Lamp full

What is on the shelfCounted, not estimated

34 works · 6,126,090 words · every one public domain

No figure on this page is a reader figure. Every number below is about the corpus — how long a work is, who it quotes, what is missing from it — counted from the text files when the page was built. Most cited here never means most read, and nothing anyone does on the site will ever change a number on this page.

The works

WorkAuthor TranslatorTrans. PartsSections WordsSource
The Parallel LivesRome PlutarchDryden, rev. Clough1683 50 50 724,969 Gutenberg 674
Antiquities of the JewsTheology Flavius JosephusWilliam Whiston1737 20 263 529,019 Gutenberg 2848
On St JohnFathers AugustineSchaff, NPNF 1.71888 124 124 496,067 CCEL
The City of GodTheology AugustineMarcus Dods1871 22 22 474,391 Gutenberg 45304–5
On St MatthewFathers John ChrysostomSchaff, NPNF 1.101888 86 86 463,097 CCEL
On the ActsFathers John ChrysostomSchaff, NPNF 1.111889 55 55 353,613 CCEL
The HistoriesGreece HerodotusG. C. Macaulay1890 9 1,483 307,799 Gutenberg 2707, 2456
On St LukeFathers Cyril of AlexandriaR. Payne Smith1859 130 130 266,241 tertullian.org
The History of RomeRome LivyD. Spillan1853 8 437 222,555 Gutenberg 19725
The Peloponnesian WarGreece ThucydidesRichard Crawley1874 8 25 199,107 Gutenberg 7142
The Twelve CaesarsRome SuetoniusAlexander Thomson1796 12 527 178,974 Gutenberg 6400
The IliadGreece HomerSamuel Butler1898 24 24 152,639 Gutenberg 2199
The MetamorphosesRome OvidHenry T. Riley1851 15 124 143,330 Gutenberg 21765, 26073
Catena Aurea on St MarkFathers Thomas AquinasThe Oxford translation1842 16 1,447 134,634 CCEL
The OdysseyGreece HomerSamuel Butler1900 24 24 126,689 Gutenberg 1727
The RepublicGreece PlatoBenjamin Jowett1871 10 10 118,264 Gutenberg 1497
The HistoriesRome TacitusW. Hamilton Fyfe1912 5 5 115,791 Gutenberg 16927
The English PeopleMiddle Ages The Venerable BedeA. M. Sellar1907 5 140 112,829 Gutenberg 38326
The ConfessionsTheology AugustineE. B. Pusey1838 13 13 111,775 Gutenberg 3296
The Divine ComedyMiddle Ages DanteH. W. Longfellow1867 100 4,828 111,704 Gutenberg 1004
The AeneidRome VirgilJohn Dryden1697 12 532 106,333 Gutenberg 228
The Nicomachean EthicsGreece AristotleF. H. Peters1893 10 10 104,867 Gutenberg 8438
The AnabasisGreece XenophonH. G. Dakyns1890 7 7 94,586 Gutenberg 1170
The Gallic WarRome Julius CaesarMcDevitte & Bohn1869 8 385 84,992 Gutenberg 10657
On the Nature of ThingsRome LucretiusW. E. Leonard1916 6 359 73,789 Gutenberg 785
Discourses and EncheiridionRome EpictetusGeorge Long1877 2 106 60,282 Gutenberg 10661
The Imitation of ChristTheology Thomas à KempisWilliam Benham1874 4 114 60,084 Gutenberg 1653
The MeditationsRome Marcus AureliusGeorge Long1862 12 487 49,157 Gutenberg 15877
The Consolation of PhilosophyTheology BoethiusH. R. James1897 5 5 41,629 Gutenberg 14328
St LukeGospels —Gregory Martin / Challoner1750 24 1,151 25,512 Gutenberg 8349
The ActsGospels —Gregory Martin / Challoner1750 28 1,004 24,005 Gutenberg 8351
St MatthewGospels —Gregory Martin / Challoner1750 28 1,070 23,308 Gutenberg 8347
St JohnGospels —Gregory Martin / Challoner1750 21 879 19,155 Gutenberg 8350
St MarkGospels —Gregory Martin / Challoner1750 16 677 14,904 Gutenberg 8348

How are two of these books connected?

Pick any two. The answer is the words they actually share: every run of seven words or more that appears in both, merged into the longest passage each pair has in common, with the chapter it sits in. Runs found in more than six books are formulas rather than quotation and are left out. Of the 703 possible pairs, 43 share anything at all. The rest get a plain no, which is the point: a measure that can never come back empty tells you nothing.

What it cannot see. Paraphrase, and anything across a translation boundary. Virgil wrote the Aeneid as an answer to Homer and this finds nothing between them, because Dryden's English and Butler's share no wording. It also reads the translator as well as the author: the Iliad and the Odyssey score partly because Butler rendered both. So a high number here is strong evidence of a real relationship, and a low one is not evidence of anything.

Which books name the same people

Sixty names — people and places — counted in every work. Rome is named in 27 of the 34 books on this shelf. It is interesting to find Judea in a book that has no business with Judea, and that is what this is for. It is not a measure of how connected two books are: sharing a cast is not influence, and nothing here says one author read another. Pick a name to see which books carry it.

Every passage that names Rome, chapter by chapter · all seventy-two names and places

Each arc joins two books that name many of the same figures; the thickest run to 48 in common. Pick a book to light up the others it shares a cast with.

Read this as what it is. These sixty are famous names, so any two books about the ancient Mediterranean will share most of them, and the picture is close to saturated: the thickest arcs here mean little more than “both of these are set in the Roman world”. The test it fails is the Iliad and the Aeneid, which share only fourteen and get no arc at all — though Virgil wrote his poem as an answer to Homer. A measure of real kinship between these texts is a different thing, and is not on this page yet.

