Welcome to this journey through world history and literature.

This is an eclectic selection of readings from different places, periods and topics, casually organized, and a long way from being comprehensive.

It's part of the Galileo Library, created by Michael Presky. An informal, on-again, off-again project of Mike's, who compiles, edits and scripts it, and is solely responsible for its contents.

See the about the history page for the background, where it came from, where it's going and how it relates to the rest of the library.

There is also a sources and copyrights page with reference info on the various materials used.

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What's here now.

There are about 170 pages here. Many short selections, but some lengthy ones as well. Eventually they'll link to and integrate with other works, but not so much yet.

Each is keyed for basic place, time, topic, period and language. Since they all share a common set of keywords, you can easily use the search facility to list readings of similar types.

These have been divided below into three sections, mostly for ease of loading and navigation. Very roughly ancient, medieval and modern, but quite arbitrarily.

It really should be seen as an ongoing flow, and/or as a set of data that you can view from multiple perspectives. There are some more notes below, or just dive on in.

[ Section 1 - creation to ancient ]

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Page 1.  Preface to the July 2003 edition.

Page 2.  Bible. The Book of Genesis. Creation.

Page 3.  Beginnings of Human Culture.

Page 4.  The Descent of Ishtar.

Page 5.  Enuma Elish.

Page 6.  Egyptian hymn to the Nile.

Page 7.  Egyptian hymns to the Sun. The morning and evening sun.

Page 8.  Egyptian 'Book of the Dead'. The 'Negative Confession'.

Page 9.  Myths of the Deluge From Ancient India.

Page 10.  Bible. Noah's Flood.

Page 11.  Shu Ching. The Book of History. The Canon of Yao/The Canon of Shun.

Page 12.  The Code of Hammurabi.

Page 13.  Bible. Exodus 19-23. The Ten Commandments.

Page 14.  Rigveda, VIII, 48, selections. Soma.

Page 15.  Atharva Veda, IV, 16, 1-6. King Varuna.

Page 16.  Rigveda, X, 121, 1-10. "What God Shall We Adore?"

Page 17.  Atharva Veda, XII, I, selections. The Goddess Earth.

Page 18.  Atharva Veda, selections. Trade and Agriculture.

Page 19.  Vedas. Marriage Mantras. Selections.

Page 20.  Shih Ching. Book of Odes. Two sacrificial odes.

Page 21.  Shih Ching. The Book of Odes. The Ch'iang Yu T'zu.

Page 22.  Shih Ching. The Woodman's Song and Large Rats.

Page 23.  Shih Ching. A Soldier's Thought of Home.

Page 24.  Hebrew Bible. The 23rd psalm. A psalm of David.

Page 25.  Homeric Hymns. The Earth.

Page 26.  The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, The Story of the Creation.

Page 27.  The Chhandogya Upanishad. Selections.

Page 28.  I Ching. Hexagrams 1 and 2, male and female.

Page 29.  Thucydides. The early history of Greece.

Page 30.  The Life of Buddha: The Birth of Buddha.

Page 31.  Buddha. The Sermon At Benares.

Page 32.  Persian invention of postal service. Herodotus. Book 8, Chapter 98.

Page 33.  Ta Hsueh. The Great Learning. Introduction and conclusion.

Page 34.  Chung Yung. The Doctrine of the Mean. Selections.

Page 35.  Jainism. The Example of Mahavira.

Page 36.  The Sutrakrtanga. The (Jainist) Book of Sermons.

Page 37.  Confucius. Lun Yu, The Analects or Teachings. Book 1.

Page 38.  Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War. Chapter 1.

Page 39.  Classical Athens. Pericles' Funeral Oration from Thucydides.

Page 40.  Plato. The Allegory of the Cave.

Page 41.  Plato. The Apology. Socrates' defense.

Page 42.  The Mahabharata. Beginning.

Page 43.  Ramayana. Selections.

Page 44.  Plutarch, Life of Alexander. After Philip's death.

Page 45.  Mencius, Selections from chapter 5.

Page 46.  Chuang Tzu. Chapter 1, selections.

Page 47.  Chuang Tzu. Chapter 33. The Empire. Summary by early editors of the different Chinese philosophical schools.

Page 48.  Polybius. The Roman constitution. Book 6, selections.

Page 49.  The Shiki (Shih chi), or the Records of the Grand Historian.

Page 50.  The Manu Smriti or the Laws of Manu. Selections.

Page 51.  Appian. The extent of the Roman Empire.

Page 52.  The Völuspá. The Sibyl's Prophecy.

