Historia scholastica

[1][2] The Historia scholastica quickly became a school text, a required part of the curriculum at both Paris and Oxford.

[3] Preserved in more than 800 manuscripts dated from 1175 to the end of the 15th century, the College of Sorbonne library alone held seventeen copies.

[4] Some years before 1200, Petrus Riga wrote a work called Aurora, a version of the Historia scholastica in verse that served as a sort of Aide-mémoire.

The most significant of these include the Chronicle of the World (Weltchronik) by Rudolf von Ems (c.1250, Middle High German), the Rijmbijbel (Rhyming Bible) by Jacob van Maerlant (c. 1271, translation of Aurora into Dutch), and the Bible historiale by Guyart des Moulins (c. 1295, Old French).

[5] The Historia scholastica was among the earliest printed works, with editions appearing c. 1470 in both Strasbourg and Reutlingen.