Sequence of Books in Vulgate Old Testaments

Adapted from Richard Marsden's The Text of the Old Testament in Anglo-Saxon England, page 450.

• Oct = Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth (the "Octateuch")
• Kgs = 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings
• Min Pr = Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Michah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zecheriah, Malachi
• Jer = Jeremiah, Lamentations
• Song = Song of Solomon
• Chron = 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles
• Ezr + N = Ezra, Nehemiah
• Sir = Ecclesiasticus
• Macc = 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees
• Jer + Bar = Jeremiah, Lamentations, Baruch, Letter of Jeremiah
• Chron + Pm = 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Prayer of Manasses.
• Esdr = 1 Esdras = (Vulgate) 3 Esdras = (Septuagint) Esdras A

In the Old Testament sequence set out by Jerome in the Prologus Galeatus, he identifies the books into four categories: The Law (the five books of Moses), the Prophets (including Joshua, Judges and Kings, as well as the major and minor prophets), the Writings (including both Poetical and Wisdom books as well as narrative books), and finally the five apocryphal books of Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Judith, Tobit and Maccabees.^[3] Jerome's first three categories correspond to the rabbinic ordering of the Hebrew Bible, except that Jerome includes Ruth with Judges, and Lamentations with Jeremiah. Although the prologus, and hence Jerome's listing, was included in almost all Vulgate pandect manuscripts, his order was only rarely adopted; the exceptions being the bibles produced by Theodulf and his successors at Fleury, and also the 9th century Codex Toletanus in Spain.

An alternative listing of the Old Testament books, which circulated universally in the Latin west, was that set out by Augustine (On Christian Doctrine, II, viii, 13). Augustine allocates the Old Testament into five categories: the Law (as in Jerome), the History (including the books of Chronicles), the Narratives (including Tobit, Judith and Maccabees from the apocryphal books), the books of David and Solomon (including the apocryphal books of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus), and the Prophets (including Daniel with the major prophets). Although Augustine's detailed order of books has not been recorded in any manuscript, most subsequent pandects recognised his categories. Augustine's categories are also found in the decrees of the Council of Carthage (418), at which Augustine was present, in the order: Law, History, David and Solomon (including Job), Prophets, Narratives; and this order is also found the 8th century Codex Cavensis and other Spanish pandect bibles.

The Codex Amiatinus sets out the Old Testament in the order: Law, History, David and Solomon, Prophets, Narratives. Alcuin gives the order: Law, History, Prophets, David and Solomon, Narratives; Alcuin removes Job from the Narrative section to a position immediately preceding the Book of Psalms, and also includes Chronicles with the Narratives (in both cases returning to Jerome's order). The Paris bibles followed the sequence: Law, History, Narratives (now including 3 Esdras), David and Solomon, Prophets (now including Baruch with Jeremiah), and Maccabees is the final book. The Paris order, minus 3 Esdras, was eventually to be adopted by the Clementine Vulgate.