A genre of Biblical commentaries first appearing in the 6th cent. AD, of which there were many examples in the Middle Ages. In the exegesis of Biblical texts, excerpts of extant commentaries by Church Fathers were reworked into ‘chain commentaries’ or catenae. The existence of several writings by the Church Fathers is only known through these catenae. If the excerpts are written on the margins of the manuscripts around the Biblical text, they are described as margin catenae, and if the commentary follows on from the text, they are known as broad catenae
Florilegium; Scho…