PETER RIGA

Canon of Notre Dame of Reims, later canon regular of Saint-Denis, student at Paris (1165), prolific writer of Latin verse; b. c. 1140; d. 1209. Riga's fame rests on the Aurora, a metrical paraphrase of most of the books of the Bible with allegorical interpretations and moral applications, completed toward the end of the 12th century. It incorporates pieces appearing originally in the Floridus aspectus, compiled c. 1162 at the request of Samson, archbishop of Reims. Recapitulations in 23 sections summarize the content of each book. These are ingeniously composed: in the first poem the letter "a" does not occur in any word, in the second, no "b," etc. Three successive editions of the Aurora, the last revision containing more than 15,000 lines, attest to its popularity. Educators recommended it to their pupils (MS Dresd. 120 is glossed for schoolroom use); poets freely appropriated it (Chaucer, Book of the Duchess; Gower, Vox clamantis; Macé de la Charité, Old French verse Bible); clerics and religious used it for devotional reading. The first printed text of the poem appeared in Aurora Petri Rigae Biblia Versificata, ed. P. E. Beichner, 2 v. (Notre Dame, Ind. 1965).

Bibliography: m. manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters (Munich 1911–31) 3:820–831. k. young, "Chaucer and Peter Riga," Speculum 12 (1937) 299–303. p. e. beichner, "The Old French Verse 'Bible' of Macé de la Charité, a Translation of the Aurora, " ibid. 22 (1947) 226–239; "The Cursor Mundi and P. R.," ibid. 24 (1949) 239–250; "Gower's Use of Aurora in Vox Clamantis, " ibid. 30 (1955) 582–595; "La Bible versifiée de Jehan Malkaraume et l'Aurora," Moyen-âge 61 (1955) 63–78; "The Champagne Letter Writer and P. R.," Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale 30 (1963) 336–340.

[m. i. j. rousseau]