Gloss (Glossa Ordinaria)

'The Gloss' is the Glossa Ordinaria, the standard Bible commentary of the medieval schools: brief explanations written in the margins and between the lines of the scriptural text itself, distilled from the fathers and earlier compilers. Assembled in the first half of the twelfth century, chiefly in the circle of Anselm of Laon and his school, it spread until virtually every serious student read Scripture through its frame — 'the Gloss' needed no further title. When the Catena Aurea cites 'Gloss,' it is quoting this common apparatus, and occasionally glosses from related collections: the anonymous, accumulated voice of centuries of Christian reading.

A glossed medieval Bible page carried Scripture in large script at the center, wrapped on every side by commentary — an interface centuries before hypertext.

Gloss (Glossa Ordinaria) has 389 commentary entries in HolyStudy’s verse-by-verse Church Fathers commentary. Open any Gospel chapter, tap a verse, and choose the Church Fathers tab.