Neo-Latin ‘Fasti’ for Auxerre. Rare (1 U.S. copy).

[Neo-Latin Poetry] / Hugues Rigault. Sanctae Autissiodorensis ecclesiae fastorum carmen. Libri duodecim. Auxerre: L. Fournier, 1790. 8vo. [19.2 x 12.4 cm], [4] ff., 304 pp., with woodcut arms on title page, woodcut head-piece and tail-pieces. Bound in contemporary mottled calf, gold-tooled spine, gold-stamped title on spine, gold-tooled board edges, red sprinkled edges. Chipping to spine, headbands missing, upper joint split, lower joint tender, rubbing and edge wear to spine and boards. Occasional minor staining internally, marginal toning to first and last leaves, minor toning to some quires. 
 
 
Rare (1 U.S. copy: Yale) first and only edition of this extraordinary neo-Latin poem treating the full liturgical calendar of the diocese of Auxerre, with sections dedicated to feast days of local saints as well as to more widely celebrated saints and holy days. 
 
Composed in 12 books—one for each month—the Sanctae Autissiodorensis ecclesiae fastorum carmen is largely the work of the curé Hugues Rigault (1707-85), who between 1742 and 1753 wrote 4584 of the poem’s 5412 lines. The rest was composed after Rigault’s death by “quelques amis” of the work’s editor, Auguste-Étienne Frappier (b. 1722), in order to fill in gaps in the calendar left by Rigault. Frappier’s prefatory “Avis de L’Éditeur” provides unusually extensive information about Rigault and the genesis of the poem.
 
Rigault worked piecemeal on looseleaf paper (“travaillant avec des feuilles volantes”), composing sections as they occurred to him, more to ward off the boredom of his provincial post (“pour éviter l’ennui de sa solitude”) than to advance any public literary ambitions. His verses circulated only in manuscript and among friends during his lifetime and were gathered together only with great effort (the work was three years in press) after his passing. 
 
Rigault here and there alludes to aspects of his life and the composition of the poem in the Latin verses themselves. He often adds lines on historical information about Auxerre, e.g., about renovations to the cathedral (p. 122), and copious prose footnotes provide much supporting material. A calendrical index and an index of names allow the poem to be consulted as a reference work of sorts. 
 
The Sanctae Autissiodorensis ecclesiae fastorum carmen is quite obviously modeled on Ovid’s Fasti, but Frappier remarks that Rigault was also influenced by the poetry of Gregory of Nazianzus and Paulinus of Nola.
 
 
OCLC and KVK locate one example of this title in U.S. institutions: Yale.
 
*H. Monceaux, “La Révolution dans le Département de L’Yonne: Essai Bibliographique, 1788-1800,” Bulletin de la Société des sciences historiques et naturelles de l’Yonne, vol. 44, no. 14 (1890), p. 659, no. 3320.