Catalogue Christian literature by genre?

[rgprice]

I'm looking for some sort of summary of Christian literature by genre, era and perhaps language that was produced between the 2nd century and the 16th century. Any ideas? Are there any sort of rough numbers even? What portion of literature produced during this time was specifically "Christian"? What portion were martyrdom accounts, biographies, histories, works of theology, codes, etc.? Of course some of these genres may be difficult to define. Are we talking 500 works, 10,000 works, 1 million works?

[Leucius Charinus]

I'm looking for some sort of summary of Christian literature by genre, era and perhaps language that was produced between the 2nd century and the 16th century. Any ideas?

I have put forward a Proposition: There are Three Major Classes of Christian Literature
viewtopic.php?p=144019#p144019

This includes a link to an Evidence Map:
Chronology of the components of Christian Literature

Are there any sort of rough numbers even?

Numbers could be estimated with a bit of study.

What portion of literature produced during this time was specifically "Christian"?

I'd reserve a class for non-Christian literature and for archeological data.

What portion were martyrdom accounts, biographies, histories, works of theology, codes, etc.? Of course some of these genres may be difficult to define.

I'd suggest that the above can all be placed into a category "Ecclesiastical History" which can be further sub-classified as outlined in the link above.

Are we talking 500 works, 10,000 works, 1 million works?

This would depend on what sort of detail you'd want to define.


The key components and features are three:

1) New Testament Canonical literature (NTC) - authored by the "evangelists"
2) New Testament Apocryphal literature (NTA) - authored by the "heretics"
3) The literature of Ecclesiastical History (EH) - authored by the "Fathers"


Languages

There are two key languages and two key "Churches":
Greek - East, and Latin - West.

The church education systems become formalised with the appointment of "Doctors":
Key Saints and Fathers of the Latin church are elevated to "Doctors" in 1298 CE
Key Saints and Fathers of the Greek church are elevated to "Doctors" in 1568 CE

ETA: The Coptic language would need to be added to this in order to include the myriad of tractates evidenced in the NHL, and in other Coptic codices (such as gJudas etc)