Reference edition:

Fabii Planciadis Fulgentii V. C. Opera; Accedunt Fabii Claudii Gordiani Fulgentii V. C. De aetatibus mundi et hominis et S. Fulgentii episcopi super Thebaiden, recensuit Rudulfus Helm, addenda adiecit Jean Preaux. Ed. stereotypa ed. anni 1898, Stutgardiae 1970 (Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana).

Reifferscheid discovered the De aetatibus mundi et hominis in 1868 and attributed it, with almost total certainty, to the corpus of the mythographer Fulgentius. Thirty years later, Rudolph Helm compiled the edition that is still canonical, but now in need of revision owing to the discovery of a new partial manuscript (Bruxellensis; see Silvestre 1953).  The work describes the ages of man, from infantia to senectus, and draws parallels between them and the ages of the world, from Adam and Eve to a certain “Valentinian,” who is most likely to be identified with Valentinian III.

The work’s defining characteristic is its form: Fulgentius composed it as a consecutive lipogram, i.e. a text that avoids the letter ‘A’ in the first book, ‘B’ in the second, etc.; this continues to the final book (14), which avoids the letter ‘O’ (this book was discovered after the others). It is unclear whether the text is corrupt or incomplete.

Although the style of the De aetatibus is roughly similar to the mythographer’s other works, it differs from them in its avoidance of references to classical myths: these are replaced entirely with stories from the Bible.  [M. Manca; tr. C. L. Caterine].