Sewing guards evidence two variants of Carolingian minuscule script which belong respectively to the second and fourth groups of material identified by Bernhard Bischoff as emanating from the scriptorium at Benediktbeuern and the related scriptorium at Kochel in the first quarter of the ninth century. On this see Bernhard Bischoff, Die Südostdeutschen Schreibschulen und Bibliotheken in der Karolingerzeit, Teil 1, Wiesbaden 1974, 22-47. Updated entries on the mansucripts are found in B. Bischoff, Katalog der festländischen Handschriften des neunten Jahrhunderts II, Wiesbaden 2004. 

The in-situ sewing guards in UCD OFM XL 4 (i) and (iii) come from two different volumes of the Old Testament that were produced in Benediktbeuern and its environs in the first quarter of the ninth century. The sewing guards from the books of Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy are closely related to fragments now preserved as Clm 29260(1 [F-4bhc] and Clm 29260(2 [F-8xn2]. The sewing guards from the books of the Minor Prophets are related to fragments preserved in Clm 29265(7 [F-whvz]. A closely related set of in-situ sewing guards is preserved in an early printed book Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1480 BIBL (IV). 

These fragments were originally part of two Old Testament manuscripts produced at the scriptoria of Benediktbeuern and possibly Kochel in south eastern Germany in the early ninth century. 

The fragments were created when the original manuscripts were cut up to form sewing guards to support the host volumes, now OFM XL 4 (i) and (iii), sometime after their printing in the final quarter of the fifteenth century.  OFM XL 4 (i) and (iii) contain bookplates and inscriptions that indicate their presence in the library at Benediktbeuern from the 16th century onwards. The books were purchased along with two other volumes of different provenance (OFM XL 4 (ii) and (iv)) for the library at the Franscisan friary at Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland after its foundation in 1860. They were transferred to the Franciscan House of Studies at Dun Mhuire Killiney Dublin in the mid-20th century and from there formed part of the library of early printed Franciscan books deposited in University College Dublin James Joyce Library Special Collections in 2006. 

OFM XL 4 (i) and XL 4 (iii) Half bound in vellum over wooden boards - binding dated to the 16th century in UCD Library catalogue entry.