In a Volume Containing The ‘Sentences’ Of St. Isidore, And Two Abridgements Of The ‘Moralia’ Of St. Gregory f.4r

St. Gregory the Great’s ‘Moralia In Job’ was a hugely important medieval text, but is also extremely long: it was typically bound in three or more large volumes. Several authors therefore composed shorter versions of it, two of which are contained in this manuscript. It has been shown to have belonged to Ramsey Abbey: a flyleaf contains a list of manuscripts, including this one, and some which are known to have been at Ramsey; another flyleaf bears the ownership inscription of Ranulph, Abbot of Ramsey (1231-1253). Most of the left-hand column of text on this page is filled with the end of a list of the chapters in Book I of the work, and the decorated initial ‘S’ introduces the text of Book I itself. The rust-stained hole in the fore-edge margin was probably caused by the metal clasp-fitting of the original binding, which no longer survives.

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