Note that most of these categories are divided between “primary” and “secondary” sources. Primary sources are those texts produced by the target culture, and secondary sources are works, whether scholarly or not, that evaluate how to read and interpret primary sources. Having some sense of the layers of historical material is, I think, helpful in making sense of any given culture or intellectual tradition.
Note also that I have not read through every volume of some of the sets listed, although I have searched through them over the years to find significant bits of information. The largest set I own runs to 28 volumes, each comprising a book of at least 500 pages. If I had read the set from start to finish, I wouldn’t have been able to read much else. After reading about a third of this set many years ago, I learned that a good researcher must carefully pick and choose what to read. Unfortunately, life is just too short to read everything!
Below is an example of how this is given in the bibliography. The note in bold, italic parentheses (vols. 3 & 4., Athanasius, Jerome, Rufinus) indicates the specific parts of the set I have read and the volumes where they are found.
Schaff, Philip, and Henry Wace, eds. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Second Series. Originally published by the Christian Literature Publishing Company, 1890-1900. 14 vols. (vols. 3 & 4., Athanasius, Jerome, Rufinus) Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994.
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Hebrews
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Christianity
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Historical Jesus
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Greeks
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Romans
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Egyptians
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Mesopotamians
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Other Cultures
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Philosophy
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Languages