Merlo, Tra gli “intellettuali medievali”:frati Minori “militanti”, pp. 1-18

SUMMARY: Through the metamorphosis that took place in the Minor Order during the 13th century – from friar Francis to friar Bonaventura of Bagnoregio – slowly a new concept emerged of the friar as a militant intellectual, who takes the leadership of the monastic’ organization on the one hand and an increasingly important position in the Roman Catholic Church and in society on the other. It is not only a question of facts that happen in the concreteness of human development but of events that are theorised on a theological and ecclesiological plane. From this derived what we can appropriately define as the intellectual militancy of the Minors.

Maranesi, Il servizio ai lebbrosi in san Francesco e nei francescani, pp. 19-81

SUMMARY: The lepers’ presence is very strange in the vicissitudes of the Minorite’s Order. In the article, the author tries to reconstruct this relationship between friars and the lepers, a relation characterized by a reat and important presence, but also forgetfulness and neglect. Three inquiry stages have been carried out in the work: the strategic role assigned to them by Francis for his conversion, the attenuation of their presence in friars’ life beginning from the first period of the Order until the rediscovery through the capuchins’ service to the plague-stricken persons. At any case, the conclusion the author reaches is clear and precise: lepers were not the discovery of a service particularly specific the Grey-friars assumed within the church, nor Francis ever presents them in such a way, but always as an ideal reference for the definitive comprehension of an evangelic appeal, which has its precise identity in the mercy towards the poor and the lasts.

Robson, An edition of Robert Grosseteste’s sermon ad collacionem fratrum minorum in festo nativitatis domini, pp. 82-119

SUMMARY: An edition of Robert Grosseteste’s sermon ad collacionem fratrum minorum in festo nativitatis domini. – Robert Grosseteste, the first lector in the school of the Greyfriars of Oxford, supported and encouraged the new order which reached the university town in 1224. One form of this advice and support was the medium of preaching. The corpus of Grosseteste’s sermons contains three which were preached to the followers of il poverello d’Assisi and at least two of them were delivered in Oxford. The sermo ad collacionem fratrum minorum took place in the evening, on the vigil of the feast of the nativity; the venue was probably the local Greyfriars between 1229 and 1234. This sermon contrasts the creation of humanity with its restoration and completion through the Deus-homo. Despite the brevity of the sermo as collacionem, the master of theology, who later became known as Lincolniensis, explores a number of themes which mirror his rich theological perspective.

Irace, Riscoprire per rifondare. L’« invenzione » dei resti di san Francesco d’Assisi nel 1818, pp. 120-188

SUMMARY: Rediscovering to refound. The « invention » of the remains of saint Francis of Assisi in 1818. – In 1818, an excavation conducted in the Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi brought to light a skeleton, which was identified with the rests of the body of the saint. This essay recounts the legends that grew up around the tomb of the saint, which had not visible along centuries, focusing on debates that were stimulated, between XVIIIth and XIXth century, by a rationalistic interpretation of these stories (relevant roles were played by the Bollandists and Cardinal Prospero Lambertini, as well as the rediscovery of the lives of Saint Francis written by Tommaso da Celano). The « invention » of the remains of the saint was organized by Giuseppe Maria de Bonis, General of the Conventual Franciscans, and it was used as a symbol of the refoundation of the Conventuals into the State of the Church. Several discussions took place with the family of Observant and difficulties were encountered in investigating the scientific identity of the remains, so that pope Pius VII preferred not to give to much attention to the discovery, and it was not used in the revival of devotion that characterized the history of Catholicism in XIXth century.

Dias, La légende des cinq martyrs franciscain du Maroc (1220) dans son contexte portugais, pp. 1-27

SUMMARY: La légende des cinq martyrs franciscains du Maroc (1220) dans son contexte portugais – The cult of the five Franciscan martyrs of Morocco – patrons of the present day Portuguese Province of the Franciscan Order OFM – flourished in the city of Coimbra following the arrival of their relics at the Santa Cruz Monastery in 1220. The culten dured through the ages until our days, as is confirmed by the survival of the so called « procession of the naked » in honor of the martyrs, in a locality in the centre of Portugal (Travassô). The legend was the main promotional instrument of the cult. It was passed on through a significantly sized group of manuscripts, some of which were produced in the Santa Cruz Monastery, that clearly took an interest in the canonization goal of these first Franciscan martyrs (1481). The legend was also incorporated into the religious Franciscan historiography and into the chronicles of king Afonso II, written during the XV and XVI centuries. It is this entire hagiographic dossier, in its timely relationship with texts from other geographical areas, which will be the subject of analysis. The testimonies that make it up will be critically examined, as well as the connections that exist between them, while keeping in mind the historical circumstances that surrounded their production.

Pellegrini, I codici medievali della Library della Saint Bonaventure University, pp. 28-47

SUMMARY: The medieval manuscripts of the Library of Saint Bonaventure University. – The library of the Saint Bonaventure University, New York possesses 105 medieval manuscripts originating from different regions of Europe. Originally in the libraries of Franciscan convents, mostly in Italy, they were subsequently dispersed as a result of the Napoleonic suppression. Many of these manuscripts were purchased from bibliophile Rosenthal for the library of the Holy Name College in Washington and then transferred to the library of Saint Bonaventure in 1974. Of these manuscripts thirty-two have been lost, five of which were most important for editions of the writing of St. Francis. Most of the transcribed works are of Franciscan authors from the 13th to the 15th century, many of whom were great preachers of the Observance. This essay examines a sampling of those manuscripts, tracing their journey, and describing historical context, typology, contents, and authors.

Romanelli, Sequela, imitatio e conformitas nell'opera di Tommaso da Celano, pp. 49-94

SUMMARY: Sequela, imitatio and conformitas in the works of Thomas of Celano about St. Francis. – The lexical analysis in Thomas of Celano’s works about Francis of Assisi shows the emergence of the theme of sequela, with a clear preponderance over that of imitatio and /or conformitas, in all the sources that we examined (Vita beati Francisci, Legenda ad usum chori, Legenda choralis umbra, Memoriale in desiderio animae de gestis et verbis patris nostri Francisci, Tractatus de miraculis, Legenda sanctae Clarae virginis), dating to a time span ranging from 1228 to 1256 approximately. The precise lexical choice of Thomas, which aims to give prominence to this theme dear to Francis – who in his writings has expressed his personal relationship to Christ by using exclusively the semantic family of sequi – is particularly significant given that it remains a constant feature in the Franciscan sources that he elaborated on at different times. This point shows the closeness of the author to the lexicon of Francis and, even if restricted to our survey, may represent a further confirmation of the attribution of Legenda ad usum chori, Legenda choralis umbra and Legenda sanctae Clarae virginis to Thomas of Celano.

