IN the early thirteenth century Paris was the scene of far-ranging revisions of the Bible.' As is well known, the books of St Jerome's translation were put into a particular sequence, a certain set of prologues was added, Stephen Langton's division of the books into chapters was adopted, and the text itself was corrected. The result was the basis of the modern Vulgate. The physical form of Bibles also changed. Unlike the great institutional tomes of the twelfth century, they now became smaller and more personal, often of portable size, and they generally were made on fine vellum. At various moments in the first half of the thirteenth century a number of different authorities were at work in Paris revising the text, but undoubtedly the most popular version and the one of interest here was the earliest. According to Roger Bacon, it was produced by a group of professors and librarii.2 The reason for their collaboration is not hard to find. An accepted exemplar would simplify teaching in the by replacing texts often at wild variance with one another by a standard text; and all copies would have the authority of the theologians behind them, and their prestige would naturally increase. This proved to be one of the most viable ideas ever developed in the history of publishing. During the succeeding centuries, literally hundreds of copies of this Bible were produced in Paris and disseminated throughout the world. As has often been remarked, there is scarcely a self-respecting library of mediaeval manuscripts that does not contain at least one copy of a Parisian University Bible. Roger Bacon's statement that these Bibles were created by the librarii of Paris means, of course, that these men were the entrepreneurs, as they were also for textbooks. But there is a distinction to be made between the two classes, over and above the fact that many of the Bibles are illuminated and hence luxury volumes. None of the Bibles seems to contain any pecia marks, a sign of student copywork.3 Quite the contrary, the fact that a fair number of Bibles are signed by scribes suggests that these men, whether clerics or not, were professional scribes, as is consonant with luxury work. The painters were also professionals and very likely secular as well, as the recent discovery of tax lists from Paris indicates.4 How the production of illuminated Bibles was organized in Paris at any given moment is still an open question, one which can be answered only by