ABECEDARI. – Poetic compositions in which the verses and stanzas begin according to the letters of the alphabet in their natural sequence.
We already have examples of these in Hebrew poetry (*Lam*. 1–4; Ps. 33; 36; 118; Prov. 31:10–31). Among early Christian authors, we find them in *Commodian* (*Instr*. I, 35; II, 19; CSEL, XV, [1887]), in Sedulius, with the hymn
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from *Wilpert, Pitture, tav. 88*)