Last week it was reported that Dr Hugh Houghton of the University of Birmingham had translated a long-lost fourth-century Latin commentary on the gospels by African-born Italian bishop Fortunatianus of Aquileia, which Jerome had described as ‘a gem’, but which was thought to have been lost, either having perished or having been destroyed. But it turns out to have been preserved in an ninth-century copy which became public once the manuscript was digitised. Can you see why this has hit the headlines? No?

Because it was packaged under the hea