Best 10th Century

The Beowulf manuscript is the sole surviving medieval witness to the Old English epic poem Beowulf. It forms part of the Nowell Codex, copied around the late 10th or early 11th century and now held by the British Library, where it is catalogued within Cotton MS Vitellius A XV. The volume also contai...

The Archimedes Palimpsest is a medieval parchment manuscript whose original Greek mathematical texts were scraped and overwritten with a Christian prayer book. The underlying 10th-century copy preserves works by Archimedes, including the only surviving Greek text of The Method of Mechanical Theorems...

The Exeter Book is a late tenth-century manuscript and the largest surviving collection devoted to Old English poetry. It contains religious verse, elegies such as The Wanderer and The Seafarer, narrative poems, saints' lives, and a celebrated group of riddles. Leofric, the first bishop of Exeter, g...

Prague Castle represents one of Europe’s largest ancient castle complexes. Constructed beginning in the 10th century and evolving through Gothic architecture, it has served as a seat of Czech government for centuries. The castle now houses the President of the Czech Republic and is a significant his...

The larger Jelling stone is a 10th-century runestone located in the Danish town of Jelling, raised by King Harald Bluetooth. The stone bears a runic inscription commemorating the king's parents, Gorm the Old and Thyra, and proclaims Harald's achievements in uniting Denmark and converting the Danes t...

Saadiah ben Joseph al-Fayyumi (882–942 CE), known as Saadiah Gaon, was a prominent Jewish philosopher, rabbi, and exegete who led the rabbinic academy of Sura in Babylonia. He compiled the Agron, the earliest substantial Hebrew-language dictionary, and produced an influential Arabic translation and...

The Al-Azhar Mosque stands in Cairo, Egypt, a significant religious site dating back to its founding in 970 CE by the Fatimid Caliphate. It’s notable for being linked to Al-Azhar University, established as one of history's earliest institutions dedicated to scholarly learning. The mosque remains an...

The Paris Psalter, catalogued as Bibliotheque nationale de France grec 139, is a Byzantine Greek manuscript conventionally dated to the 10th century. It contains the Psalms and a group of fourteen full-page miniatures whose modeled figures, personifications, landscapes, and architectural settings de...

The Gospels of Otto III is an Ottonian illuminated Gospel book produced around the year 1000, probably at the monastery of Reichenau, for Emperor Otto III. Its full-page images include portraits of the four evangelists and an imperial scene showing the enthroned ruler receiving homage from personifi...

The Vercelli Book is a late tenth-century manuscript containing religious prose and poetry in Old English. Its texts include "The Dream of the Rood," "Andreas," "The Fates of the Apostles," "Soul and Body I," and a collection of homilies. It is one of the four principal surviving poetic codices of A...

Menahem ben Saruq was a 10th-century Spanish-Jewish philologist and poet who served in the court of Hasdai ibn Shaprut in Córdoba. He is best known for compiling the Mahberet, an early and influential dictionary of the biblical Hebrew language. This lexicon organized Hebrew words by their triliteral...

The Gerona Beatus is a richly illuminated manuscript of the commentary on the Book of Revelation associated with Beatus of Liébana. Completed in 975, it was copied by the scribe Senior and illuminated by Ende and Emeterius, with Ende identified in the manuscript as a female painter. The codex belong...

The Jelling Stones are two large carved stones dating from the 10th century. One, a monolith, bears an intricate relief depicting a longship and warrior imagery. The other is a runestone inscribed with a dedication to Harald Bluetooth, King of Denmark and Norway. These artifacts provide valuable ins...

The Morgan Beatus, catalogued as MS M.644, is a tenth-century Spanish illuminated manuscript containing Beatus of Liébana's Commentary on the Apocalypse. Now held by the Morgan Library & Museum in New York, it belongs to a group of medieval copies known collectively as the Beatus manuscripts. Its vi...

