The Verse Book of Revelation in Engelberg, Stiftsbibliothek, Ms. 117

Abstract

This article offers a detailed description of both the contents and the complex codicological reality found in the composite manuscript Engelberg 117. A scribal colophon asserts that the manuscript was written in 1203 but the present state of the codex as well as the various late Gothic hands seen in it belies this date. In fact, this thoroughly remodeled copy of Peter Riga’s Aurora was probably produced in the late thirteenth-early fourteenth century. In addition to other previously unattested poetry, the codex contains an anonymous cursory versification of the Book of Revelation added at the end of Riga’s text. An edition and a short discussion of this unusual piece are also included in the article.

Keywords: Peter Riga, Aegidius of Paris, biblical versification, Book of Revelation, mnemonic poetry, manuscript studies