Volume 1
Mesopotamia
c.3500–539 BCE
The machinethe scribal school and the collated tablet
The shelf
Find your next tradition.
Thirty-one complete histories. Browse by period or follow a tradition across the centuries. Start wherever your curiosity takes you.
Volume 2
Ancient Egypt
c.3100 BCE–394 CE
The machinethe fill-in-the-blank funerary scroll
Volume 3
The Vedic World
c.1500–500 BCE
The machinerecitation with checksums — the pāṭha system
Volume 4
Greece and Rome
c.1400 BCE–394 CE
The machinea state-owned oracle behind a locked door
Volume 5
Judaism
1208 BCE onward
The machinescribes who count letters and log their own errors
Volume 6
Mesoamerica and the Andes
c.1200 BCE–present
The machinethe screenfold codex, and the khipu
Volume 7
Zoroastrianism
c.1200 BCE onward
The machinean alphabet invented to freeze a dead language
Volume 8
Jainism
c.700 BCE onward
The machinethe temple manuscript library
Volume 9
Confucianism
551 BCE–1905 CE
The machinethe canon carved in stone, then the exam
Volume 10
Buddhism
c.480 BCE onward
The machinereciter guilds, and group chant as error-correction
Volume 11
Daoism
4th c. BCE–present
The machinethe parish register
Volume 12
Classical Hinduism
c.400 BCE–1500 CE
The machinethe deed engraved in copper
Volume 13
Pagan Europe
c.500 BCE–1400 CE
The machinenone of its own — recorded by its conquerors
Volume 14
Early Christianity
30–312 CE
The machinethe codex
Volume 15
Mahayana Buddhism
c.100 BCE onward
The machinemerit as a print run
Volume 16
Imperial Christianity
312–1453
The machinethe imperial post
Volume 17
Islam
610–661
The machinethe standardised codex, and the memoriser
Volume 18
Sunni and Shia
661 CE–present
The machinethe isnad — verification by named human chain
Volume 19
Shinto
692 CE–present
The machinetransmission by demolition
Volume 20
Zen
c.700–750 onward
The machinethe lineage certificate
Volume 21
Tibetan Buddhism
c.779 onward
The machinea printing house that never stopped
Volume 22
Sufism
8th c.–present
The machinethe order as a franchise
Volume 23
Ifá and the Yoruba World
c.1000–1400 onward
The machinea binary-indexed oral database
Volume 24
Sikhism
1469–present
The machinea book that holds office
Volume 25
The Reformation
1517–1648
The machinethe pamphlet
Volume 26
The African Diaspora Religions
c.1500–present
The machinethe mass-produced saint
Volume 27
Modern Hinduism
1828 onward
The machinethe reform society and the printing press
Volume 28
The Nineteenth-Century New Religions
1830–1889
The machinethe print run and the mail
Volume 29
Pentecostalism
1901–present
The machinea free newspaper, then a radio licence
Volume 30
Rastafari
1930 onward
The machinethe record
Volume 31
The Unaffiliated
1951 onward
The machinethe paperback that replaced the coven