The following description was based primarily upon the conclusions of Pearsall and Cunningham (1977) and Burnley and Wiggins (2003). The numbering system of the items follows that of Pearsall and Cunningham.

The Auchinleck manuscript was probably written in London at some point between 1331 and 1340. These dates can be assigned on the basis of palaeographical evidence and internal references. One of these references is the ending of the 'The Anonymous Short English Metrical Chronicle', which makes reference to the death of Edward II and has a prayer for the 'young King Edward', who assumed the throne in 1327 as King Edward III. Another internal reference is in the same Chronicle, in an account of how Lancelot held Guenevere in Nottingham Castle, which makes reference to Roger Mortimer and Queen Isabella barricading themselves in Nottingham Castle. The events described took place around the 18th of Ocrober 1330, and so it is unlikely that the manuscript was produced before 1331. The original patron of the work is unknown, but Pearsall and Cunningham (1977) have propsed that it was produced for a London merchant, while Hume (2016) suggests that it may have been compiled for a family or household audience.

The manuscript is one of the earliest and largest compilations of Middle English verse. Its contents are varied and include romances, lives of saints, and religious and historical works. In some cases the volume provides the only extant or the earliest extant source of a text. The works are written in Middle English, apart from occasional Anglo-Norman macaronics and Latin insertions.

Six scribes are involved, of whom scribe 1 is responsible for three-quarters of the production. He often acts as catchword-writer, but does not seem to have been the 'editor'. Close collaboration between these scribes is suggested by certain aspects of the make-up of the manuscript: the work of two or more scribes will often appear within the same gathering; catchwords written by one scribe will often precede gatherings written by another; a scribe, continuing a gathering, will at times use the ruling provided by a previous scribe. It does not seem that single gatherings were systematically allocated to individual scribes.

Scribe 1 wrote items 1-9, 11-13, 22-3, 26-31 and 33-43. His is a clear, legible bookhand.

Scribe 2 was responsible for items 10, 20 and 44. His is a formal bookhand, large except when using existing ruling in item 20.

Scribe 3 wrote items 14-19. His is a cursive bookhand, described by Parkes (1969), as an early idiosyncratic form of Anglicana Formata.

Scribe 4 wrote item 21. His is a square, formal bookhand.

Scribe 5 wrote items 24-25. His is a disjointed, irregular hand.

Scribe 6 wrote item 32. His is a bookhand similar in general appearance to that of Scribe 1, but with differences in letter forms.

Scribes 1, 3, and 5 separate the first letter of each line from the rest of the line; in all parts this first letter is picked out in red.

No prickmarks or other guides to ruling have survived. Ruling is in ink and was done by the scribe who was to write the gathering; it was done on both sides of the unfolded sheets. When there is a change of scribe within a gathering, the new scribe either uses or adapts the ruling.

Ruling is generally 44 lines to the column and texts are generally written in double columns. Exceptions to this format are the Battle Abbey Roll (in four columns folio 106r), The Legend of Pope Gregory (in long lines folio 6r), Þe Simonie (in long lines folio 334v), and the Speculum Gy de Warewyke (where Scribe 2 has provided his own ruling of 27 lines to the column rather than the usual 44, folio 39r).

The foliation is modern: in ink to folio 218, with traces of pencil numbers beneath and beside; thereafter in pencil, again with traces of other pencil numbers.

The various items in the volume have a contemporary numeration in lower-case roman numerals, written in the centre of the upper margin of each recto beginning with 'vi'; they have frequently been partially or totally cut off. These numbers are all written by the same hand, which appears to be that of scribe 1, though differences in the colour of ink suggest that they were added by him later.

Titles were added for most items. Only items 10, 20, 21, 39, and 40 have no title, apart from those whose beginning is lost in one way or another, but they seem to have been an afterthought. Titles and headings in items 8, 24 and 25 and the first four lines of item 40 are written in red, apparently by the rubricator. Latin quotations in item 10 are written in red by scribe 2 himself.

In the parts written by scribes 1, 3, 5 and 6, sub-sections of the poems are marked by paragraph signs, alternately red and blue. The signs were made by the rubricator following indications given by the scribes: a horizontal line by scribe 1, a sign resembling the letter 'q' by scribe 3, a short vertical mark by scribe 5 and two horizontal lines by scribe 6. Scribe 2 inserted his own paragraph signs in red. The different styles of paragraph signs, or paraphs, in the manuscript suggest that it was decorated as a unit within an atelier where several craftsmen worked. That the changes in style occur at new quires, rather than at the opening of a new poem or when a change of scribe occurs, indicates that craftsmen worked on the manuscript quire by quire.

In all parts except that of scribe 4 sections are marked by initials in blue with red ornamentation. The scribes often used guide letters. The initials are consistent in style, implying that they are the work of a single artist throughout the codex.

Originally the majority of items were preceded by miniatures. Item 40, written by scribe 1, has only a foliate inital, six lines high with marginal extensions, in blue on a gold and red background with brown and green leaves (folio 304r). Item 25, written by scribe 5, has only an historiated inital, six lines high with marginal extensions, in blue and red with a blue, grey and red figure on a diapered gold background and red and green leaves (folio 176r). Only the articles written by scribe 2 (10, 20, and 44) and scribe 4 (21), the first of those written by scribe 3 (14) and a short one written by scribe 1 (39) totally lack ornament at the beginning.

The folios on which begin items 1, 3, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 16, 18, 19, 22, 23, 28, 31, 33, 35, 38 and 42 are wholly or partly lost, and the removal may in many cases be ascribed to a desire for the miniature. The miniature alone has been cut out, and the hole later patched, in items 4, 5, 7, 13, 17, 26, 29, 30, 32, 34, 36, 37, and 41.

