Difference between revisions of "User:Chavey/Ancient"
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Line 5: | Line 5: | ||
I have attempted to identify bibliographic works that include significant numbers of such ancient works, including those already in the ISFDB, and incorporated them into this listing. This listing includes all works in the following sources, up to the date listed: | I have attempted to identify bibliographic works that include significant numbers of such ancient works, including those already in the ISFDB, and incorporated them into this listing. This listing includes all works in the following sources, up to the date listed: | ||
− | <ul><li>Current ISFDB listings (through | + | <ul><li>Current ISFDB listings (through 1625 so far); |
<li>Bleiler's "[http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1280738 Science-Fiction: The Early Years]" (through 1600 so far). | <li>Bleiler's "[http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1280738 Science-Fiction: The Early Years]" (through 1600 so far). | ||
<li>Gunn's "[http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1088180 The New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]" (not started yet) | <li>Gunn's "[http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1088180 The New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]" (not started yet) | ||
Line 111: | Line 111: | ||
| 1320 | | 1320 | ||
| [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1365774 The Divine Comedy] | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1365774 The Divine Comedy] | ||
− | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?137127 Dante Alighieri ] | + | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?137127 Dante Alighieri] |
| "On the surface, the poem describes Dante's travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven; but at a deeper level, it represents allegorically the soul's journey towards God." (Wikipedia) Only the "surface" level qualifies this work for inclusion here. The earliest extant manuscript versions are from the 1330's. | | "On the surface, the poem describes Dante's travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven; but at a deeper level, it represents allegorically the soul's journey towards God." (Wikipedia) Only the "surface" level qualifies this work for inclusion here. The earliest extant manuscript versions are from the 1330's. | ||
|- | |- | ||
Line 138: | Line 138: | ||
| 1387 | | 1387 | ||
| The Canterbury Tales | | The Canterbury Tales | ||
− | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?107557 Geoffrey Chaucer ] | + | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?107557 Geoffrey Chaucer] |
| We have multiple stories from ''The Canterbury Tales'' listed in the ISFDB, mostly non-genre, but included because of their existence in various anthologies. The stories we have are listed below: | | We have multiple stories from ''The Canterbury Tales'' listed in the ISFDB, mostly non-genre, but included because of their existence in various anthologies. The stories we have are listed below: | ||
|- | |- | ||
Line 202: | Line 202: | ||
| 1508 | | 1508 | ||
| [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1388914 Amadís de Gaula] | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1388914 Amadís de Gaula] | ||
− | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?169779 Garcí Rodríguez de Montalvo ] | + | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?169779 Garcí Rodríguez de Montalvo] |
| Arthurian-style novel of chivalry and the ideal knight. Speculative elements include giants, a sorcerer and sorceress. Amadís is the knight that Don Quixote tries to imitate. | | Arthurian-style novel of chivalry and the ideal knight. Speculative elements include giants, a sorcerer and sorceress. Amadís is the knight that Don Quixote tries to imitate. | ||
|- | |- | ||
Line 237: | Line 237: | ||
| 1549 | | 1549 | ||
| [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1221614 Belphagor, Or the Marriage of the Devil] | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1221614 Belphagor, Or the Marriage of the Devil] | ||
− | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?149331 Niccolò Machiavelli ] | + | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?149331 Niccolò Machiavelli] |
| Contents not known to us. | | Contents not known to us. | ||
|- | |- | ||
Line 302: | Line 302: | ||
| [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?22499 William Shakespeare] | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?22499 William Shakespeare] | ||
| Fairies, Fairyland, and a magical love potion. | | Fairies, Fairyland, and a magical love potion. | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | |||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 1602 | ||
+ | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?21076 La città del Sole (The City of the Sun)] | ||
+ | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?1891 Tommaso Campanella] | ||
+ | | A utopian theocratic society where goods, women and children are held in common. Some futuristic inventions, such as "vessels able to navigate without wind and without sails". | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | |||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 1603 | ||
+ | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1426613 Hamlet] | ||
+ | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?22499 William Shakespeare] | ||
+ | | Ghosts. | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | |||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 1604 | ||
+ | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?846619 The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus] | ||
+ | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?82613 Christopher Marlowe] | ||
+ | | Necromancy and the Devil as a character. | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | |||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 1605 | ||
+ | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1396151 Don Quixote and the Cat Demons] | ||
+ | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?170356 Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra] | ||
+ | | Contents not familiar to us. | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | |||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 1605 | ||
+ | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?21077 Mundus Alter et Idem] | ||
+ | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?1892 Joseph Hall] | ||
+ | | Contents not familiar to us. | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | |||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 1606 | ||
+ | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1054403 Macbeth, Act IV, Scene I] | ||
+ | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?22499 William Shakespeare] | ||
+ | | Witches. | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | |||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 1607 | ||
+ | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1495607 The Revengers Tragaedie] | ||
+ | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?130813 Cyril Tourneur] | ||
+ | | Contents not familiar to us. | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | |||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 1612 | ||
+ | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?998686 The White Devil] | ||
+ | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?109959 John Webster] | ||
+ | | Contents not familiar to us. | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | |||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 1621 | ||
+ | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1389294 Nova Typis Transacta Navigatio: Novi Orbis Indiae Occidentalis] | ||
+ | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?169813 Caspar Plautius] | ||
+ | | Various sea-monsters and fantastical creatures. A mass celebrated by St. Brendan on the back of a whale. | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | |||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 1623 | ||
+ | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1346667 The Tempest] | ||
+ | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?22499 William Shakespeare] | ||
+ | | Evil magic, from the witch Sycorax; Divine magic from the magician Prospero. The air spirit Ariel, along with various other spirits of the island. A magic staff and book. | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | |||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 1623 | ||
+ | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1426615 The Winter's Tale] | ||
+ | | [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?22499 William Shakespeare] | ||
+ | | The ghost of Queen Hermione appears and, at the end, enters a statue which then comes to life as her. | ||
|- | |- | ||
|} | |} |
Revision as of 10:31, 16 March 2013
Ancient Works of Speculative Fiction
This is an attempt to catalog the oldest works of speculative fiction, using ISFDB listings, the "standard" bibliographic sources, WorldCat, and a few other resources. This includes only fiction: It does not include essays, non-fiction, or art. With many of the older works, dates given are best available estimates, and are not claimed to be precise.