Piraccini, Sequela, imitatio e conformitas nell'Arbor vitae di Ubertino da Casale, pp. 95-123

SUMMARY: Sequela, imitatio and conformitas in Arbor vitae by Ubertino da Casale. – The lexical analysis of Arbor vitae has evidenced an uneven usage by Ubertino of the examined expressions applied to Francesco’s vicissitudes as seen from Ubertino. Sequela Christi appears three times and conformitas five, a more recurring pattern is imitatio, referred to Francesco himself, mentioned for fifteen times. The most innovative element by Ubertino is the adoption of similitudo, a prevailing element repeated with thirty-one recurrences, illustrating the uniqueness of Francesco’s experience: as if the traditional language were not adequate enough to properly render the exact sense of similarity between the saint from Assisi and Christ. Francesco, as described by Ubertino, is definitely a role-model of perfection and quite an imitation of Christ since the stigmata represent the ultimate evidence. The research carried out on the examination of the Christian authors and, more specifically, the Franciscan’s sources, confirmed Ubertino’s expressive originality describing a singulariter similis Christo Francesco.

Conetti, «Pro minorum rebus elucidandis et tuendis». Bartolo da Sassoferrato e il francescanesimo, pp. 125-221

SUMMARY: « Pro minorum rebus elucidandis et tuendis ». Bartolus and the Franciscan Order. – Bartolus of Sassoferrato has dealt with legal aspects of Franciscan poverty in his Tractatus minoricarum as well as in his lecturae to Roman law and in two consilia. The current historiographical interpretation is that he tries to force the Franciscan ideal within a frame provided by common law, building a system of fictiones to empty the idea of extreme poverty, while endorsing it in theory. Against this picture, one has to bear in mind that the idea of poverty does not fall within his field of competence and interest. As a civil lawyer, his interest lies in concrete situations: testaments favouring the Franciscans, and the involvement of Italian communes in the material needs of the friars, as the connection between the Franciscans and urban societies was deep and manifold, expressing diffused religious feelings. Faced with problems arising in such situations, he strives to provide solutions both viable and coherent with common law system and the definitions of poverty contained in papal bulls Ad conditorem canonum and Quia quorumdam.

Fontana, Filippo da Moncalieri e le sue Postillae sui vangeli domenicali e quaresimali, pp. 223-255

SUMMARY: Filippo da Moncalieri and his ‘Postillae’ on the Sunday and Lent gospels. – This article is a contribution to the biography and works by Filippo da Moncalieri, a Minor Friar from the province of Genoa. He was lector at Padua in 1330 and a papal penitentiary in Rome. He wrote two works for his students: the Postilla super evangelia dominicalia and the Postilla super evangelia quadragesimalia, in which he comments the complete text of each gospel for Sunday and for Lent. These two works were popular from the late Middle Ages to the early modern period: numerous manuscripts of the two Postillae are kept in many European libraries. The article presents new data based in particular on the analysis of manuscripts of the Library of the Sacred Convent in Assisi. The Appendix contains an edition of the prologue of the Postilla to the Sunday gospels, and an edition of the prologue of the Postilla to the Lent gospels.

Serventi, Il Bianco da Siena e le clarisse dell'Osservanza, pp. 257-278

SUMMARY: Bianco da Siena and the Poor Clares of the Observance. – Since the beginning, the Franciscan Order has been particularly inclined to put words into rhyme, derived from songs, laudi or well known poems. Iacopone da Todi was one of the most important models of this genre in the 14th century. So, it is not surprising if the works of one of the imitators of Iacopone’s in this period, a member of the congregation of the Gesuati, Bianco da Siena, are considered part of the same repertoire. Several laudi by this author, or attributed to him, are included in a laudario of the convent of the Corpus Domini in Bologna. Moreover, his verses are originally employed by the Poor Clares of Bologna and by those of the convent of S. Lucia in Foligno. Two exemplar cases are here presented: the insertion of some verses from the lauda Sempre ti sia in diletto in a composition by the Bolognese saint Caterina Vigri, and the personal recasting of Bianco’s lauda, Sì come el cervio le fonti disia, realized by a Poor Clare of the Umbrian convent.

Fischer, Vinght-et-une pièces d'orgue composées par quatre frères Mineurs italiens: plaidoyer pour une approche analytique, 279-351

SUMMARY: Twenty-one pieces for organ composed by four Italian Minorite brothers: arguments in favor of an analytical approach. – The organ pieces composed by Settimio Zimarino and entitled Fioretti Francescani, the Cantique du Frère Soleil by Giacomo Gorlatto, the Suite Serafica by Enrico Buondonno, the IIe Suite Seraphica by Father Gaspare Stippa are offered here as witness to the the 20th-century Italian repertory for the organ. There results a 21-piece overview highlighting the potentialities inherent in modes of writing devoted to serving the ineffable exemplarity of the spritual message bequeathed by Saint Francis of Assisi. This Franciscan repertory represents a far from insignificant conjuncture within Franciscan musical history in Italy. In the name of text/music relationships but also via the example of lives engaged in response to the message of the Gospels, this corpus is inseparable from a religious vision which, through the proposed musical analysis, enters into the intimacy of the founding texts by Saint Francis of Assisi.

