Interesting. I’d love to know the content of these texts.
On an off note, I’m fascinated by Dante’s work. I often wonder if it wasn’t secretly based upon some of the texts that were left out of what we know as our current Bible.
Here is a free online source for a couple of works by Origen:
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/origen?show=worksBy
Christian Classics Ethereal Library is an interesting site for ancient texts.
Dante’s work was more based on Catholic theological ruminations, Christian folklore, and Greek mythology than it was on “missing” parts of the Bible.
There were many Christian folk-tales circulating in Europe in the Middle Ages. Some of them were drawn from the Apocryphal Gospels, which were essentially compilations of the other Gospels mixed with odd stories (the Child Jesus cursing his playmates and making them die because he was annoyed at them during a game, for example!). These are not part of the canon, even though there may have been bits of them that were true.
Some of the folk tales may, however, have been narrative tradition relating to things that were not important enough to have been passed along in such a form that they became part of the Gospels but were known to people who witnessed them and then sank into popular tales.
Much Nativity (Christmas) lore is based on these accounts.
The Church at all times, however, was vigilant in keeping some things to the level of personal devotion and artistic expression, permitting others to be canonically affirmed - and completely eliminating others altogether. The latter were things that might have been harmful to the faith or sensibilities of the people.