Petrus Riga, Aurora, a summary of the Bible in Latin verse, manuscript on vellum

213 leaves (2 blank), 213 mm. by 125 mm., complete (allowing for 36 leaves being replacements or additions from c.1401), collation: i^{1+8 [fol. 1 added c.1401], ii-xiv8, xv4 [probably of 8, v-viii cancelled], xvii-xix8 and xx4 [all added c.1401], xxi-xxv8, xxvi5 [of 6, vi cancelled], xxvii10, xxviii5 [of unknown number, vi onwards cancelled], with traces of numerical signatures, 41 lines (beginning above top ruled line), ruled in plummet, written-space 151 mm. by 63 mm., written in dark brown ink in a small slightly backward-sloping gothic bookhand, headings in red, first initial of each line written slightly apart from the rest of the text block}, decorated initials throughout, mostly 2 lines high (some larger) in red or blue with penwork in the contrasting colour, additions of c.1401 with 41-42 lines (beginning below top ruled line), written in a much more prickly gothic hand, headings in red, capitals touched in yellow, 2- to 3-line initials in red or dark blue with penwork in dark blue or pale red (added also to the thirteenth-century pages from fol. 199r onwards), including approximately 240 human faces, men, old women, girls, priests, knights, peasants, boys, etc., and many dogs, demons (fols. 119v-120r, etc.), in a wide variety, other signs of use, last leaves a bit cockled, minor wear, generally sound, bound in late medieval wooden boards, lacking covering, rebacked, binding repaired, vellum endleaves added

provenance

(1) This was an early manuscript of the text, in the first of two recensions by the author.  Nearly 200 years later the volume was updated with the various supplementary texts of the second edition, supplied here by R. de Bazoches, rector of the schools of Glos-la-Ferrière, in Normandy (about half way between Alençon and Évreux), and finished on Tuesday, 30 June 1401, as is recorded in a long colophon on fol. 145v, adding that this was during a time of plague and great indulgences from Rome, even though the Church was divided.  The additions are quires 17-20 (fols. 118r-151v) together with fol. 1 and additions to fols. 198 an 212-3.  It would be pleasant to suppose that the remarkably naturalistic drawings of human figures supplied by Bazoches represent about the full population of Glos-la-Ferrière.  The calligraphic 'B' on fols. 2r and 121v probably refers to Bazoches.

(2) The Celestine convent of the Trinity, Mantes, in the diocese of Rouen, between Évreux and Paris, at Limay (across the Seine at Mantes-la-Jolie), founded in 1376 with the endorsement of Charles V; with their late medieval inscription on fol. 213r, "Iste liber est celestinorum de medunta, Sic signatus 591".   A thirteenth-century Bible in the Bodleian has a similar inscription (MS Douce 113).

(3) The Rev. Walter Sneyd (1809-1888); his sale in our rooms, 16 December 1903, lot 608.

(4) Sir Sydney Cockerell (1867-1962), on whom, most recently, S. Panayotova, 'I Turned it into a Palace', Sydney Cockerell and the Fitzwilliam Museum, 2008; bought on 7 September 1911 from Ellis, New Bond Street, with his notes on the flyleaf; his sale in these rooms, 19 May 1958, lot 118, to Quaritch.

(5) Quaritch cat. 859 (1965), no. 16; bought in April 1966 by a private collector; and by descent to the present owner.

literature

S. C. Cockerell, 'Signed Manuscripts in my Collection, III', Book Handbook, 8-9, 1950, pp. 431-2, and pls. on pp. 439 and 441.

C. de Hamel, 'Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts from the Library of Sir Sydney Cockerell', British Museum Quarterly, XIII, 1987, p. 202, no. 62.

C. de Hamel, 'Cockerell as Collector', The Book Collector, 55, 2006, p. 346, n. 32.

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing where appropriate.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

text

In all probability, the Aurora was the best-known poem of the Middle Ages, at least to judge from the number of surviving copies and their diffusion across Europe.  It was regarded as the Christian counterpart to Virgil and Ovid.  Petrus Riga (not "de Riga", as so often – he was not Latvian) was studying in Paris in 1165, in the early days of the schools there.  He later became an Augustinian in Rheims and a canon of the cathedral there, and he probably died in 1209.  The Aurora is a distillation of the historical passages of the Bible, but with much addition of allegory and commentary.  "For those who could read Latin, it supplied Scriptural lore in a popular form and it also served as a book of popular theology, devotional reading, moral instruction, and entertainment.  Its influence was propagated by teachers, preachers, and lexicographers, by poets and other writers.  It was studied, imitated, translated, and quoted.  Not only was it widely read in monasteries and convents but it was also recommended reading for the sons of nobles" (P. E. Beichner. Aurora, Petri Rigae Biblia Versificata, A Verse Commentary on the Bible, 1965, p. xi).  The text is Stegmüller, Repertorium Biblicum, IV, 1989, pp. 380-83, nos. 6823-26.

Manuscripts of the Aurora, like friars' Bibles, were apparently over-produced in the thirteenth century.  Later medieval copies are curiously rare.  For two centuries the market was kept satisfactorily supplied from the second-hand trade.  The present manuscript was still in use in 1401, when it was updated from the first recension to the second.  The manuscript opens on fol. 1r with additions of c.1401 including preliminary verses on the name of the author, "Scire cupis lector quis codicis istius auctor ..." (Beichner, p. 11, no. VI), the preface of Aegidius of Paris (ibid, p. 8, no. IV), on the value of reading the text (ibid, p. 10, no. V, from line 41), etc.  The original manuscript opens on fol. 2r, Frequens sodalium meorum ...", Peter Riga's preface (Beichner, p. 7, no. III) and Genesis on fol. 2v, "Primo facta die duo ...", followed by Exodus (fol. 22v), Leviticus (fol. 40v, including the long section on birds, fols. 48v-50r), Numbers (fol. 51r), Deuteronomy (fol. 59v), Joshua (fol. 63r), Judges (fol. 66r), Ruth (fol. 70r), Kings (fol. 71r), Tobit (fol. 89v), Daniel (fol. 95v), Judith (fol. 105r), Esther (fol. 108r) and Maccabees (fol. 111r).  The supplement of c.1401 then adds Job (fol. 118r) and the Song of Songs (fol. 127v).  The original manuscript continues with the Gospels (fol. 154r) and the recapitulations of the whole Bible (fol. 192r), in which each section omits one letter of the alphabet.  Further additions of c.1401, include the prayer of Aegidius (fol. 198r, Beichner, p. 13, no. IX), verses on the number of books in the Bible (ibid, p. 18, no. XVI).  It finally returns to the original manuscript and concludes with Acts (fol. 199r).