Alberzoni, (Università Cattolica del S. Cuore, Milano), « Intra in gaudium Domini, Domini tui videlicet, Praedicatorum Ordinis ». Diana d’Andalò e Chiara d’Assisi: da sorores a moniales, pp. 1-42

SUMMARY: « Intra in gaudium Domini, Domini tui videlicet, Praedicatorum Ordinis ». Diana d’Andalò and Clare of Assisi: from sisters to nuns –The regulation of the women’s religious life at the beginning of the 13th century was at the center of numerous experiments promoted by the papal curia in particular. With the Roman monastery of San Sisto and its regulation, Innocent III attempted to give a new institutional physiognomy to female monasticism. Cardinal Hugolino (Hugo) of Ostia who continued on this path, had the fortuitous insight of closely linking the new female monasteries promoted by the Apostolic See to the Mendicant Orders marked with the charisms of their founders Dominic and Francis. The examination of the letters addressed by Jordan of Saxony, the first successor of Dominic in the office of Master General of the Preachers, to Diana d’Andalò and to her community of S. Agnese at Bologna makes it possible to notice the points of comparison between its development and that of its contemporary, the Order of San Damiano. Clare of Assisi and Diana d’Andalò desired to closely follow the charism of their own founder and gave birth to two different communities, but they also had to measure up to the directions of Gregory IX.

Sedda, (Università La Sapienza, Roma), La Legenda ad usum chori e il codice assisano 338, pp. 28-83

SUMMARY: The Legend for the use in the choir and the Assisi manuscript 338 – The article deals with the Legenda ad usum chori, the most ancient choral legend on the life of Saint Francis of Assisi. The scant attention devoted to this source, that left an indelible imprint in the memory of the early generations of the friars Minor, has induced the author to propose a detailed analysis of the Legenda ad usum chori through an investigation of the context, the literary genre, the dating, the edition and the manuscript witnesses, particularly the ms. Assisi, Biblioteca Comunale (Sacro Convento), 338. A new study regarding its author will be published soon.

MARTÍNEZ RUIZ, (Universidad Nacional de Cordoba), Tres cuestiones acerca del sobrante (1230-1250), pp. 85-174

SUMMARY: Three questions regarding the superfluous property (1230-1250) – Edition and presentation of three questions regarding the superfluous property (de superfluo), composed during the first half of the thirteenth century by John of la Rochelle (falsely attributed to Bonaventure), Guerric of Saint-Quentin and an Anonymous. Keywords: property, natural law, administration.

ESPOSITI, (Università La Sapienza, Roma), Dalla sequela Christi alla Christo conformitas: Il Liber de laudibus beati Francisci di Bernardo da Bessa, pp. 175-192

SUMMARY: From sequela Christi to Christo conformitas. The Liber de laudibus beati Francisci of Bernardo of Bessa – The lexical research completed in the Liber de laudibus (1279-1288), shows just two of the three lemmata, object of this study. The author seems to have more interests for the terms about sequela Christi and especially about the sequela Francisci, often proposed as equivalents. The lexicon of the imitatio Christi, instead, seems to be more a lexical outliving than a theme really developed in the source. On the opposite the subject of the Christo conformitas, althought lexically absent in the source, shows to be particulary present as theme in the Liber de laudibus. The author of this work, shows a Francis very similar to a new Christ. Francis, in fact, has four biographers as Christ four Evangelists, twelve companions as Christ twelve Apostles. On the way opened by Liber de laudibus will follow other authors, like the anonymous writer of the Actus reatini at the beginning of XIV sec.

Brufani, (Università degli Studi, Perugia), Gli Actus beati Francisci e i Fioretti: due storie di un testo senza storia, pp. 193-214

SUMMARY: The Actus beati Francisci et sociorum eius and the Fioretti: two histories of a work without history – The Actus are now recognized as the source of the Fioretti. The study focuses on the different historical context in which the Actus have been written and translated into the vernacular as Fioretti. Diversity of language, of readers, of manuscript tradition and of purpose characterizes the two works.

Biondi, (Istituto Superiore di Scienze Religiose, L'Aquila), « Vi sono certi altri scritti d’oscurissima interpretatione ». Gli inventari dei fratres strictioris Observantiae durante l’inchiesta della Congregazione dell’Indice, pp. 215-334

SUMMARY: « Vi sono certi altri scritti d’oscurissima interpretatione ». Gli inventari dei fratres strictioris Observantiae durante l’inchiesta della Congregazione dell’Indice – Towards the end of the XVI century, the so-called Strictoris Observantiae detached progressively from the Observance and consolidated on an institutional level. In 1600 this new branch of the Franciscan Order was the subject of an inquiry led by the Congregation of the Index investigating on the presence of forbidden books in the libraries of Italian Franciscan monasteries. The results of the inquiry were collected in the Vaticano Latino 11268, a manuscript stored in the Vatican Apostolic Library. The data deducible from the codex reveal the great cultural diversity of a branch of the seventeenth-century Franciscanism which was just in those years making its way through the Italian religious scene. The friars promptly replied to the order of the Congregation by sending the book to Rome. Interesting data emerge from the analysis of the codex manuscript on how they responded to the injunctions set by the Congregation, on the use they made of the book and on how extensive their knowledge of the writings stored in their libraries was.

Merlo, (Università degli studi di Milano), Ripensando alla recente storiografia sulle origini. «Terzo Ordine Regolare di san Francesco», pp. 94-111.

SUMMARY: The topic of the origins of the « Terzo Ordine Regolare di San Francesco » is addressed critically in comparison with the traditional and consolidated interpretations, which more or less derive from misinterpretations of documents, intended to manipulate the past for the needs of the Franciscan identity within the contemporary T.O.R. The ambiguity of terminology is stressed between « order » and « movement » even before « ordo poenitentium » and « Terz’Ordine ». We propose research directions which overthrow the affirmed and heuristically sterile perspective: no longer starting from Saint Francis to reach the present but going backwards through the centuries to arrive at friar Francis of Assisi, to ascertain the level and the quality of Franciscan self-consciousness and the institutional dimensions of the many penitential experiences.

Bösch, (Zürich), Fragen zur Quelle der zweiten und der dritten Franziskus-Biografie, pp. 112-157

SUMMARY: The article is based on the comparison of the Legenda versificata composed by Henry of Avranches (1LVe) and the Vita sancti Francsici written by Julian of Spire (ISpi) with the Vita beati Francisci of Thomas of Celano (1Cel). The author analyses twelve examples to demonstrate, that the traditional opinion, according to which 1LVe und ISpi depend from 1Cel, seems to be questionable. He exposes possible explications for his observations, especially a relation between the works written by Henry of Avranches and Julian of Spire and a unknown source used by these two authors: a lost document or a first redaction of 1Cel.