Page 53.  The Bhagavad Gita. Chapter 1.

Page 54.  Tacitus, Germania, Chapter 1.

Page 55.  Tacitus, Agricola, Chapters 10-13.

Page 56.  Jesus. The Sermon on the Mount.

Page 57.  Jesus. Gospel of Luke. Selections.

Page 58.  Bible. The Book of Revelation. Selections.

[ Section 2 - roughly medieval ]

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Page 59.  Chinese Buddhist nuns.

Page 60.  The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali. Chapter 1.

Page 61.  The Institutes of Justinian. Selections.

Page 62.  The Kojiki and the Nihongi.

Page 63.  Kojiki. The Birth of the Deities. Selections.

Page 64.  Nihongi. The Age of the Gods. Book 1.

Page 65.  Nihongi. The Enshrinement of Amaterasu.

Page 66.  Jainist Tale. The Man in the Well.

Page 67.  Nihongi. Japan's Earliest Emperors. Selections.

Page 68.  Nihongi. The Empress Suiko and Prince Shotoku. Selections.

Page 69.  Lotus Sutra. The Revelation of the Mahayana.

Page 70.  Nihongi. The Seventeen-Article Constitution of Prince Shotoku.

Page 71.  Nihongi. The Taika Reforms. Selections.

Page 72.  The Thousand Names of Vishnu.

Page 73.  The Krishna Incarnation.

Page 74.  The teachings of Krishna. Bhagavata. Selections.

Page 75.  Einhard's Life of Charlemagne. Selections.

Page 76.  Chanson de Roland. The Song of Roland. Opening verses.

Page 77.  The Annals of Xanten. 845-884.

Page 78.  Shintoism. Yengishiki, Shinto rituals.

Page 79.  Avicenna. On Medicine. Selections.

Page 80.  Pope Gregory VII. Dictatus Papae. Selections.

Page 81.  The Laws of William the Conqueror. Selections.

Page 82.  Pope Urban II's Call to Crusade. 1095 CE.

Page 83.  The Laws of Henry I of England. Selections.

Page 84.  Buddhist Tripitaka. Emperor Shirakawa's Offering.

Page 85.  Averroes. Philosophic Thoughts.

Page 86.  The Creation of the Duchy of Austria. Selection.

Page 87.  Aix-la-Chapelle Fair Charter. Selection.

Page 88.  De Glanvill. English serfdom.

Page 89.  Building of Chartres Cathedral. (c. 1194).

Page 90.  Medieval French silk spinners. Guild Regulations.

Page 91.  Medieval English Town Charter.

Page 92.  Bracton. "The King Has No Peer."

Page 93.  Innocent III Bans Trade with Islam (c. 1215).

Page 94.  The English Magna Carta. Selections.

Page 95.  St. Louis of France.

Page 96.  The Rule of St. Francis. Selections.

Page 97.  The Life of St. Francis. Selections.

Page 98.  St. Thomas Aquinas on Usury. Selections

Page 99.  Charter of the Bishop of Hamburg to the Hollanders.

Page 100.  John Buridan. 14th century astronomy.

Page 101.  Chaucer. Complete prologue in Middle English.

Page 102.  Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales. Prologue. Selections.

Page 103.  Medieval English Merchant Guild Charter.

Page 104.  The Famine of 1315. De Trokelowe. Selections.

Page 105.  Boccaccio. The plague in Florence.

Page 106.  The Jacquerie. Froissart's Chronicles. Selections.

Page 107.  Petrarch on The Avignon Court.

Page 108.  English Peasant Revolt. Froissart. Selections.

Page 109.  Thomas à Kempis. The Imitation of Christ. Selections.

Page 110.  The Council of Constance.

Page 111.  Joan of Arc. Letter to the English. Selections.

Page 112.  Fortescue on English and French Constitutions.

[ Section 3 - roughly modern ]

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Page 113.  Christopher Columbus. Discovery of America.

Page 114.  John Cabot's Discovery of North America.

Page 115.  Machiavelli. On the Republic. From the Discourses.

Page 116.  Nicholas Copernicus. De Revolutionibus Orbium Celestium. Selections.

Page 117.  The Spanish Inquisition. An eyewitness description.

Page 118.  The 16th Century Holy Roman Empire.

Page 119.  Desiderius Erasmus. The Praise of Folly. Selections.

Page 120.  Spanish Conquest of Cuba. De Las Casas' account.

Page 121.  Erasmus. Paraclesis.

Page 122.  Martin Luther. Ninety-Five Theses. Selections.

Page 123.  The Diet of Worms. Luther on Trial.

