The Lives of the Artists
The first encyclopedia of artist biographies. It may be nearly 500 years old, but it's still fun to read.
1550The New Art — The New Life
Great minds don't always think alike
1993Of the Just Shaping of Letters
Typography that stands the test of time
1525Crystal Flowers: Poems and a Libretto
Sad poems from a strange artist
1949The Compound of Alchemy
Divide your elixirs and make the Projection
1591The Painter of Modern Life
Present-day beauty: the ephemeral, the fugitive, the contingent
1863The Key of Solomon, Book 1
Spells for finding hidden treasure, binding love and summoning angels
1400The Magus, Book 1
The rarest of the 19th century grimoires
1801The Ramayana
Rama's journey to rescue his wife from the demon king (she's in another castle)
100 BCEThe Laws of Manu
Want to become a Brahman? Memorize 1000 laws.
200 BCEOn the Nature of Things
Physics, the mind, soul, the movements of the universe, and sex, obviously
50 BCETen Books on Architecture
How to build roads, buildings and aqueducts with Roman precision
15 BCEMetamorphoses
The transformations of man and gods from before formation of the world
1 CEAeneid
The adventures of Aeneis the Trojan, and what happens when the gods hate you
19 CEThe Mahābhārata
It takes 1.8 million words to describe the meaning of life
400 BCEAristotle's Poetics
Drama, tragedy, comedy and satire. Aristotle's masterclass on poetry and theater — too bad half of it's missing...
335 BCEThe Republic
Irony, humor, metaphysics and the meaning of life. The original philosophical masterwork.
360 BCEThe Odyssey
800 BCEThe Iliad
800 BCEThe Epic of Gilgamesh
2100 BCEThe Divine Comedy
1320The Gulistan of Sa'di
Exploring the poetry of ideas
1258The Epic of Kings
The honorable Kings of Persia are an example to us all
1010The Analysis of Beauty
The infinite complexities of the theory of beauty, distilled into six perfect principles. You read it here first, folks.
1753The Writings Of Marcel Duchamp
1989The Journal of Marie Bashkirtseff
2013Diary and Letters of Kaethe Kollwitz
1989Growing Pains — The Autobiography of Emily Carr
Charming and pointed vignettes from the life of a great Canadian painter
1946No Pleasant Memories
The unpublished memoirs of Romaine Brooks
1930Scivias
Prophetic visions, or the hallucinations of ergot poisoning? You decide.
1152The Prose Edda
The violence and drama of the Norse sagas, recounted by an Icelandic poet
1200The Germ, Vol.1
Horrible love poems and the pontification of teenagers.
1850Memoirs of Madame Vigee-Lebrun
1835The Germ, Vol.2
More terrible poems by the Pre-Raphaelite boyband/brotherhood.
The First Law of the Land: if any one ensnare another, then he that ensnared him shall be put to death
Law Code of Hammurabi
Hammurabi1754 BCEAction and inaction will both destroy you in the end
The Dialogue of Pessimism
1000 BCEWe ask of our rulers no special favors, no special privileges, no special legislation. We ask justice.
Declaration of Rights of the Women of the United States
1876I condemn without hesitation the position of the Knave of Diamonds, which has replaced creative activity with theorizing.
Cubism — a Diatribe
Natalia Goncharova1912Abandon love, abandon aestheticism, abandon the baggage of wisdom, for in the new culture, your wisdom is ridiculous and insignificant. I have untied the knots of wisdom and liberated the consciousness of color!
From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism
Kazimir Malevich1915I shake off the dust of the West, and I consider all those people ridiculous and backward who still imitate Western models in the hope of becoming pure painters and who fear literariness more than death.
The Rise of Russian Art
Natalia Goncharova1913In the midst of Umma Entemena overthrew Urlumma and killed him. He left behind 60 soldiers of his force dead on the bank of the canal.
The war for the Tigris and Euphrates canal
2500 BCEThe day was for supplication, the night was for prayer. The moonlight ... early morning, its master.
The Building of Ningirsu's Temple - Cylinder B
2125 BCEI am Nin-jirsu. No country can bear my fierce stare, nobody escapes my outstretched arms.
The Building of Ningirsu's Temple - Cylinder A
2125 BCEOld poor poverty, fried rice with pickled sesame seeds
Fish Head
Lê Thị Lựu1967We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal
The Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson1776Now, consider carefully which you would rather do, so that later you will not regret your decision
Art school or the kitchen? Modersohn-Becker's letters to her parents
Paula Modersohn-Becker1893The purpose of applying art: to add beauty to the results of the work of man and to add pleasure to the work itself
The Arts and Crafts of Today
William Morris1889It is right and necessary that all men should have work to do which shall he worth doing
Art and Socialism
William Morris1884Even if someone paints a 'green sun', I will not say it is wrong.
A Green Sun
Kōtarō Takamura1910a fool is a man with no intellect, and a man without learning cannot have intellect
An Encouragement for Learning
Fukuzawa Yukichi1872Therefore one day it will come to pass, that the mouth of those vipers will be stopped and the triple crown will be brought to nought
The Rosicrucian Manifestos
1616Must toiling Man for ever meet disgrace, and eat his hard earn’d bread with heated face, and all his acts in dull Oblivion lay
On Labour, Creativity and Patriotism
Joseph Mallord William Turner1809Have I given the message?—O Allah, be my witness.
Muhammad's Farewell Sermon
Muhammad632 CEEvery one shall have his portion from the side to which he belongs.
The Medina Charter
Muhammad622 CEExpression, for me, does not reside in passions glowing in a human face or manifested by violent movement. The entire arrangement of my picture is expressive.
Notes of a Painter
Henri Matisse1908Just a word, and the word a movement.
1st Dada Manifesto
Hugo Ball1916Elementarism is the purest, and...the most direct means of expression of the human spirit
Elementarism (Fragment of a Manifesto)
Theo van Doesburg1927A treatise on the effect of infinite reproducibility on art, and a caution against fascist propaganda. Both more relevant than ever.
Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
1936A record of the rebuilding of the first Gothic cathedral, St. Denis
The Book of Suger, Abbot of St. Denis
Abbot Suger1140Wake! For the Sun, who scatter'd into flight The Stars before him from the Field of Night,
The Rubaiyat
Omar Khayyam1120The sentiments of men often differ with regard to beauty and deformity of all kinds
Of the Standard of Taste
David Hume1742We are like a raging wind that rips up the clothes of clouds and prayers, we are preparing the great spectacle of disaster, conflagration and decomposition.
Dada Manifesto
Tristan Tzara1918For the sake of the peace of our times, each one may have the free opportunity to worship as he pleases
The Edict of Milan
Constantine I, Licinius313 CEThis is how we decompose and recompose the universe according to our marvelous whims