Emili, (Università di Macerata), De regimine Judeorum. Una proposta di edizione dell'epistola De Judeis del minorita Giovanni Pechkam, pp. 158-191

SUMMARY: In the spring of 1270, an illustris domina (identified as the Duchess of Brabant or the Countess of Flanders) asked for advice about how to rule Jewish communities living in her land. The texts originated from this consultation are known as De regimine judeorum: according to the evidence available today, two friars and a master of law offered their contributions to the domina. One of them is the famous treatise by Thomas Aquinas. John Peckham also answered to the same questions from the perspective of the Franciscans and at the same time in a highly original way. In two of my previous studies I focused my attention on the content of the Franciscan text, on its dating and on a comparison with Thomas Aquinas’ views. In the present paper, I publish the first edition of Peckham’s De regimine judeorum, based on the only two extant manuscript witnesses: Ms. Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, 1652, and Ms. New York, Hispanic Society of America, B2716. My introduction to the critical text contains also some remarks about the manuscript tradition and about the reliability of the two surviving copies.

Conetti, (Università degli Studi dell'Insubria, Como), Diritto e povertà in Enrico el Carretto: la cultura giuridica di un teologo minorita, pp. 193-253

SUMMARY: The franciscan theologian Enrico del Carretto, bishop of Lucca, took stance in the debate on franciscan poverty, raging in the early decades of the 14th century, whith his Tractatus de statu dispensativo Christi et apostolorum, where he displays a wide and thorough, as well as uncommon for a theologian, knowledge of sources taken from canon and roman law. This essay, therefore, aims at reconstructing Enrico del Carretto’s legal culture. It does so, first if not foremost, with a quantitative and qualitative analysis of legal texts inserted in the Tractatus de statu dispensativo, demonstrating that he leans mainly on Gratian’s Decretum and on Justinian’s Instituta, and that he reads his sources without substantial references to medieval legal science. To our knowledge, Enrico del Carretto did not study canon or roman law, and in fact his approach to legal texts would not be consistent with a higher education in these fields. But his knowledge of Gratian’s Decretum might be explained if he did attend, while teaching at the franciscan theological study at Bologna during the very last years of the 13th century, the lessons of Guido da Baisio, canon law professor and last great scholar of Gratian. Though he builds on the suggestions contained in Innocent IV’s bull Ordinem vestrum and Bonaventure’s Apologia pauperum in stressing that the issue of franciscan poverty can not be solved without making reference to legal considerations about property rights, Enrico del Carretto stands alone as he gives legal sources a pivotal role in his doctrines about extreme poverty.

Solvi, (Seconda Università di Napoli), Modelli minoritici della agiografia bernardiniana, pp. 255-289

SUMMARY: Franciscan models in the hagiography on Bernardino of Siena – A comparison between several legendae on Bernardino and he main texts of franciscan hagiographical tradition (Legenda maior and Legenda minor by Bonaventura of Bagnoregio, Vita of Anthony of Padua by Julian of Speyer, the liturgical officia of the two saints) shows many intertextual links (style, structure, etc.) and the persistance of a unique model of holiness. Bernardino is not seen by hagiographers as an observant saint, but as a franciscan one, and he is a glory for both observant and conventual part. Yet, he is not a mere “alter Franciscus”, but rather an “alius Franciscus”, for he renewed – in a different age and in different ways – the historical and eschatological role recognized to the founder of this Order.

Subini, (Università degli studi di Milano), Restare ai margini. Su "Francesco giullare di Dio" di Roberto Rossellini, pp. 290-312

SUMMARY: This paper deals with the reception that Roberto Rossellini’s film Francesco giullare di Dio (1950) received in Italy and abroad, with specific reference to responses received from Franciscans. In particular, it will investigate the way in which Rossellini represented an aspect of the Franciscan movement – the spirit of evangelical simplicity – which the evolution of the Order had putted in brackets and what consequences the adoption of such a partial perspective had on the possibility of the film being accepted by audiences and the Catholic culture of sixty years ago.

Marini, (Università La Sapienza, Roma), Storia contestata: Francesco d'Assisi e l'Islam, pp. 1-54

SUMMARY: The author returns to the theme of the attitude of Francis of Assisi to crusade and Muslims, analyses the various sources, decodes and puts them into the context of the hagiographic tradition and the writings of Francis. This analysis is preceded by a discussion about recent studies which tend to consider the image of Francis “pacifist” a derivative of the political and religious ideologies at the end of sec. XX. The author emphasizes the value of research and the historical method against those who believe that history and historians are entirely determined by the ideas of their time. He concludes that one can not believe that Francis was in favor of the « holy war » on the grounds that it was an initiative of the pope, because, against this a priori consideration, the various sources, although in an articulate way, show that Francis was not in favor of the crusade and sought a peaceful dialogue with Islam. The silence of the writings of Francis on the crusade, compared with other sources and what he wrote de euntibus inter saracenos et alios infideles, indicates the same conclusion.

Horowski (Istituto Storico dei Cappuccini, Roma), Sermoni su san Francesco del ms. C.41 sup. dell'Ambrosiana e le loro fonti, pp. 55-119

SUMMARY: The collection of sermons preserved in the MS Milano, Bibl. Ambrosiana, C.41.sup. contains three anonymous panegyrics on St Francis of Assisi. An analysis of these texts shows that for composing the first, the author was inspired by the model known from the MS Città del Vaticano, Bibl. Apostolica Vaticana, Chigi C.V.127 (f. 202vb-204va). For the writing of the second, the author drew on two panegyrics belonging to the collection in the codices: Assisi, Fondo Antico Comunale, ms. 432; Padova, Pontificia Bibl. Antoniana, ms. 470; Todi, Bibl. Comunale “L. Leonii”, ms. 168 e Colmar, Bibl. Municipale, ms. 288.II. The sources of inspiration have not been found for the third sermon. The time of the composition of the sermons preserved in the MS of Milan falls within the large time span between the 80s of the 13th century and the last decades of the 14th. The edition of the three panegyrics of Milan and their sources is given here.

