Dom Donation De Bruyne's work of a century ago has been all but unobtainable since it was first published quasi-anonymously just before the outbreak of the Great War. Originally conceived as an
instrumentum laboris
to the great Benedictine project to produce a critical edition of the Vulgate, it now has a new life as a unique collection of the division systems that were used with the biblical books before the twelfth century. These constitute a primary interpretation of the text, anterior to, and more pervasive in influence than any work of formal biblical exegesis. This collection makes available the raw material for a new chapter in the study of the Latin bible and the study of its reception in the later patristic and medieval periods. Moreover, it may usher in a new chapter in the history of biblical exegesis.