I have attempted to identify bibliographic works that include significant numbers of such ancient works, including those already in the ISFDB, and incorporated them into this listing. This listing includes all works in the following sources, up to the date listed:
- Current ISFDB listings (through 1625 so far);
- Bleiler's "Science-Fiction: The Early Years" (through 1600 so far).
- Gunn's "The New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction" (not started yet)
- Nicholson's "Voyages to the Moon" (not started yet)
- Pringle's "The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy" (not started yet)
700 B.C.E. to 1000 A.D.
Year | Title | Author | Notes, e.g. on the speculative fiction content |
700 B.C. | The Odyssey | Homer | Circe (the witch), Cyclops, Sirens, various monstrous beings, and a magic bag containing 3 of the 4 winds. |
440 B.C. | The Amazons | Herodotus | The earliest form of the Amazon legends, and an important precursor for speculative fiction. Academics argue as to whether Herodotus thought he was writing "history" or knew that he was writing fiction. We classify this as a non-fiction essay. |
380 B.C. | The Republic | Plato | Utopian fiction, and very influential on later Utopian works. (Bleiler) |
360 B.C. | Timaeus | Plato | First known mention of Atlantis. Main story postponed to Critias. (Bleiler) |
350 B.C. | Critias | Plato | Includes the story of Atlantis. (Bleiler) |
8 A.D. | Metamorphoses | Ovid | Transformation tales. Many Roman myths, which are not generally genre for us. Includes Daedalus & Icarus. |
75 | Life of Lycurgus Non-genre |
Plutarch | Included in "Ideal Commonwealths", which has several Utopian works, but this is not a speculative fiction utopian work. It is intended as a historical essay about the early Spartan society, which the author views as having been a utopia in its earliest forms. Bleiler (#1556, p. 521) says this "is not relevant to us". |
170 | The True History | Lucian of Samosata | Women who are part vines. Three-headed vultures. Monstrous sea creatures. Most importantly (for us), a trip to the moon, and many oddities of the people of the moon, and a war between the kingdoms of the Moon, Sun, and Venus. (Bleiler) |
175 | Icaromenippus, an Aerial Expedition | Lucian of Samosata | A flight to the moon, and to the Greek heaven. (Bleiler) |
1000 A.D. to 1500 A.D.
1070 | Katha Sarit Sagara | Somadeva Bhatta | An early Indian collection of stories, including "Twenty-five tales of a demon", the demon being a vampire. By legend, at least, this is a descendent of a more ancient work, the Brihatkatha, c. 500 A.D. This older work does not (as best as we can tell) include the vampire stories, but it does include the acquisition by Naravāhanadatta of various magical powers from the Vedic gods, which might make it borderline SF, although we do not include it separately here. |
1070 | The Founding of the City of Páṭalíputra | Somadeva Bhatta and C. H. Tawney | This is a translation, or re-telling, of one of the main stories from the Katha Sarit Sagara, and hence we list it with the date of the original story. The story focuses on three magical items: shoes of flight; a stick of truth; and a vessel of unending food. Using these, the hero is able to wake a version of "Sleeping Beauty" and create the city of the title. |
1320 | The Divine Comedy | Dante Alighieri | "On the surface, the poem describes Dante's travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven; but at a deeper level, it represents allegorically the soul's journey towards God." (Wikipedia) Only the "surface" level qualifies this work for inclusion here. The earliest extant manuscript versions are from the 1330's. |
1358 | The Decameron | Giovanni Boccaccio | Written between 1348 and 1358 (i.e., completed in 1358) revised 1370-1371. Contains 100 stories, a few of which are speculative fiction. These stories are listed below, with links when we have them listed as separate titles. These don't have titles in the original collection, but are known by day (1 to 10) and which tale of that day (1 to 10). |
| |||
1387 | The Canterbury Tales | Geoffrey Chaucer | We have multiple stories from The Canterbury Tales listed in the ISFDB, mostly non-genre, but included because of their existence in various anthologies. The stories we have are listed below: |
| |||
1390 | Sir Gawain and the Green Knight | The Gawain Poet | A mysterious "Green Knight" challenges any knight to strike him with his axe if he will take a return blow in a year and a day. Gawain accepts and beheads him with his blow, at which the Green Knight stands up, picks up his head and reminds Gawain of the appointed time. |
1472 | The Divine Comedy | Dante Alighieri | The first printed publication of this work, listed above under the original release date of (about) 1320. We have other publications listed under The Inferno, which is the first portion of The Divine Comedy. |
1484 | Metamorphoses | Ovid | The first printed publication of this work, listed above under the original release date of 8 A.D. In 1484, both French and English printed versions were released. |
1485 | Le Morte d'Arthur | Sir Thomas Malory | The oldest extant version of the King Arthur stories. |
1488 | The Odyssey | Homer | The first print publication of this work. The manuscript version is listed above under 440 B.C. |
1494 | Daß Narrenschyff ad Narragoniam | Sebastian Brant | In English, called "The Ship of Fools". Speculative fiction contents unknown to us. |
