One commentary, fifty-eight books
The Glossa ordinaria
The gloss a medieval reader met in the margins of the Bible: comment drawn from the Fathers — Rabanus, Isidore, Bede, Jerome, Gregory — gathered in the schools of the twelfth century and named, as it goes, for the men it quotes. Migne prints it across two volumes and it reaches us as 58 separate works. It is one book, so here it is in the order of the Bible.
38 Englished · 3 prepared · 58 books · 830,173 Latin words
What this is, exactly
This is Migne's abridged nineteenth-century recension, not the medieval gloss as a manuscript or the editio princeps gives it. What that means for a reader, plainly:
- The marginal glosses only. The interlinear layer — the short notes written between the lines of the Bible text itself — is not here.
- Fifty-eight books, not the whole Bible. The New Testament is complete. The Old lacks Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, the twelve minor prophets and the books of the Maccabees. (Under Threni the volumes carry no gloss at all, but a note from Migne’s own editors saying why: the Douai edition had filled the gap with Paschasius Radbertus’s exposition, which Walafrid — forty years his senior — cannot have known, so they omit it here and promise it among Paschasius’s works instead.)
- The name on it is wrong. Migne prints the whole under Walafrid Strabo, an ascription scholarship gave up long ago. The gloss is the work of a school, not a man.
- The attributions inside it are Migne's source's — (RAB.), (ISID.), (BEDA) — and they are not always reliable. We print them as he printed them, and passing one through is not endorsing it.
An English of the Rusch text, a different recension, exists for some books; where that is so, the book's own page says so rather than claiming a first.
The Old Testament
- Genesis Liber Genesis
- Exodus Liber Exodus
- Leviticus Liber Leviticus
- Numbers Liber Numeri
- Deuteronomy Liber Deuteronomii
- Joshua Liber Josue Ben Nun
- Judges Liber Judicum
- Ruth Liber Ruth
- I Kings (I Samuel) Liber I Regum
- II Kings (II Samuel) Liber II Regum
- III Kings (I Kings) Liber III Regum
- IV Kings (II Kings) Liber IV Regum
- I Paralipomenon (I Chronicles) Liber Paralipomenon I
- II Paralipomenon (II Chronicles) Liber Paralipomenon II
- I Esdras (Ezra) Liber I Esdrae
- Nehemiah Liber Nehemiae
- Tobit Liber Tobiae
- Judith Liber Judith
- Esther Liber Esther
- Job Liber Job
- Psalms Liber Psalmorum
- Psalms I–XX, a separate exposition Expositio in XX primos Psalmos
- Proverbs Liber Proverbiorum
- Ecclesiastes Liber Ecclesiastes
- The Song of Songs Canticum Canticorum
- Wisdom Liber Sapientiae
- Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) Liber Ecclesiasticus
- Isaiah Liber Isaiae prophetae
- Jeremiah Prophetia Jeremiae
- Baruch Prophetia Baruch
The New Testament
- Matthew Evangelium secundum Matthaeum
- Mark Evangelium secundum Marcum
- Luke Evangelium secundum Lucam
- John Evangelium secundum Joannem
- The four Gospels, a separate exposition Expositio in quatuor Evangelia
- Acts Actus Apostolorum
- Romans Epistola ad Romanos
- I Corinthians Epistola I ad Corinthios
- II Corinthians Epistola II ad Corinthios
- Galatians Epistola ad Galatas
- Ephesians Epistola ad Ephesios
- Philippians Epistola ad Philippenses
- Colossians Epistola ad Colossenses
- I Thessalonians Epistola I ad Thessalonicenses
- II Thessalonians Epistola II ad Thessalonicenses
- I Timothy Epistola I ad Timotheum
- II Timothy Epistola II ad Timotheum
- Titus Epistola ad Titum
- Philemon Epistola ad Philemonem
- Hebrews Epistola ad Hebraeos
- James Epistola canonica B. Jacobi
- I Peter Epistola I B. Petri
- II Peter Epistola II B. Petri
- I John Epistola I B. Joannis
- II John Epistola II B. Joannis
- III John Epistola III B. Joannis
- Jude Epistola Catholica Judae
- The Apocalypse Apocalypsis B. Joannis
The order here is the Bible's. The order of the work is the smallest book first — which is why Ruth came before Genesis, and why the epistles will come before the Gospels.