Two Leaves of his Aurora in Latin verse, decorated manuscript on vellum [England, first half or first quarter 13th century].

Peter Riga (d. 1209)
Two Leaves of his Aurora in Latin verse, decorated manuscript on vellum [England, first half or first quarter 13th century].
A fine early copy of an important text, in unusual ‘holster’ format.

c.235 × 115mm. 2 leaves, preserving prickings, foliated in pencil 10 (or 16?) and 67, the latter with an ornamented quire signature ‘ix’, 49 and 51 lines, above top line, the text comprising passages concerning Tobit and the angel Raphael (‘Dormit vir fessus qui non vigilare laborat […] Ęternę pacis gaudia nota facit’), and Joseph (‘Penam se Iudas indicat esse reum […] Joseph rediens a carcere et solvens sompnia […] De benedictione primogeniti Ruben. […] In populum fluxit gracia larga dei’) (some darkening, but generally in good condition)

Provenance:
(1) Otto F. Ege (S. Gwara, Otto Ege’s Manuscripts (2013), Handlist no 7), presumably acquired too late to be included in de Ricci’s Census in 1937; a residue of 29 leaves (probably including the present two) was sold by his heirs at Sotheby’s, 26 November 1985, lot 48 (ill.), described as probably belonging to the second of the three original redactions of the text, without the adaptation of Aegidius of Paris; bought by Maggs.
(2) Colker MS 361; one leaf acquired from Maggs in 1986, the other in 1992.

Because the text is composed in short lines of verse, this copy was produced in a tall, narrow, ‘holster’ format (so-called because it was thought that they were intended to be carried on horseback in a holster bag).

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