From its scope the book might be expected to be as large as Vincent's _Speculum_, but in fact it can be printed in a quarto volume. It was not intended to compete with the great commentaries of Peter the Lombard, or Nicholas Lyra, or Hugh of St. Victor, which fill many folios. It was to be within reach of the poor parish priest, and so must not be costly. But the surprising part of the book is its triviality. With so little space available, one would have expected to find nothing admitted that was not important: but the fact is that it has nothing which is not elementary. There is nothing historical, nothing theological, only a few simple points of grammar and quantity. For example, in the story of Deborah, Judges iv, the commentary runs as follows: 2. Sisara: middle syllable short. 4. Debbora: middle syllable short. Prophetes masc., Prophetis fem.; meaning, propheta. 10. Accersitis: last syllable but one long; meaning, vocatis. 15. Perterreo, perterres; meaning, in pauorem conuertere. Active. 17. Cinci (the Kenites): middle syllable long. 15. Desilio, desilis, desilii or desiliui: middle syllable short in trisyllables in the present; meaning, de aliquo salire siue descendere festinanter. 21. clauus, masc., claui: meaning, acutum ferrum, malleus, masc., mallei: meaning, martellus. tempus, neut.: meaning, pars capitis, for which some people say timpus. For Daniel vi, the story of Daniel in the lions' den, the commentary is even briefer: 6. surripuerunt: meaning, falso suggesserunt. Surripio, surripis, surrepsi(!): meaning, latenter rapere, subtrahere, furari. 10. comperisset; meaning, cognouisset. Comperio, comperis, comperi: fourth conjugation. 20. affatus: meaning, allocutus. From affor, affaris; and governs the accusative. We must not exalt ourselves above the author. He is very humble. 'Let any imperfections in the book', says his preface, 'be attributed to me: and if there is anything good, let it be thought to have come from God.' He gave them of his best, explaining away such as he could of the difficulties which had confronted him. But one can imagine the disgust of even a moderate scholar if, wishing to study the Bible more carefully, he could obtain access to nothing better than Mammotrectus.