Bartolacci, (Università di Macerata), Il complesso mondo delle donne. Indagine sugli insediamenti 'francescani' femminili nelle Marche durante il pontificato di Gregorio IX, pp. 121-150

SUMMARY: The “female Franciscanism” of the beginnings can be included in the female religious movement – which we can also define as the “complex world” of the mulieres religiosae - which concerns the Europe between 12th and 13th centuries. Delving into the origins of this complex world is no simple matter because it is difficult to fully comprehend what these religious experiences were. The uncertainty surrounding this issue depends not only on traditional historiography which traces all Franciscan foundations to saint Clare and saint Francis, but also on the even more misleading tendency of historians to liken these religious movements a posteriori to the Clarisse order even though they are typologically quite different from one another and notnecessarily tied to Franciscanism in general. A local and regional look at the issue could provide a solid basis for placing such religious experiences in their proper context, therefore in this paper I attempt an analysis, through surviving documents, of six female monasteries in the Marches region: while all six fall within the same time period (between 1227 and 1239, circa) and had been classified as Franciscan, they do stand out as exemplars of a deep diversity as regards their foundation, their history and their final outcome.

Paoli, (Università di Roma Tor Vergata), Venanzio da Fabriano e la costruzione della memoria agiografica di Giacomo della Marca: una questione preliminare, pp. 151-186

SUMMARY: The Venanzio da fabriano's Vita di Giacomo della Marca is transmitted by three principal manuscripts: Firenze, Biblioteca della Provincia Toscana dei frati Minori, S.380; Roma, Biblioteca del Collegio di S. Isidoro, 44; Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. Lat 10501. Each of them has a different version of the same Vita. The philological analysis show that - presumably - all of them are works by Venanzio da Fabriano: the Florence text seems to be the oldest, and the Vatican the latest version. The issue of these textes is an interesting example of a work-in-progress text, and a meaningful example of a hagiographer who grows up in his writer consciounsness, and therefore in his skills.

Field, (University of Vermont), A Newly Discovered Copy of the Columbinus Prophecy in Saint-Omer MS 283, pp. 187-204

SUMMARY: This article offers the first full description of Saint-Omer MS 283, and then studies and edits the newly identified copy of the Columbinus Prophecy found therein. Earlier studies have demonstrated that the prophecy was originally created in Franciscan circles in or near France around the year 1300. The hitherto unnoticed copy in Saint-Omer MS 283, however, is one of only three known French copies, and shows the continued circulation of Brother Columbinus’s prophecy in northern France at least a century after its composition.

Mocciaro, (Università di Roma Tor Vergata), La penna del santo: l'edizione dei B.P. Francisci Opuscula di Luke Wadding (1623), pp. 205-254

SUMMARY: In 1623 the Irish scholar Luke Wadding – the friar observant author (between 1625 and 1648) of the famous Annales Minorum – published the Beati Patris Francisci Assisiatis Opuscula, which were the first printed edition of the writings of Francis of Assisi. In an ecclesiastical context in deep transformation, where the religious orders were often in competition, the issue of Opuscula was not a neutral operation but the first step of a broader cultural project in which Wadding (with full support of the superiors of the Order) was intended to strengthen the Franciscan identity (inside and outside) primarily through a renewed reconfiguration of the image of the founder. This contribution (part of a larger research about Wadding) attempts to outline scenarios and motivations behind this editorial product never before studied.

Dusaeva, (Kazan Federal University), San Francis of Assisi in the Russian scholastic tradition of 19th-21th centuries, pp. 255-271

SUMMARY: The article is dedicated to the processes of representation of St. Francis in the textbooks from the second half of the nineteenth century to the present days. The focus of my research is the reasons of the appearing San Francis of Assisi in the programs and manuals, why he has been represented this way. The theme takes into consideration also visual representation of him. I focus on the language of this type of texts and try to explain why the authors used these words, those linguistic structures instead of others. Thereby the research gives an explanation of cross cultural processes, development of scientific tradition from Russian Empire across USSR till Russian Federation.

Rigon, (Università di Padova), Gli studi francescani di un 'non francescanista', pp. 273-284

SUMMARY: Ovidio Capitani devoted a lot of his studies to the franciscan history, but he considered himself a “non francescanista” scholar. Actually for him the religious experience of Saint Francis and the development of the Franciscanism in the Middle Ages are very important for understanding the whole historical process of the medieval Europe. Capitani was interested, above all, in the economic thought of the Franciscans and the evolution of the early Francesanism from the fraternitas to the Ordo fratrum Minorum as well. Besides he gave a leading role to Saint Anthony of Padua.

Brufani, (Università degli studi, Perugia), Ordinem secundum sua statuta reformavit: Francesco d'Assisi nella crisi del '20, pp. 1-47

SUMMARY:  In year 1220 exploded a heavy crisis between Friars Minor, when Francis was in Orient. It was a crisis of growth, because the penitential brotherhood turns into religiouse order. Compilatio Assisiensis 11 tells a episode in which Francis renounces the government of Order (“resignavit officium prelationis”). The historians have seen in this act the choise of Francis to renounce the power in the Order which was changing into a traditional monastic order, under influence of Holy See; from then on Francis was only an example of life for friars. In this essay the context and the nature of crisis is analysed on the basis of Cronicle of Jordane of Giano and of papal letters. It is evident that Francis also after the chapter of autumn 1220 played a fundamental role as reformer of Order.

Cusato (St. Bonaventure University NY), Social Action or Fraternal Presence: Medieval Franciscanism at the Crossroads (1220-1247), pp. 49-88

SUMMARY: Taking its point of departure from a question posed by Kenneth Baxter Wolf in his book The Poverty of Riches – namely, why didn’t Francis and his early brothers do anything to alleviate the plight of the poor? – this article first asserts, contrary to Wolf, the involvement of Francis and his companions among the poorest of Assisi (the lepers); it then goes on to analyze the preaching and social action of the secondgeneration of friars during the “pacification campaigns” in the towns of Northern Italy during the early 1230s. After examining which social classes these latter friars were actually attempting to assist in their sermons and the reform of existing punitive legislation against debtors in the communes, it would seem that the focus of the friars will have shifted their focus away from the indigent poor to those entrepreneurs in the cities who had fallen on hard economic times. But this shift of social concern will have been poorly seen by certain members of the Franciscan order – especially those aligned with the Companions of Francis – who continued to advocate for a posture of fraternal presence among the poor rather than a social activism among the merchants as the quintessential minorite calling. Four key texts are used to illustrate this latter point.

