Apart from the lost "Handboc" or "Encheiridio", which seems to have been a commonplace book kept by the king, the earliest work to be translated was the "Dialogues" of Gregory the Great, a book greatly popular in the Middle Ages. The translation was undertaken at Alfred's command by Wærferth, Bishop of Worcester, with the king merely furnishing a preface. Remarkably, Alfred – undoubtedly with the advice and aid of his court scholars – translated four works himself: Gregory the Great's "Pastoral Care", Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy", St. Augustine's "Soliloquies" and the first fifty psalms of the Psalter.