Although these notes include overviews of important theological and philosophical topics in the poem, more information about these concepts can be found in resources such as The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought (Hastings et al., eds.), the Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy (Lagerlund, ed.), or The A to Z of Medieval Philosophy and Theology (by S. Brown and Flores). An excellent general resource for the treatment of religious topics in English literature is A Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature (Jeffrey, ed.). All translations throughout the notes are mine, unless otherwise noted.

Because the same scribe copied both V and A at roughly the same time, these MSS have an unusually close relationship. Thus, where catchphrases in V and A match except for spelling in a few words, I note variants for A parenthetically. For the sake of clarity, however, in the case of single catchwords I list A’s readings separately when the spelling differs. Where portions of H are obscured by staining or other damage in lines 8–112, I include Halliwell’s readings of H parenthetically, since he saw the manuscript in the nineteenth century, when more of the writing may have been legible. Halliwell’s readings, however, should be used with caution, as his edition is not up to modern standards and his goal was completeness rather than accuracy; Weymouth says that Halliwell conjectured readings (Weymouth, “Bishop Grosseteste’s Castle,” p. 52n1), and Sajavaara suggests V was Halliwell’s source for the damaged sections (p. 129). Halliwell’s edition is not lineated, and emendations are not noted. All translations throughout the notes are mine, unless otherwise indicated.