As of December 2018, the Library of Latin Texts – Series B includes 1,064 works, together with 5,084 diplomatic charters. This allows for searches to be made across more than 45.2 million words. Since November 2017, more than 4.5 million words, spread across sixty-eight different works, have been added to the database. Sixty-seven of these works are entirely new, while the sixty-eighth completes Erasmus’ Adagia; from now on, the entire work can be consulted. As a result, the current version of the LLT-B allows scholars to consult 6,868 works and charters. 

The additions included in the 2018 update focus on material from the end of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Accordingly, we have continued to incorporate the works of Denis the Carthusian. In this update, we have added two long works by the Carthusian: the first of these is the Enarrationes in Librum Iob, accompanied by an Epilogatio in Librum Iob which consists of a Tractatulus de causa diuersitatis euentuum humanorum. the second new addition is the Commentaria in Psalmos omnes Dauidicos, which is followed by the Tractatulus de modo deuote psallendi. Other exegetical works that have been included are the Enarrationes on the two Books of Chronicles, the two first books of Ezra, the books of Esther, Judith, and Tobias, and on the two first Books of the Maccabees. 

The Observant Franciscan Bernardine of Siena is widely known as one of the most important preachers of the fifteenth century. His popularity – he is referred to as the Apostle of Italy – stems largely from the fact that he preached in Italian, despite initially drafting and consequently reworking his sermons in Latin. In 2018, we included a significant number of Bernardine’s Latin works based on the critical edition published in Quaracchi by the Collegium S. Bonaventurae: key among these are the extensive collections of sermons that make up the Quadragesimale de christiana religioneand the Quadragesimale de Euangelio aeterno. Together, these comprise 131 Lent sermons in which the preacher aims to evangelize and lead the faithful towards a perfect and fruitful Christian life. In addition to these, we have incorporated less extensive collections: the De octo beatitudinibus euangelicis, De beata Virgine, De Spiritu sancto et de inspirationibus, De uita christiana, De diuersis, and De tempore. We have also included the appendices of the reference edition, which also contain old or alternative versions of the text used in the different collections of sermons that were modified or deleted by the author while he was working on the final redaction of the text. These texts provide additional insights into the preacher’s editorial work. 

Another great name also makes his first appearance in the database with the 2018 updates: Jean Charlier de Gerson, better known as Jean Gerson, was a famous mystical theologian who, for 28 years (from 1387 to 1415), was a professor and thereafter also Chancellor of the University of Paris. He also played a leading role in the Council of Constance (1414–1418). As part of this year’s update, we have covered a large part of the author’s opera omnia: these consist of his correspondence, his poetic works, his Latin discourses, his spiritual and pastoral oeuvre, the works that he produced during his career as an academic teacher, and finally, those texts that are of a doctrinal, ecclesiological, pedagogical, or polemic nature. 

The Registers of Innocent III are of prime importance for the study of medieval history. The 2018 updates contain letters relating to the sixth and seventh years of the papacy of Innocent III, covering respectively the years 1203–1204 and 1204–1205. As a reference text, we have chosen the critical edition published by the Österreichisches Kulturinstitut in Rom. 

With regards to scholastic literature, we have continued to add to the works of Henry of Ghent. The most recent update includes the Quodlibet IV. 

Some two years ago, in 2016, we started adding the Latin works of the theologian John Wycliffe, who was to exert a profound influence on the Czech Reformer Jan Hus. The 2018 update includes the De logica, the Logicae continuatio, and the Tractatus tertius of the De logica, all of which were published between 1893 and 1899 by M. H. Dziewicki for the Wyclif Society. 

In 2017, we added the Epistularum libri XLVIII by the Italian humanist Francesco Filelfo (1398–1481), a great defender of Greek culture in the West. For this update, we have also included five translations from Greek, created by Filelfo. Foremost among these is the De Paedia Cyri regis Persarum libri VIII, the translation of Xenophon’s Cyropaedia, dating back to 1467, which was dedicated to Pope Paul II. The other four translations broadly concern Spartan history: these consist of Xenophon’s Constitution of the Lacedaemonians and Agesilaus, together with Plutarch’s biographies of Lycurgus and Numa Pompilius. The latter four texts include prefaces by Filelfo with dedications, written in letter format, to Cardinal Niccolò Albergati; they can be dated to around 1432 or shortly before. 

In recent years, we have added the Latin texts from Eastern Europe to the LLT-B. In 2018, we continued with the selection of two works by Emperor Charles IV, an important figure both in Czech history and more generally for the history of the Holy Roman Empire. The Emperor’s autobiography can be considered as “a rare example of a personal memoir by a medieval ruler”. The second work added this year is the Historia noua de sancto Wenceslao martyre, a Vita of Bohemia’s ‘national saint’. Hungarian history is also touched upon in Simon of Kéza’s Gesta Hungarorum — the author is a famous thirteenth-century Hungarian chronicler — as well as in the Epistola of Master Roger, a thirteenth-century cleric who was an eye-witness to the Mongol invasion of Hungary. In this letter, Roger laments the destructions caused by this event. 

In 2014, we enriched our database with the first chiliad of Erasmus’ Adagia, the opus magnum of the humanist, which he continued working on until the end of his life. The two 2018 updates include the second, third, and fourth chiliads, as well as those parts of the fifth chiliad that Erasmus managed to finish. Our version of the text follows the edition of Erasmus’ opera omnia (second volume), published by the Swiss theologian Jean Le Clerc in Leiden in 1703. 

Erasmus’ debate with Luther marked an important step in his intellectual evolution. In response to the publication of the famous Ninety-five Theses, Luther was threatened with excommunication by the papal bull Exsurge Domine, promulgated by Leo X. The German reformer justified his position in his Assertio omnium articulorum Martini Lutheri per bullam Leonis X. nouissimam damnatorum. After some hesitation, Erasmus published the De libero arbitrio in 1524, in which he went against Luther by defending man’s liberty before God. This led to the definitive rupture between the two men. We have included the text of the edition published in 1910 (2nd edn in 1935) by J. von Walter. In this year’s update, we have also started to introduce a selection of Luther’s works in the Library of Latin Texts, Series A. 

You can consult a list of new authors and titles of works on the LLT-B’s website. The LLT-B is a complementary resource to the whole of the LLT-A.