Lost work

A lost work is a document or literary work produced some time in the past of which no surviving copies are known to exist. Works may be lost to history either through the destruction of the original manuscript, or through the non-survival of any copies of the work. Deliberate destruction of works may be termed literary crime or literary vandalism. In some cases fragments may survive, either found by archaeology, or sometimes reused as bookbinding materials, or because they are quoted in other works. The discovery in 1822 of large parts of Cicero's De re publica was one of the first major recoveries of an ancient text from a palimpsest, while the most famous recent example is the discovery of the Archimedes palimpsest (hidden in a much later prayer book). Most of the missing works are described by works or compilations which have survived, such as the Naturalis Historia of Pliny the Elder or the De Architectura by Vitruvius. Sometimes, authors wanted to destroy their own works, or instructed others to do so after their deaths; such action was not taken in several well-known cases, such as Virgil's Aeneid saved by Augustus and Kafka's novels saved by Max Brod. Many works were apparently lost when the Library of Alexandria was burned down in the Roman period, or perhaps later. Before the era of printing, manuscripts were handwritten, and so few copies existed, explaining why so much has been lost. Works which are not referred to by others, of course, remain unknown and totally forgotten.

The term is most commonly applied to works from the classical world, although it is increasingly used in relation to more modern works.

Contents

Notable lost works

Classical world

Specific works

Multiple works

Ancient Chinese texts

Manichaean texts

Lost Biblical texts

Lost texts referenced in the Old Testament

Lost works referenced in the New Testament

Lost Works Pertaining to Jesus

(These works are generally 2nd century and later; some would be considered reflective of proto-orthodox Christianity, and others would be heterodox.)

2nd century

3rd century

4th century

5th century

12th century

14th century

15th century

16th century

17th century

18th century

19th century

20th century

Lost literary collections

"A great nombre of them whych purchased those supertycyous mansyons, resrved of those lybrarye bokes, some to serve theyr jakes [i.e., as toilet paper], some to scoure candelstyckes, and some to rubbe their bootes. Some they solde to the grossers and soapsellers…" — John Bale, 1549

See also

References

  1. ^ "Play revived using mummy extracts". BBC News. 14 November 2003. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3269965.stm. Retrieved 4 April 2010. 
  2. ^ Jonathan Barnes, "Life and Work" in The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle (1995), p. 9.
  3. ^ WILFORD, JOHN NOBLE; LAURIE GOODSTEIN (April 6, 2006). "'Gospel of Judas' Surfaces After 1,700 Years". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/06/science/06cnd-judas.html. Retrieved 19 December 2010. 
  4. ^ "View the Gospel of Judas Interactive Document". National Geographic Society. Archived from the original on Apr 08, 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20060408052336/http://www9.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel/document.html. Retrieved 19 December 2010. 
  5. ^ Paul Delany, George Gissing: A Life (2008).
  6. ^ Panufnik, Andrzej (1987). Composing Myself. London: Methuen. ISBN 0413588807. 
  7. ^ Malcolm Lowry Biography

Further reading

External links