ABECEDARIES. - Poetic compositions in which the verses and stanzas begin according to the letters of the alphabet in their natural succession.

We already have examples of these in Hebrew poetry (Lam. 1-4; Ps. 33; 36; 118; Prov. 31, 10-31). Among the ancient Christian authors, we find them in Commodian (Instruct., I, 35; II, 19; CSEL, XV, [1887]), in Sedulius, with the hymn

A solis ortus cardine (PL 19, 765-70; I. Huemer, in CSEL, X [1885]); in Hilary, with the hymns Ante saecula qui manes and Fefellit saevam; in Fulgentius of Ruspe, against the Arians (published for the first time by D. C. Lambot, Rev. Bénéd., 48 [1936], pp. 221-34); in Venantius Fortunatus (Carm. I, 16: PL 88, 81 ff.).

But the best known is the Psalmus contra partem Donati of St. Augustine (PL 43, 23-32; M. Petschenig, in CSEL, LI [1908], pp. 3-15; D. C. Lambot, Rev. Bénéd., 47 [1935], pp. 319-30). It is a polemical history of Donatism (v.) for the use of the people, written in a popular rhythm that disregards classical meter entirely; the verses are accentual octonarii, all ending in e (æ), distributed in 20 stanzas that begin with the letters of the alphabet from A to V, plus an introductory verse that is repeated as a refrain and a conclusion of 30 verses.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: H. Vroom, Le psaume obécédaire de s. Augustin et la poésie latine rhythmique (Latinitas Christianorum primaeva, fasc. 4), Nijmegen 1933; A. Vaccari, in La Civiltà Catt. 1947, I, pp. 214-220.

Michele Pellegrino

@incollection{ec1_abecedari, author = {Pellegrino, Michele}, title = {Abecedari}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {I}, pages = {58--59}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1948}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/abecedari} }

One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.

Abecedaries

About this entry