The Order in which the Songs of Innocence & of Experience ought to be paged & placed

Blake probably wrote this two-page manuscript, often called the "Order" of the Songs, in about 1821. Its purpose is a little mysterious. Only copy V of Songs of Innocence and of Experience contains plates bound in the numbered sequence recorded in this manuscript. Oddly, there is no evidence in the history of these two works to indicate that they were ever bound together or otherwise physically associated. Indeed, the manuscript's provenance does not associate it with any copy of the Songs. In addition to its numbered sequence of titles, the manuscript contains two or three series of check marks; these also do not accord precisely to any known copy of the illuminated book. Perhaps Blake wrote this manuscript as a guide for arranging the plates of the Songs, used that sequence only in one copy, rejected the arrangement in all later copies, and then used it simply as a check-sheet to record available impressions of his plates for Songs of Innocence and of Experience.