PETER RIGA
(ca. 1140–1209). Born in Reims and later canon in the cathedral there, Peter composed
one of the most popular versified Bibles of the Middle Ages. Entitled Aurora, this work
went through three successive versions, in which Peter continually expanded the
contents. In its final form, the poem comprised over 15,000 verses, most in couplets but
with rhymed hexameters for the Acts of the Apostles, Song of Songs, and Job. It
combines versified texts, narratives, and commentaries on texts, demonstrating Peter’s
skill as a poet and his ability to put both narratives and commentary into verse. Aurora
was immediately used by other poets in their works: Jean Malkaraume utilized passages
in his versified Bible; Macé de la Charité translated it for his French Bible; in England, it
was used in the Middle English Cursor mundi and by John Gower in Vox clamantis. Peter
also wrote Floridus aspectus, containing an “art of poetry” and a collection of poems
based on biblical texts.
Grover A.Zinn
[See also: BIBLICAL TRANSLATION]
Peter Riga. Opera. PL 171.1381–442.
——. Aurora: Petri Rigae Biblia versificata: A Verse Commentary on the Bible, ed.
Paul E.Beichner. 2 vols. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1965.
PETER THE CHANTER
(d. 1197). Born near Beauvais, Peter studied at Reims and by ca. 1173 was a master in
theology in the schools of Paris. In 1183, he was named chanter of the cathedral of Notre-
Dame in Paris. Peter was judge delegate for the pope on a number of occasions, including
the divorce trial of Philip II Augustus (1196). He was elected dean of the cathedral of
Reims in 1196, but he became ill and was unable to take the position. He entered the
Cistercian abbey of Longpont as a monk and died there.
As a teacher in the schools, Peter exerted a remarkable influence on both students and
peers. He was at the center, with Peter Comestor and Stephen Langton, of what Beryl
Smalley (following Grabmann) called the “biblical moral school,” a group of masters in
the late 12th-century schools who followed the emphasis on biblical study developed at
the abbey of Saint-Victor by Hugh, Richard, and Andrew of Saint-Victor.
While most masters of the day commented only on the Psalms and Gospels, Peter, like
Stephen Langton, commented on all the books of the Old and New Testaments.
Moreover, Peter was critical of those masters who devoted themselves to seeking out
details of the text and its interpretation rather than focusing on the important matters of
moral teaching and behavior.
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 1366