It contains three distinct registers from different periods and covering different regions of the kingdom.
It listed the fiefs of the crown in the Principality of Capua, the Duchy of Apulia, and the Abruzzi and detailed the services each owed.
The third register, the Pheudatarii iusticiaratus Capitanatae, is that of the Swabian king Frederick II from 1239–40.
The editio princeps of the collection was published in 1653 by Carlo Borrelli, who also gave the document the name by which it is known, Catalogus Baronum.
A modern critical edition by Evelyn Jamison was published in 1972 based on surviving photostats.