farfel_n04_003_223

223
Book Fair -
Los Angeles
(Maggs Bros.)
Feb. 1986
$110

Otto Ege-MSS collection #7
hand characteristic of N. France & England
of the period, early 13th c.

Petri Rigae 1140? - (Biblia Versificata)
Petrus de Riga (d. 1209) Aurora. c.1300
England, lot half of 13th c. (late 12th c) p 123?
Complete leaf in vellum from the verse Bible
Traditionally known as the Aurora for the light it shed on
obscure passages of scripture.
Written in a single column of 48-49 lines, regular early
gothic script, brown ink, ruled in plummet, 4 two
line initials in alternating red & blue, calligraphic first
letter to each line, long upright format measuring 239x110
mm] (195 x approx. 67mm). - 2nd ed. "Recapitulationes."
The unused format of this leaf, twice as long as it is now,
shows the English custom of folding the skins lengthwise.
-may date from end of the 12th c; may therefore be from the earliest manuscripts of the Aurora.
Petrus de Riga (canon of St. Denis, Paris) composed the work
late in the 12th c. [illegible] the text through 3 revisions. The
Aurora was one of the most popular Latin books of poetry
of the late 12th & 13th c. It was further revised &
enlarged between 1200 & 1208 by Aegidius of Paris. It
became a popular compendium of Bible texts &
gained a reputation through use as a university textbook.
-Su Maggs Bulletin [insert] #13 - 27 [end insert] # 12 - 23 & Quaritch # 1036 - 125.
-It is remarkable that several 12th c Latin epics were printed
& reprinted, but that 2 of the poems most frequent in manuscripts
were never considered worth publishing: the Anti-Claudianus of
Alanus de Insulis & the Aurora of Petrus de Riga.

The composition of the whole text of the Aurora must have covered
a period of years. Perhaps 2 decades, between 1170 & 1200. Petri's
longest ed. contained more than 15,000 lines. Between 1200, & even
earlier, & 1208 Aegidius of Paris produced his 2 redactions
of the Aurora.
Actus Apostolorum, Iob, Cantica canticorum - books in
riming hexameters - all other books were written in distiche.
Recapitulationes is a lipogrammatic or "letter dropping" book.