Five miniatures remain, though one of these has been defaced. They appear at: folio 7r, at the head of The King of Tars, measuring 31 x 62mm; folio 72r, at the head of The Paternoster, measuring 30 x 24mm; folio 167r, at the head of Reinbroun, measuring 68 x66 mm; folio 256v, at the head of Þe Wenche þat Loved a King, measuring 52x56 mm, now defaced; folio 326ra, at the head of King Richard, measuring 42 x 68 mm. The surviving miniatures are all of the same style and seem to be the work of a single artist. The issue of the production of these miniatures has provoked disagreement among art historians. Robinson (1972), Mordkoff (1981) and Shonk (1985) each propose that they were from the same atelier that produced the exquisite Queen Mary Psalter (British Library MS Royal 2.B.vii). However, this attribution has elsewhere been rejected on the grounds that the Auchinleck miniatures are of inferior quality to those of the Queen Mary Psalter (Hibbard Loomis, 1942).

The contents of the manuscript are as follows:

1. The Legend of Pope Gregory. Folios 1r-6v.

Folio 6a, thin stub.

2. The King of Tars. Folios 7r-13v.

Missing leaves here, fragment 'E', folios 1r-2v.

3. The Life of Adam and Eve. Folios 14r-16r.

4. Seynt Mergrete. Folios 16r-21r.

5. Seynt Katerine. Folios 21r-24v.

6. St Patrick's Purgatory and the Knight, Sir Owen. Folios 25r-31v.

7. þe desputisoun bitven þe bodi and þe soule. Folios 31v-35r stub.

8. The Harrowing of Hell. Folios ?35r-?37r or 37v stub.

9. The Clerk who would see the Virgin. Folios ?37r or 37v stub-38v.

10. Speculum Gy de Warewyke. Folios 39r-?48r stub.

11. Amis and Amiloun. Folios ?48r stub-?61v stub.

12. The Life of St Mary Magdalene. Folios ?61av stub-65v.

13. The Nativity and Early Life of Mary. Folios 65v-69v.

14. On the Seven Deadly Sins. Folios 70r-72r.

15. The Paternoster. Folios 72r-?72r or ?72v stub.

16. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. Folios ?72r or ?72v stub-78r.

17. Sir Degare. Folios 78r-?84r stub.

18. The Seven Sages of Rome. Folios ?84r stub-99v.

Gathering missing (circa 1400 lines of text).

19. Floris and Blancheflour. Foliso 100r-104v.

20. The Sayings of the Four Philosophers. Folios 105r-105r.

21. The Battle Abbey Roll. Folios 105v-107r.

Folio 107a, thin stub.

22. Guy of Warwick (couplets). Folios 108r-146v.

23. Guy of Warwick (stanzas). Folios 145v-167r.

24. Reinbroun. Folios 167r-175v.

Leaf missing.

25. Sir Beues of Hamtoun. Folios 176r-201r.

26. Of Arthour and of Merlin. Folios 201r-256v.

27. þe Wenche þat Loved þe King. Folios 256v-256a thin stub.

28. A Peniworþ of Witt. Folios 256a stub-259r.

29. How Our Lady's Sauter was First Found. Folios 259r-260v.

30. Lay le Freine. Folios 261r-262a thin stub.

31. Roland and Vernagu. Folios ?262v stub-267v.

32. Otuel a Knight. Folios 268r-277v.

Many leaves lost, but some recovered as fragments.

33. Kyng Alisaunder ('L' folio 1rv; 'S' A.15 folios 1r-2v; 'L' folio 2rv). Folios 278r-279r.

34. The Thrush and the Nightingale. Folio 279v.

35. The Sayings of St Bernard. Folio 280r.

36. Dauid þe King. Folios 280r-280v.

37. Sir Tristrem. Folios 281r-299a thin stub.

38. Sir Orfeo. Folios 299a stub-303r.

39. The Four Foes of Mankind. Folio 303rv.

40. The Anonymous Short English Metrical Chronicle. Folios 304r-317r.

41. Horn Childe and Maiden Rimnild. Folios 317v-323v.

Leaf missing.

42. Alphabetical Praise of Women. Folios 324r-325v.

43. King Richard. Folios 326r-327v. Missing fragments: 'E' folio 3rv; 'S' R.4 folios 1r-2v; 'E' folios 4rv.

Many leaves lost.

44. þe Simonie. Folios 328r-334v.

No regular system of signatures has survived in the manuscript. There are letters on some quires, written on the right-hand side of the lower margin of the recto side of folios, but these conform to no obvious pattern. The most clear examples of surviving signatures are on quires 19 and 22. The recto of folios from the first half of quire 19 have an 'h' and the recto of folios from the first half of quire 22 have a 'd', though on both quires sometimes only the top of the letter survives due to trimming. Also visible on the manuscript is an 'h' and the number 'iiij' at the foot of folio 58r (in quire 9) and a 'k' at the foot of folio 63r (in quire 10).

Thirty-seven catchwords survive in the manuscript, appearing in the lower right-hand corner of the verso side of the last folio of a quire. Thirty-six of these were written by Scribe 1. These include catchwords linking his own quires to those of Scribe 2 (on folio 38v), Scribe 3 (on folio 69v), Scribe 4 (on folio 107v) and Scribe 6 (on folio 267v) and linking quires successively written by Scribe 5 (folio 168v). The catchword on folio 99v has been the subject of disagreement. Bliss (1951), Pearsall and Cunningham (1977) and Mordkoff (1981) argue that it was written by Scribe 3, whereas Shonk (1985) asserts that, like the other catchwords, it was written by Scribe 1.