Attribution, date and pseudonymity

A defining problem of this literature is that authorship and date are uncertain or disputed for a great many of its works. Much of it is pseudonymous (attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, to Solomon, to Moses), or circulated anonymously, and the traditional ascriptions are often centuries out from the real date of composition.

The entries record what each text is, who wrote or compiled it where that can be established, roughly when, and what it contains, and they flag the many cases where the traditional attribution is legend rather than fact. This is history-of-the-book as much as doctrine.