The following inscription, written in letters of gold on the reverse of the fourth leaf and the bottom of the recto of the fifth, identifies both the artist and the patron under whose auspices the volume was executed, between the years 970 and 984, the term of Ethelwold's occupation of the see of Winchester:—
"Presentem Biblum jussit perscribere Presul
Wintoniæ Dñs quē fecerat esse Patronum
Magnus Æthelwoldus * * *
* * * * * *
Atque Patri magno jussit qui scribere librum hunc
Omnes cernentes biblum hunc semper rogitent hoc
Post meta carnis valeam celis in herere
Obnixe hoc rogitat Scriptor supplex Godemann."