ARIES INFORMAT PRIMI CUNABULA MENSIS, AN ANONYMOUS POEM ON THE SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC: INTRODUCTION, EDITION, AND TRANSLATION

The anonymous didactic poem Aries informat primi cunabula mensis, dedicated to the zodiac cycle, was composed at the very latest in the 8th century as a rhythmic imitation of the metrical hexameter.It is an abecedarium, that is, a poem in which each line begins with a new letter of the Latin alphabet from A to Z.The text of the poem is found in three manuscripts: Saint Petersburg, National Library of Russia Lat.Q.v.I.15 (Corbie, late 8th century), Padova, Biblioteca Antoniana I-27 (Verona, late 9th century), and Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek, SCA 38 (Maillezais, 11th century).The text of the poem begins the zodiac cycle with Aries and uses some standard tropes, which are typical for other anonymous rhythmic versifications of the early Middle Ages.The present article examines the structure, content, and metrical features of the poem, proposes an edition of its text, based on all three manuscripts, and a translation.