This essay examines an idiosyncratic and mysterious object: a thirteenth-century manuscript with an abridged version of Domesday Book (TNA PRO E 36/284). In addition to its intrinsic significance, this volume can also stand for all the manuscripts, and books and documents for that matter—all textual objects—that look like something they’re not. And the meaning they express often seems to be located somewhere between what they 'are' and what they appear to be.