The Aleppo Codex is a significant 10th-century Hebrew manuscript discovered in Syria. It represents one of the earliest known copies of the Torah and is notable for its close relationship to the Masoretic tradition, influencing subsequent biblical texts. Scholars specializing in Jewish history, pale...

The Junius Manuscript is a late tenth-century illustrated codex of Old English religious poetry, now held by the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford. It contains the poems conventionally titled Genesis, Exodus, Daniel, and Christ and Satan, which retell or reinterpret biblical narratives in...

Æthelstan was king of the Anglo-Saxons from 924 and ruled a kingdom encompassing most of present-day England from 927 until his death in 939. His conquest of York ended the region's independent Viking kingdom, and his charters and coinage asserted authority over a unified English realm. In 937 he de...

The Joshua Roll is a Byzantine illuminated manuscript produced in the 10th century and preserved in the Vatican Apostolic Library. Made as a horizontal parchment scroll, or rotulus, it presents episodes from the biblical Book of Joshua as a continuous sequence of drawings accompanied by Greek text....

The Castle of Guimarães is a medieval fortress in the Minho region of northern Portugal, constructed in the 10th century to protect a local monastery from Norman and Moorish incursions. The site is closely associated with the establishment of the Portuguese nation and is traditionally believed to be...

Vladimir I was grand prince of Kiev from about 980 to 1015 and a ruler of the Rurik dynasty. After adopting Byzantine Christianity, traditionally dated to 988, he promoted the conversion of Kievan Rus and ordered the baptism of Kyiv's population. His reign linked Rus more closely with the Christian...

The Codex Vigilanus, also called the Codex Albeldensis, is an illustrated manuscript completed in 976 at the monastery of San Martin de Albelda in northern Spain. It compiles legal, historical, and ecclesiastical texts, including material connected with Visigothic law and church councils. The manusc...

The Khajuraho Temples are a complex of Hindu and Jain temples located in Madhya Pradesh, India. Constructed primarily between the 10th and 11th centuries by the Chandela dynasty, they represent a significant example of medieval Indian architecture. The temples are renowned for their intricate stone...

Illuminated Georgian Gospel manuscripts from the 10th–11th century, among the finest surviving examples of medieval Georgian book painting and script.

Mieszko I was the first historically documented ruler of the polity that developed into Poland, governing from about 960 until 992. A member of the Piast dynasty, he accepted Christianity through the Latin Church in 966, a decision traditionally called the Baptism of Poland. His reign consolidated a...

Located in Bago, Myanmar, the Shwethalyaung Temple is a Buddhist site renowned for its monumental reclining Buddha statue. The figure measures 55 meters long and 16 meters high, with its origins tracing back to 994 AD during the Mon kingdom. Lost to the surrounding jungle for several centuries, the...

The Daigoji Five-Story Pagoda is a historic wooden pagoda located within the Daigoji temple complex in Kyoto, Japan. Constructed in 951 CE on the orders of Emperor Suzaku, it is the oldest surviving structure in Kyoto and a recognized National Treasure of Japan. The building is a rare, intact exampl...

Baksei Chamkrong is a 10th-century Hindu temple situated just south of the Angkor Thom complex in Cambodia. Commissioned by King Harshavarman I and completed by Rajendravarman II, the structure is a stepped pyramid built primarily from laterite and brick. It is one of the earliest surviving tower te...

Al-Masudi (c. 896-956 CE) was a 10th-century Arab historian and geographer whose comprehensive work 'Muruj al-Dhahab' (The Meadows of Gold) documented lands, peoples, and histories from the Middle East to China. Often referred to as the 'Herodotus of the Arabs,' he combined firsthand observations fr...

Nathlaung Kyaung Temple is a Hindu temple located in Bagan, Myanmar. Constructed in the early 11th century, it is dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu and is notable as the only surviving Hindu temple among the thousands of Buddhist monuments in the Bagan plains. The structure originally enshrined a ce...