And I saw fit to bring ten [appendices] before I begin [the Commentary]. And they, in God's faith, do not have in them a great benefit with regard to the matter that we are dealing with. [But] it will benefit one who masters them [if] he wants to be complete in his Mishnah.

The first [appendix] relates to the count of the sages that are mentioned in the Mishnah and that the laws are called according to their names; the second is regarding the count of the sages that are mentioned in the Mishnah because of a story that happened at one time or for an ethic that they learned from him or from a homily that he said; the third is to make known that which was disseminated about the lineage of the sages in the Mishnah; the fourth is regarding the sages that were in the same generation and the generations that some of the sages overlapped with others of them; the fifth is regarding the elucidation of the name of the students and their teacher, according to what is disseminated; the sixth is regarding the making known of the names [of the authors] of the undifferentiated ones, and to add to their acquaintance; the seventh is regarding the mention of their levels, according to that which was done by the redactor; the eighth is regarding their relation to lands and crafts and people and families; the ninth is regarding the people that disagreement occurred about must of their words; the tenth is regarding the distribution of their laws, [to whom is attributed] many or few.