List of Books of the Bible and Their Glosses, in Genesis and Exodus With Glosses

Once part of a complete Bible, this manuscript belonged in the middle ages to the Franciscan convent (Greyfriars) in Canterbury. It has the standard set of explanatory texts (glossa ordinaria) written in the specialized page design which allowed sections of explanation to be placed next the relevant part of the text. Another set of explanations by a different compiler is written between the lines (interlinear gloss). In this specialised graphic design, the Bible text is written with large letters, the gloss in small, to express a hierarchy of the most authoritative text and the commentary on it. The layout and the glosses were mainly for students of theology and theologians. It was a way of maintaining a correct or orthodox body of explanation.

This page has two inscriptions, added some time after the manuscript was made, which serve to identify it. In the upper margin, the latin inscription says that the book belonged to the Franciscan convent, Canterbury. The English inscription, of the 16th century, provides a list of the books included in other volumes of the Bible.