This preprint research article presents a structured interdisciplinary analysis of the missing quire in the medieval manuscript known as the Codex Gigas (MS A 148, National Library of Sweden). The study introduces the Hybrid Application Hypothesis, which proposes that the removed section did not contain a standard copy of the Rule of Saint Benedict in isolation, but rather a composite institutional text integrating regulatory, penitential, and context-specific monastic applications. The research combines codicological analysis, paleographic consistency, archival reconstruction, and comparative manuscript study. It incorporates evidence derived from manuscript structure (quire composition, binding traces, and folio sequencing), documented historical transmission (Podlažice → Sedlec → Břevnov → Broumov → Prague), and necrology-based institutional synthesis from Benedictine monastic records in Bohemia. Particular attention is given to the most plausible period of alteration (c. 1425–1500), corresponding to the manuscript’s transition from Broumov to Prague in the aftermath of the Hussite Wars. The paper critically evaluates the prevailing hypothesis that the missing quire contained the Rule of Saint Benedict, concluding that while structurally plausible, it remains inferential rather than evidentially confirmed. In contrast, the Hybrid Application Hypothesis provides a broader explanatory framework that accounts for both the inclusion and deliberate removal of the quire. This model considers the possibility of integrated disciplinary texts, including adaptations of penitential or ritual procedures in atypical or edge-case scenarios (e.g., procedural variations associated with ineffective or unresolved cases), while remaining within historically documented monastic practices. Methodologically, the study applies principles of constrained inference and epistemic integrity under uncertainty, incorporating analytical frameworks developed in prior work (see DOI references below). The objective is not to assert definitive conclusions, but to refine the space of plausible interpretations based on verifiable evidence and structured reasoning. The findings establish the Hybrid Application Hypothesis as a viable and evidentially supported alternative to existing interpretations. However, the study emphasizes that further validation requires funded multidisciplinary research, including material analysis of the manuscript, expanded archival investigation, and comparative codicological study across Central European collections.
Zachariah Laing (Wed,) studied this question.