Guides, Records and Public Arguments: Eleven Documents from the Laws of Manu to the Sacramental Seal

Also called the Manava-Dharmashastra or the Laws of Manu, this metrical Sanskrit text is dated between the second century BC and the second century AD. It sets out rules on dharma, including separate rules for the four varnas. William Jones translated it into English in 1776, and it was later used to help construct the Hindu law code applied in East India Company territory.

Arrian of Nicomedia wrote this Black Sea sailing guide around AD 130 to 131 as a letter to the emperor Hadrian while he was Roman legate of Cappadocia. It records harbors and distances from Trapezus to Byzantium, meant both to inform the emperor and to serve any campaign against the Alans.

Made in Rome in 354 for a wealthy Christian named Valentinus by the calligrapher Furius Dionysius Filocalus, this calendrical compilation is considered the earliest known codex with full page illustrations throughout. It contains the Liberian Catalogue of the bishops of Rome and the earliest known reference to Christmas as a feast on December 25.

Theodor Mommsen published this collection in 1892 in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica series. It brings together seven late antique and early medieval sources, including the Anonymi Valesiani and versions of the Fasti Vindobonenses, which record consular office holders and dates for Italy across the end of Roman rule and the Ostrogothic kingdom.

Thomas Paine wrote this 47-page pamphlet in 1775 and 1776 and published it anonymously in Philadelphia on January 10, 1776. In clear and persuasive prose it argued for independence from Great Britain and an egalitarian government, and it became an immediate sensation.

First published in 1854 and known as Denzinger after its first editor, this compendium gathers selected passages of Catholic doctrinal statements by popes and councils in chronological order, so that the development of Church teaching can be traced. It has been reissued in many editions, and Michael Seewald became its editor in 2025.

Officially the Revised Rhine Navigation Act of 17 October 1868, this is an agreement among the Rhine riparian states regulating vessel traffic. Its principles include free shipping, equal treatment of fleets, simplified customs clearance, dedicated Rhine waterway courts and a commission to monitor the rules.

On 4 January 1954 six major tobacco companies ran this full-page advertisement in more than 400 American newspapers, reaching an estimated 43 million readers. Prepared by Hill and Knowlton, it did not flatly deny the evidence linking smoking to lung cancer but sought to cast doubt on it, and historians treat it as an early example of manufacturing public doubt.

Students for a Democratic Society completed this political manifesto on 15 June 1962 at a United Auto Workers retreat outside Port Huron, Michigan, for its first national convention. The union, under Walter Reuther, covered a range of the convention expenses, including use of the retreat.

The United States Department of Defense proposed this agreement to Ghana in 2018. It was controversial, mainly because Ghana National Democratic Congress party feared undue privileges for the United States, including a military base, which President Nana Akufo-Addo denied the agreement allowed.

Dated July 1, 2019, and approved for promulgation by Pope Francis on June 21, 2019, this document of the Apostolic Penitentiary states that the seal of confession is absolute regardless of civil law. Its stated aim is to fortify the trust of those who go to confession.