Along with "The Castle of Perseverance", the Reverend Cox Macro of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk acquired "Mankind" and "Wisdom" in the early 18th century. Macro bound the three manuscripts together somewhat arbitrarily, along with three other manuscripts. Early 19th-century owner Henry Gurney separated "The Castle", "Wisdom", and "Mankind" from the other manuscripts and bound them together as a collection in a separate volume, now known as “the Macro Manuscript”. In August of 1936, Joseph Quincy Adams, the Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library, purchased this manuscript along with "Mankind" and "Wisdom" from the antiquarian firm Bernard Quaritch Ltd for £1,125 (approximately $5,625). The manuscripts had been purchased by Quaritch earlier in 1936 at a Sotheby's auction on March 30th for £440.