This essay focuses on two manuscripts in the collection of the State Library of Victoria in relation to both their layout and the use of parchment, showing how both these elements can be used to place the manuscripts in context. The manuscripts are both glossed Bible books, and were probably produced around a quarter of a century apart in two different regions and under quite different circumstances. The first is a copy of the Epistles of Saint Paul accompanied by the Glossa ordinaria. It was produced in central Italy, and has been dated to c.1200.1 The second is a copy of the Book of Leviticus accompanied by a gloss from the commentaries of Rabanus Maurus. It was produced in the first quarter of the thirteenth century, a product of what was arguably the most well-organised centre for commercial book production in the Middle Ages – the Paris book trade at its height.

Neither the Leviticus nor the Glossed Epistles of St Paul is a deluxe manuscript. They have very little decoration and no gold at all, but they are interesting for several reasons. The first is that they are representations of a particular genre in the evolution of the most important book in Europe in the Middle Ages, the Bible, and at two different stages of that evolution. The second is that their simplicity conceals complexity. They are tools – adaptable, uniquely designed for their purpose, and able to be used in multiple ways.