'' (大宋宣和遺事)
*c. 1250 – Willem die Madoc maecte – ''Van den vos Reynaerde''
*1250s – Stephen of Bourbon – ''De septem donis Spiritus Sancti''
*c. 1250–1266 – ''Poema de Fernán González''
*c. 1250–1282 – Mechthild of Magdeburg – ''Das fließende Licht der Gottheit'' (The Flowing Light of Divinity; originally composed in Middle Low German)
*1252
**''Calyla e Dymna'', translation of the ''Panchatantra'' into Castilian
**''Jikkunshō''
*After 1255 – Epic of Sundiata, in Mandinka oral tradition
*1258–1273 – Rumi – ''Masnavi''
*1259 – Bonaventure – ''Itinerarium Mentis ad Deum'' (Journey of the Mind to God)
*c. 1259–1265 – Thomas Aquinas – '' Summa contra Gentiles''
*c. 1259–1266 – Jacobus de Voragine – ''Golden Legend (Legenda sanctorum)''
*completed 1260 – Minhaj-i-Siraj – '' Tabaqat-i Nasiri''
*c. 1260
**''Le Récit d'un ménestrel de Reims''
** Sa'di – ''Gulistan'', '' Bustan'' poets and texts in Persian
*1263 – Bonaventure – ''Life of St. Francis of Assisi''
*c. 1263 – Jacob van Maerlant – ''Der Naturen Bloeme''
*c. 1264 – Jacob van Maerlant – ''De Spieghel Historiael''
*1265
**''Book of Aneirin'' (written or copied at about this date)
**''Shokukokin Wakashū'' (続古今和歌集, Collection of Ancient and Modern Times Continued, completed)
*c. 1268–1285 – Jean de Meun – Second section of '' Romance of the Rose''
*c. 1270
**Ibn al-Nafis – ''Theologus Autodidactus''
** John of Capua – ''Directorium Vitae Humanae'', translation of the ''Panchatantra''
**''Poetic Edda'' written in Codex Regius, including ''Hávamál'' and ''Völwpá''
*c. 1270–1278 – Witelo – ''Perspectiva''
*1274
**Joseph ben Abraham Gikatilla">Witelo">he H ...