Travaini, (Università di Milano), Le monete nella tomba di san Francesco di Assisi, pp. 89-100

SUMMARY: This article is dedicated to the coins found during the survey of the grave of Saint Francis of Assisi in 1818: a find which might seem impossible given the saint’s repulsion of ‘pecunia vel denarios’. However, it was quite common to deposit coins in Italian saints’ graves and many examples are here discussed, and the coins in St Francis grave are denari of Lucca currently circulating in the area at the time of his death. The interpretation more currently accepted for
such presence is that they were offered /deposited as a ‘memory token’, a sign of chronology. This is only one of the many ritual uses of coins in the middle ages, a field of research recently explored and in need of further work in collaboration with Church historians.

Ruiz, (Aix-Marseille Université), Hugues de Digne et la Regula non bullata , pp. 100-147

SUMMARY: Hugh of Digne and the Regula non bullata. In his Elucidatio on Franciscan Rule (1252-1254), brother Hugh of Digne (ca. 1200-1255) quoted the Regula non bullata. He was actually one of the rare franciscan authors from XIII-XIV century to do so. Only brother Thomas of Celano in his Memoriale and fra Angelo Clareno in his Expositio Regule did it too. But, in fact, the problem is wich is the version of the Regula non bullata Hugh quoted? Some evidences seem to indicate the existence of another version of the early franciscan rule different from the textus receptus we know. Is it possible? And in this case, wich is this version and how could Hugh reach it?

Gecser, (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest)), Miracles of the Leper and the Roses, pp. 149-171

SUMMARY: In the last third of the thirteenth century two new miracle stories were attached to the hagiographical dossier of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, which subsequently became the most popular episodes in the visual and textual representations of her life in the Middle Ages: the miracle of the leper (also known as the miracle of the cross) and the miracle of the roses. These two stories were not only absent from the earliest accounts of the saint’s life belonging to or based on the narrative material collected for her canonization, but they exhibit features that are at odds with what we know about St. Elizabeth from other narrators of her life. This article traces the development of the two miracle stories in their main variants, and argues that both of them emphasize the contradiction between dependence and charity inherent in the ideal proposed by St. Elizabeth, and both of them owe their popularity to this emphasis.

Natale, (Università degli studi, Siena), Attorno all'edizione critica dei Fioretti di san Francesco: riflessioni sull'ambiente di produzione di Actus, Fioretti e Considerazioni sulle stigmate, pp. 175-208

SUMMARY:  In the history of the aborted attempts to establish the critical edition of the Fioretti of Saint Francis, an important role may have been played by the largeness of the tradition (we actually know 98 manuscripts) and by the extent of the text (52 chapters). These two features probably led previous scholars to base their editions on a single manuscript (the so-called “bon manuscript” or “codex optimus”) or on a little group of manuscripts. However, a third element must be (re)considered for a better comprehension of the text and its tradition: the question regarding the authorship of the Actus beati Francisci et sociorum eius, the Fioretti and the Considerazioni sulle stigmate within their historical, geographical and cultural context. The textual analysis of the Considerazioni and the philological reasoning on the composition of the Fioretti and the Considerazioni compared to the Actus allow us to argue the hypothesis (often alleged in the past, but without precise, textual arguments) that both vernacular works could have been conceived in the area of La Verna hermitage. In the same area we could also situate the author of the Actus, the famous fr[ater] Hugolinus de Monte S. Marie, if we turn down the traditional identification of Monte S. Marie with Montegiorgio (in Le Marche region) and we assume the idea (proposed here for the first time) that fr[ater] Hugolinus comes from Monte Santa Maria Tiberina, in the ancient Umbria, near Città di Castello and not far from La Verna.

Pellegrini, (Università degli studi, Chieti), I cappuccini tra XVI e XX secolo. Annotazione dagli Annali dei Cappuccini d'Abruzzo, pp. 209-309

SUMMARY: The Annali of the Capuchin friars of Abruzzo give news about decisions taken in the of the Provincial Chapters and in the meetings of provincial superior with his counselors, the ” definitors ”. Provincial and definitors, the appointments of the local superiors, the ”guardians”, the directives and provisions disciplinary measures against individual religious etc.. Based on these official news, purely institutional, have been rebuilt some interesting aspects of the history of three centuries of the Capuchins in Abruzzo 1620-1940. So come to light some of the most important sections of the community living, of the activities of religious behavior and ideological choices of some brothers in various political contingencies All this in the context of the events of the reign of southern Italy, identifying the relationships with the political power and the principal members of the noble and emerging classes locally

Riccardi, (Terza Università degli Studi di Roma), Dalla "Conciliazione" ai "venti di guerra": il contesto storico della proclamazione di Francesco d'Assisi patrono d'Italia

SUMMARY: From “Conciliation” to the “winds of war”: the historical context of Francis of Assisi’s proclamation as patron saint of Italy – During Italy’s Fascist period, Francis of Assisi was made symbol of the regime’s propaganda, as an example of Italic descent and of national saint, as well as of the dialogue between the Catholic church and the Fascist regime; the names of Franciscans Agostino Gemelli and Vittorino Facchinetti, Piero Misciattelli, Salvatore Attal and of the martyr Ermenegildo were particularly commemorated. In this context the image of Saint Francis and the city of Assisi filled an important role, thanks to the many initiatives for the celebration of the 7th Franciscan Centenary of 1926 organized by the podestà of Assisi, Arnaldo Fortini, lawyer and historian of Franciscanism, in good relations with the Savoy rulers and the Fascist government. Assisi’s bishop, Placido Nicolini, proposed the proclamation of Saint Francis as patron saint of Italy, which was realized in 1939. This was the high point of the Fascist nationalization process of the saint. However from papal documents Pius XI (1926) and Pius XII (1939) did not passively agreed to a national and Fascist interpretation of the Franciscan message and reaffirmed its universal character, and its yearning for Church reformation and peace among the nations.

Canale Albicini, (Università degli Studi di Roma  "La Sapienza"), Sequela Christi e imitatio Christi negli scritti di Chiara d'Assisi.

