Oliver Quill

2 booksIllustrated NonfictionIllustrated HistoryIllustrated Parenting & Self-Help

Oliver Quill is a Catholic priest schooled in philosophy and theology in Germany. He taught at a seminary in the United States and currently serves in a multicultural parish in Switzerland. Years spent among philosophers, theologians, parishioners, and ecclesiastical committees have taught him how slowly a room arrives at a sentence. He enjoys hiking, traveling, and exploring places shaped by faith and history: places where saints prayed, rulers plotted, and bishops quarreled, sometimes over a single word. The Margin of Nicaea is his debut novel.

Books

The Invention of Love: From Ancient Alliances to Dating Apps

An Illustrated Journey Through Romance, Marriage, and the Evolution of Human Connection

Illustrated Nonfiction

Did people always expect marriage to bring them lifelong happiness? In this captivating visual history, author Oliver Quill traces the fascinating evolution of human intimacy across millennia. Long before swipe-right culture or Victorian romance, marriage was a calculated transaction—a cold alliance designed for survival, political power, and territorial expansion. Through rich visual timelines and insightful commentary, The Invention of Love reveals how humanity transformed a practical business arrangement into the ultimate emotional pursuit. Journey from ancient sumptuary laws and medieval courtly ideals to the hyper-targeted algorithms powering modern dating apps. Beautifully detailed and deeply researched, this illustrated guide examines how shifting cultural expectations have continuously redefined what it means to fall in love. Whether you are a history enthusiast, a hopeless romantic, or a curious observer of human behavior, Oliver Quill offers an illuminating look at the social forces that shaped our hearts—and continue to dictate how we seek connection today.

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The Margin of Nicaea

A Novel

Historical Fiction
Literary Fiction

Two eras. One ancient argument. And words that outlive the people who chose them. In A.D. 325, Emperor Constantine summons bishops from across the Roman world to Nicaea. At stake is a question that has divided Christian communities from Alexandria to Antioch: Who is Jesus Christ in relation to God the Father? Marcus, a young Alexandrian deacon and copyist, comes to the council expecting to do what he has always done: listen carefully and write down the words of greater men. Instead, he watches bishops who survived persecution struggle over Scripture, language, and a single word not found in Scripture at all. Some are certain. Some hesitate. Some sign. And Marcus begins to understand that putting words on parchment is not the same as settling what they mean. Seventeen centuries later, Benedictine monk and paleographer Matthias Keller encounters a few enigmatic words in the margin of an old manuscript. His attempt to discover who wrote them draws him through archives, disputed evidence, and the traces left by people history has almost entirely forgotten. But the further Matthias follows the evidence, the more he must reckon with what history can prove—and with what his own past has taught him about memory, absence, and the human need for certainty. Moving between fourth-century Nicaea and the libraries and monasteries of the present, The Margin of Nicaea is a literary historical novel about the making of the Nicene Creed, the people behind its carefully chosen words, and the generations who received those words without always fully understanding them. What happens to truth when it must pass through human hands?

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