Page 124.  The Incas Golden Garden.

Page 125.  The Act of Supremacy. England, 1534.

Page 126.  Calvinist Confession of Faith.

Page 127.  The Catholic Reformation. Report to the Pope.

Page 128.  Loyola. Regimini Militantia Ecclesiae. Selections.

Page 129.  The Papal Inquisition. Pope Paul III. Selections.

Page 130.  Bartolemé De las Casas. On the Indians of the New World. Selections.

Page 131.  Loyola's Spiritual Exercises.

Page 132.  St. Theresa of Avila. Selections.

Page 133.  The Peace of Augsburg. 1555 CE. Selections.

Page 134.  Netherlands. The Peace of Religion.

Page 135.  Henry IV of France. The Edict of Nantes. Selections.

Page 136.  !7th Century Dutch trading practices.

Page 137.  Galileo's Letter to the Duchess of Tuscany.

Page 138.  Francis Bacon. Instauration Magna. Selections.

Page 139.  The Pilgrim Landing at Plymouth. 1620.

Page 140.  The Mayflower Compact.

Page 141.  Liberties of the Massachusets Collonie. Selections.

Page 142.  Descartes. The Deductive Method. Selections.

Page 143.  Suttee in India. Account by Jean-Gaptiste Tavernier.

Page 144.  John Wallis. The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge.

Page 145.  Louis XIV Revokes the Edict of Nantes. Selections.

Page 146.  Isaac Newton. Preface, Principia Mathematica. Selections.

Page 147.  Isaac Newton. Principia Mathematica. Selections.

Page 148.  The English Bill of Rights. 1689.

Page 149.  Court Life at Versailles. The Memoirs of the Duke de Saint-Simon. Selections.

Page 150.  Isaac Newton. On Optics. Selection.

Page 151.  American Revolution. African-Americans Petition for Freedom.

Page 152.  American Declaration of Independence.

Page 153.  A Parisian newspaper account of the Fall of the Bastille.

Page 154.  The U.S. Constitution. Prologue.

Page 155.  Napoleon enters Moscow.

Page 156.  The Monroe Doctrine. 1823.

Page 157.  An African-American Woman on Women's Rights.

Page 158.  American Slavery. Frederick Douglass' description.

Page 159.  American Slave sale. Dr. Elwood Harvey's description.

Page 160.  Whipping of American slaves. Samuel Howe's description.

Page 161.  Mark and Engels. Communist Manifesto. Selections.

Page 162.  Charles Darwin. The Origin of Species. Selections.

Page 163.  Abraham Lincoln. Emancipation Proclamation.

Page 164.  Charles Darwin. The Descent of Man. Selections.

Page 165.  Marconi. First radio across the Atlantic.

Page 166.  Gandhi's Salt March. Webb Miller's account.

Page 167.  Pope John XXIII. Pacem in Terris. Selections.

Page 168.  Student Movements in the 1960s.

Page 169.  Global Revolution. Gorbachev and Havel. Selections.

Some quick tips.

The text of the readings has not been set, so you can use your browser to choose your own font and size.

Click on bold section headers to snap them to the top. You can use the page bars to navigate between sections. Also click on the title at the top of each reading to jump straight to the text.

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About the views and colors.

You can view the pages by themselves, or within the frame sets. Which provide deocrative borders and other useful touches. Select "wood" or "rainbow" borders at the top of this page or wherever the option is given.

You can also change the colors, or at least select from some different ones. Pick "regular" or "pastel" at the top of this page. Combine the different colors with the different borders for a little fun.

This site stands alone, but also integrates to a certain degree with the other sites in the Galileo Community. It links to some of the pages, and can share the frame sets.

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Feedback needed.

Comments and questions are quite welcome.

Email me directly, or use the forums in the Galileo community center. There's also a mailing list there if you want to be kept informed of future updates.

Suggestions for future readings, especially those for Africa and Latin America which aren't represented hardly at all, would be especially useful.

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Browser notes.

This has been tested on the Mac using Explorer 4 and 5, Netscape 4.7, Opera, iCab (has speech, and it works, so you can listen to any reading in any Mac voice), and on Windows using Explorer 4 and 5, and Netscape 4.7.

And are readable in all, altho they display somewhat differently.

It's possible to create alternate versions using styles and scripting. Future versions will meet accessibility standards, and in general will provide users with alternate choices of views, interfaces, colors and such.

They were designed on Explorer 5 for the Mac and look best with that. In general, they look best on the Mac, since that's my primary focus now.

But they look fine in Windows as well.