SUMMARY: Sequela Christi and imitatio Christi in the writings of Clare of Assisi – The Clare of Assisi’s works show the presence of the themes of Sequela and Imitatio. Clare was one of the most authentic and radical Francis’s baton and the analysis of her lexical choice describes this peculiarity. In spite of the fact that in her works the lexicon of Imitatio appears more frequently, she aims to give prominence to the theme of sequela – a theme dear to Francis, who in his writings has expressed his personal relationship to Christ by exclusively using the semantic family of sequi. All her works (Epistolae ad Agnetem, Forma vitae sororum pauperum, Testamnetum and Benedictio) are connected by the natural relationship with sancta paupertas. The way of Francis’s and his mates’ life, deeply connected with evangelical Christ’s human experience, is the single framework by which Clare can interpretate her own franciscan route. Clara’s way to live franciscan message makes possible the vanishing of the Imitatio into the Sequela.

Martinez Ruiz (Universidad Catolica de Cordoba), Las fuentes y el proceso redaccional del Arbor vitae crucifixae Iesu de Ubertino da Casale

SUMMARY: Sources and composition of Arbor vite crucifixe by Ubertino of Casale – In this work I intend to start a survey of sources consulted by Ubertino de Casale in each of the three phases in the redaction of the first version of Arbor vitae crucifixae Iesu (1305), as well as in the definite version of that work (ca. 1326-1329), analysing, in each case, the way he makes use of them, and the sort of influence exerted on the whole.

Soriani Innocenti, (Università degli studi di Pisa), La conversione dela Samaritana in una predica di Ubertino da Casale. Edizione del Sermo Iesus fatigatus ex itinere (Iohannes 4, 6)

SUMMARY: The conversion of the Samaritan in a sermon by Ubertino of Casale. Edition of  Sermo Iesus fatigatus ex itinere (Iohannes 4, 6) – The Samaritan conversion as described in Ubertino da Casale “Sermo Iesus fatigatus ex itinere” (Johannes, 4,6) edition. – It is already a recognized point of view that Ubertino da Casale adds in his five books “Arbor Vitae” most of his preaches he devotes himself before being banned to the Verna Monastery. From the whole work – of which the critical edition has been longed for- there are only few sermons identified until today. Awaiting for this not easy project, this paper is introducing the Samaritan conversion sermon edition (Iesus fatigatus ex itinere, Ioh 4,6) basing on Assisi manuscript (Assisi, Sacro Convento, ms. 328, ff.92va-96rb). The personality of Ubertino comes out as a truthful Spiritual representative, and passionate accuser of any human vanities, always ready to preach against a carnal Church that he represents symbolically as the Samaritans who draws water from the well of human evils and whom at first refuses to quench Jesus thirst while he is passing throught Samaria. After a long and pitiless quarrel the woman, converted by the prophet stricter argument and infinite goodness, turns herself into a follower, preaching Evangelical poverty and Christ Glory. This is the Topic of Ubertino preachings which permeates Arbor Vitae books. I introduce the sermon’s structure to show the rhetorical artificies in Middle Ages homiletics, of which Ubertino was a refined expert.

Marcelli, (Università degli studi di Macerata), La documentazione contabile dei frati Minori: il caso del convento di Fabriano

SUMMARY: The accounts of Minor Friars: the example of the Convent of Fabriano – The document examines the liber exitus et introitus (1326-1380) of the convent of St. Francis in Fabriano, proposing the adoption of a renewed heuristic method. Both the religious and economic dimensions are, in fact, taken into consideration in their reciprocal repercussions. It is under this perspective that, after an excursus on the regulations regarding the accounting documents in the general and provincial constitutions of the Order of the friars Minor, the ties between the ius particulare and the liber of Fabriano are reconstructed. Secondly, we propose a comparison between the liber and similar and coeval documentation on the register, extending the research towards claims that do not only derive from the religious sphere. Finally, the economic lexicon of the liber is analyzed through those verbs that express the daily administrative practices of the convent of Fabriano. Between the observance of the norms relevant to the relationship with goods and the administrative practices, various levels of religious life emerge, from the accounting records, which could not always and not necessarily be reassembled into a single essential reality.

Brufani, (Università degli studi di Perugia)), Perugia e Monteripido laboratorio dell'Osservanza

SUMMARY: Perugia and Monteripido, laboratory of Observance – At the beginning of the 15th century, Perugia and the convent of the Observance of St. Francis at Monteripido were of primary importance for the development of the Observants as a religious family. Thanks to its continuity and its innovative or recently applied initiatives, its preaching promoted the establishment of of a relationship between the religious dimension and the practices of city government, whose timing and modes of implementation were strongly conditioned by the context in which the friars de familia operated. This topsoil nourished new modes of religious presence, which had strong social consequences that spread elsewhere as well: the friars’ establishment in a hermitage that was not actually a hermitage in the suburban area of Monteripido (which initially had a anti-Spirituals function); their vital ties to the university and international environment (which already in the pre-Bernardian phase led to recruiting young men who were not yet religious, Giovanni da Capestrano and Giacomo della Marca being the best known among them); the definitive shift in their preaching to individual and social moral subjects, which led to reforms of the city’s statutes (shortly after Siena’s); the start of specific training for confessors, which led to the establishment of Observant studia; and the creation of the first Monte di pietà (a charitable trust that operated as a pawnbroker).

Santi, (Università degli studi di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale), Due nuove edizioni del Liber Lelle di Angela da Foligno

SUMMARY: Two new editions of the Liber Lelle of Angela of Foligno – The studies of Enrico Menestò confirmed the bipartite nature of the stemma codicum that represents the manuscript transmission of the Liber Lelle of Angela of Foligno. Based on this conclusion of the recensio, Menestò built his excellent edition. One of the two branches of the tradition is represented only by the manuscript of the Sacred Convent of Assisi, today Assisi, Biblioteca Comunale 342, copied between 1306 and 1309, about ten years after the conclusion of the Liber and started while Angela is still alive. The historical data and ecdotic study converge to give importance to the witness of Assisi Menestò has appropriately considered this situation, in the reconstruction of the text or giving account about choices of Assisi in critical apparatus, but the lectiones of Assisi excite the reflection paleographic and linguistic.