1500 A.D. to 1600 A.D.
1508 | Amadís de Gaula | Garcí Rodríguez de Montalvo | Arthurian-style novel of chivalry and the ideal knight. Speculative elements include giants, a sorcerer and sorceress. Amadís is the knight that Don Quixote tries to imitate. |
1509 | Las Sergas de Esplandián | Garcí Rodríguez de Montalvo | Continuation of the 4 books of Amadís de Gaula. Includes a description of an island in the Pacific named "California" populated exclusively by a race of black Amazon women. The current state of California is named after that imaginary location. |
1516 | Utopia: or, The Happy Republic, A Philosophical Romance | Sir Thomas More | Classic utopian fiction. |
1516-1532 | Orlando Furioso | Ludovico Ariosto | The first version appeared in 1516, with a second edition containing minor changes in 1521, and a final expanded version in 1532. Includes fantastical and magical elements such as a trip to the moon, and fantastical creatures including a hippogriff and a gigantic sea monster called an orc. |
1516 | The Palace of Illusions | Ludovico Ariosto | An extract from "Orlando Furioso". |
1549 | Belphagor, Or the Marriage of the Devil | Niccolò Machiavelli | Contents not known to us. |
1567 | Palmerin d’Angleterre | Francisco de Moraes | A spin-off of the "Amadís de Gaula" listed under 1508. Two stories from this work are included in the ISFDB: |
1570 | Beware the Cat | William Baldwin | These stories feature an Irish werewolf, the Grimalkin, and an underworld society of talking cats, among several other horror and magical/supernatural elements such as an ancient book of forbidden lore and magic potions. |
1584 | Flyting Against Polwart | Alexander Montgomerie | Elfland, fairies |
1590 | Monkey | Wu Ch'êng-ên | Monsters, anthropomorphic animals (who interact with humans), a half pig/half human. |
1590 | The Faerie Queene | Edmund Spenser | This extended epic poem deals with the adventures of knights, dragons, ladies in distress, etc. yet it is also an extended allegory about the moral life and what makes for a life of virtue. The first three books were published in 1590; the second three in 1596. |
1596 | The Faerie Queene | Edmund Spenser | The last three volumes of the full 6-volume set; see 1590. |
1600 A.D. to 1700 A.D.
1600 | A Midsummer Night's Dream | William Shakespeare | Fairies, Fairyland, and a magical love potion. |
1602 | La città del Sole (The City of the Sun) | Tommaso Campanella | A utopian theocratic society where goods, women and children are held in common. Some futuristic inventions, such as "vessels able to navigate without wind and without sails". |
1603 | Hamlet | William Shakespeare | Ghosts. |
1604 | The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus | Christopher Marlowe | Necromancy and the Devil as a character. |
1605 | Don Quixote and the Cat Demons | Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra | Contents not familiar to us. |
1605 | Mundus Alter et Idem | Joseph Hall | Contents not familiar to us. |
1606 | Macbeth, Act IV, Scene I | William Shakespeare | Witches. |
1607 | The Revengers Tragaedie | Cyril Tourneur | Contents not familiar to us. |
1612 | The White Devil | John Webster | Contents not familiar to us. |
1621 | Nova Typis Transacta Navigatio: Novi Orbis Indiae Occidentalis | Caspar Plautius | Various sea-monsters and fantastical creatures. A mass celebrated by St. Brendan on the back of a whale. |
1623 | The Tempest | William Shakespeare | Evil magic, from the witch Sycorax; Divine magic from the magician Prospero. The air spirit Ariel, along with various other spirits of the island. A magic staff and book. |
1623 | The Winter's Tale | William Shakespeare | The ghost of Queen Hermione appears and, at the end, enters a statue which then comes to life as her. |