Ecce haec sunt instrumenta artis spiritalis…

In these words the biographer draws our attention to that which is certainly the most authentic source for our knowledge of the work….

            Lived before it was codified…, no definite date can be assigned….

            The pure text, over against the interpolated version, which seems almost as ancient as the other…, displays an extensive aquaintance with monastic literature…. A considerable portion may be borrowed from other writers…, conditioned by the circumstances of locality…, united by similarity of subject….

            Though its composite character is plain, it is not, for all that, an unoriginal patchwork….

            The seventy-three chapters… cannot be made to conform to a clear cut logical sequence…. However… they fall into groups… which characterise the form of life which he is instituting…, devoted to the methods of correcting faults.

(Image Books, 1958)