The Twelve Caesars and The Parallel Lives — 48 shared namesThe City of God and The Twelve Caesars — 45 shared namesThe City of God and The Parallel Lives — 45 shared namesThe City of God and Antiquities of the Jews — 42 shared namesAntiquities of the Jews and The Twelve Caesars — 38 shared namesAntiquities of the Jews and The Parallel Lives — 37 shared namesThe City of God and The Divine Comedy — 35 shared namesThe City of God and The Histories (Tacitus) — 34 shared namesThe Twelve Caesars and The Divine Comedy — 34 shared namesAntiquities of the Jews and The Histories (Tacitus) — 33 shared namesThe Twelve Caesars and The Histories (Tacitus) — 33 shared namesThe Histories (Tacitus) and The Parallel Lives — 32 shared namesThe Parallel Lives and The Divine Comedy — 32 shared namesAntiquities of the Jews and The Divine Comedy — 31 shared namesOn the Acts and The City of God — 30 shared namesOn St Matthew and The City of God — 28 shared namesOn the Acts and Antiquities of the Jews — 27 shared namesThe Histories (Herodotus) and The Parallel Lives — 27 shared namesThe Peloponnesian War and The Parallel Lives — 27 shared namesOn St Matthew and Antiquities of the Jews — 26 shared namesThe Aeneid and The Twelve Caesars — 26 shared namesThe Aeneid and The Parallel Lives — 26 shared namesOn St John and The City of God — 25 shared namesThe City of God and The Histories (Herodotus) — 25 shared namesThe Histories (Herodotus) and The Twelve Caesars — 25 shared namesThe Peloponnesian War and The Twelve Caesars — 25 shared namesOn St Matthew and On the Acts — 24 shared namesOn the Acts and The Parallel Lives — 24 shared namesThe City of God and The Peloponnesian War — 24 shared namesThe Anabasis and The Parallel Lives — 24 shared namesThe History of Rome and The Parallel Lives — 24 shared namesOn St John and Antiquities of the Jews — 23 shared namesOn the Acts and The Twelve Caesars — 23 shared namesThe City of God and The History of Rome — 23 shared namesThe Acts and On the Acts — 22 shared namesThe Acts and Antiquities of the Jews — 22 shared namesOn St John and On the Acts — 22 shared namesOn the Acts and The Divine Comedy — 22 shared namesThe Confessions and The City of God — 22 shared namesThe City of God and The Aeneid — 22 shared namesThe Anabasis and The Twelve Caesars — 22 shared namesThe History of Rome and The Twelve Caesars — 22 shared namesThe Metamorphoses and The Twelve Caesars — 22 shared namesThe Metamorphoses and The Parallel Lives — 22 shared namesThe Histories (Tacitus) and The Divine Comedy — 22 shared namesOn St Luke and On the Acts — 21 shared namesOn St Luke and Antiquities of the Jews — 21 shared namesOn St Matthew and The Parallel Lives — 21 shared namesOn the Acts and The Histories (Tacitus) — 21 shared namesThe City of God and The Anabasis — 21 shared namesThe City of God and The Meditations — 21 shared namesAntiquities of the Jews and The Peloponnesian War — 21 shared namesThe Meditations and The Parallel Lives — 21 shared namesThe Aeneid and The Divine Comedy — 21 shared namesThe Acts and On St Luke — 20 shared namesThe Acts and On St John — 20 shared namesThe Acts and The City of God — 20 shared namesOn St Matthew and The Twelve Caesars — 20 shared namesOn St Matthew and The Histories (Tacitus) — 20 shared namesOn St John and The Twelve Caesars — 20 shared namesOn St John and The Parallel Lives — 20 shared namesCatena Aurea on St Mark and The City of God — 20 shared namesCatena Aurea on St Mark and Antiquities of the Jews — 20 shared namesThe Confessions and Antiquities of the Jews — 20 shared namesAntiquities of the Jews and The Histories (Herodotus) — 20 shared namesAntiquities of the Jews and The History of Rome — 20 shared namesThe Histories (Herodotus) and The Peloponnesian War — 20 shared namesThe Peloponnesian War and The Divine Comedy — 20 shared namesThe Meditations and The Twelve Caesars — 20 shared names St Matthew St Mark St Luke St John The Acts On St Luke On St Matthew On St John On the Acts Catena Aurea on St Mark The Confessions The City of God The Consolation of Philosophy The Imitation of Christ Antiquities of the Jews The Histories (Herodotus) The Peloponnesian War The Iliad The Odyssey The Republic The Anabasis The Nicomachean Ethics The Meditations Discourses and Encheiridion The Gallic War The History of Rome The Aeneid The Metamorphoses On the Nature of Things The Twelve Caesars The Histories (Tacitus) The Parallel Lives The English People The Divine Comedy

Who the Fathers quote

Aquinas’s Catena Aurea on St Mark is a chain of patristic quotations, each one attributed. These are its 1,431 attributions, counted. Bede and Theophylact between them account for 56% of it.

How far each commentary reaches

A piece of commentary covers from its own text to the next one’s, so a chapter nobody began a sermon on is still reached by the sermon it falls inside.

Places named in the gospels and the Acts

Counted across all five Douay books. A place is pinned on a map only where its site is agreed; Emmaus is named in St Luke and appears on no map here.

All seventy-two names and places, each with every passage that carries it

Translators, by words carried

What is missing

Gaps are printed as gaps. Nothing has been supplied to fill one, and each absence below was checked against the source rather than inferred from a parser’s silence.

Where it all comes from

Counted at build time from the same files the books are set from, so these figures cannot drift from the pages they describe. Word counts are whitespace-delimited tokens of the translated text only: no headings, no apparatus, no editorial matter written for this site.