Understanding numbers in London, British Library, Harley 3271

London, British Library, Harley 3271 is a composite manuscript designed for use in teaching Latin, and contains Ælfric’s Grammar beside other pedagogical works. The book also contains a large number of miscellaneous items, and fourteen scribal hands. Many of the texts point to the usual interests of the Anglo-Saxon scholar in computus and prognostics, while others suggest an interest in the tradition of numerical notes. The items written by Scribe C, the only one whose stints are spread throughout the blank space of the composite volume, point to a combined interest in education, numbers and the Jewish people. The identifi cation of criteria by which surviving Anglo-Saxon manuscripts might be defi ned as schoolbooks has proven diffi cult for modern scholars, a problem related to the often miscellaneous character of the collections whose contents include established curriculum texts. London, British Library, Harley 3271 is one of the few books surviving from Anglo-Saxon England generally agreed to have been created for educational use.1 The manuscript is best known for its copy of Ælfric’s Grammar, though since the time of William Lambarde its more miscellaneous items, in the form of notes, prognostics and computus material, have drawn some attention.2 A range of evidence points