Merlo (Università degli studi di Milano), A proposito di Fonti agiografiche dell'Ordine francescano

SUMMARY: Regarding the agiographical sources of the Franciscan Order – The book Fonti agiografiche dell’Ordine francescano, edited by M. Teresa Dolso (Padova, 2014), is presented.

Brufani, (Università degli studi di Perugia), Le lettere di Onorio III e frate Francesco d’Assisi (Test 24-26)

SUMMARY: This essay presents a study of Onorio III’s letters to the Order of friars Minor. They had a constitutional and fundamental value for the development of the fraternitas-Ordo. In Test 24-26 Francis of Assisi reacted to the issues raised in the letters.

Johnson, (Flagler College, Florida) Agamben, Bonaventure, and the Poverty of Prayer

SUMMARY: Agamben, Bonaventure, and the Poverty of Prayer - Giorgio Agamben’s long-standing engagement with the cultural and theological dimensions of medieval liturgical theory and practice is of particular interest to Franciscanists. This article examines the question of poverty and prayer in light of Agamben’s understanding of the original Franciscan forma vitae and the clerical obligation to recite the Liturgy of the Hours. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio’s surprising appeal during a sermon on Francis to the testimony of an early companion of the Poverello creates a performative but by poverty and love. This freedom, understood within the context of the Pauline biblical-theological tradition, has messianic implications for contemporary society as mirrored in economic debates and the teachings of Pope Francis.

Brolis, Il monastero di Santa Chiara in Bergamo dalla fondazione al secolo XV

SUMMARY: The Convent of saint Clare in Bergamo from the Foundation to the XVth century – The Convent of Saint Clare in Bergamo started its hi- story in 1277, when two sisters of the Clarisse order came from Brescia to support the new foundation. The religious house was situated in a west neighborhood, outside the city walls and close to an ancient hospital and a little church called Saint Mary of Charity. Just like the Franciscan friars did about fifty years before in the same place, also the Clarisse took care of poor, pilgrims and sick people assisted in the near hospital. During the last two decades of the XIIIth century and during all the first part of the follo- wing one, number of nuns and their estate grew together with the support of local Church and lay people, especially those belonging to Misericordia Maggiore, the main Confraternity in Bergamo. Mostly based on unpubli- shed documents, the study analyzes the medieval history of this unknown Clarisse nunnery until its crisis in the XV century, giving reports also in an addendum about religious members, supporters and properties.

Danelli, (Università degli studi di Perugia),  Alcuni frati Minori negli episodi di ‘ribellione’ tudertina tra gli anni 1328 e 1332

SUMMARY: Some Friars Minor within the ‘ribellion’ of Todi in the years 1328-1332 – In 1329 the franciscan friar Bartolinus of Perugia filed two lawsuits, one against the “rebel” friars of the convent of San Fortunato of Todi and one against the citizen of Todi, who took sides with the excommu- nicated emperor Ludwig of Bavaria and the antipope Nicolaus V. These trials can be considered part of a broad strategy of John XXII, aiming the defeat of his enemies through inquisitorial proceedings (for example against the Visconti, the Este and the signori of Osimo and Recanati). The exceptional richness of the records regarding the Friars Minor of San Fotunato of Todi – until now, the only records relating to an entire Franciscan community indicted by John XXII principally of being supporters of Michael of Cesena - allows to follow the construction and development of the procedures, beginning with denunciations and continuing with citations, excommunications for non-appearance and, finally, the appeal addressed by the friars to frater Bartolinus of Perugia. The lack of the definitive judgment is a frustrating loss that does not prevent to enframe the franciscan “rebellion” of Todi in the wider context of the disunion of the Brothers of Francis of Assisi, of the long-lasting conflicts among the Friars Minor and of the opposition of a part of them to the not accomodating policy of John XXII

Forcellini, (Scuola Superiore di Studi Storici della Repubblica di San Marino), I canti XXVI e XXVII dell’Inferno di Dante alla luce delle fonti francescane

SUMMARY: The cantos XXVI and XXVII of Dante’s Inferno in the light of the franciscan sources – The essay proposes a comprehensive reading of Inferno’s XXVI and XXVII cantos, based on a wide range of texts referring to the franciscan ambit, with particular attention to Saint Bonaventure’s Legenda maior and Ubertino da Casale’s Arbor vitae crucifixae Jesu. The article’s main argumentation consists in the proposal of a franciscan inter- pretation for the sequence of Inferno XXVI 19-51, in which Dante describes the famous comparison between the vision of eighth pit’s damned souls and the biblical scene of Elias’ rapture on the inflamed chariot. The sequence is put in relation with Legenda maior IV, 4, a fundamental passage in Bona- venture’s legend to the definition, by means of the narration of the known miracle of Rivotorto, of the hagiographic and eschatological paradigm of Saint Francis seen as a new Elias, « ut alter Elias ». Moving from this interpretation, the essay develops a deep and articulate analysis that manages to find answers to knotty hermeneutical questions, dealing with all the principal themes of eighth circle’s poetic invention

Solvi, (Seconda Università di Napoli), Tre sermoni di Cherubino da Spoleto sull'Indulgenza della Porziuncola

SUMMARY: Three Sermons of Cherubino of Spoleto on the Portiuncula Indulgence - Manuscript VIII.AA.20 of the National Library of Naples is a XVth.   century sermonary from   the   observant convent of St. Bernardino of Aquila. It includes three sermons (one of them is just a sketch, written in the margins, the others are  rather well-constructed, although not finished) that deal with the Indulgence of the Portiuncula: history, features, theological and canonistic foundation. The literary, philological and paleographical analisys suggests that the author was most likely the observant friar Cherubino of Spoleto (dead in 1484 at the Portiuncola), one of the most famous popular preachers of his age and a fervent devout of the Indulgence, and that the neapolitan codex is, at least partially, an autograph. The paper provides a preliminary study of the three sermons and their critical edition, that is the first critical modern edition of a work of Cherubino

L. Pellegrini, Dai primi compagni di Francesco ai “corpi santi” nella basilica assisana

SUMMARY: From the  first companions OF Francis to the  “holy bodies” in Assisi basilica - The essay intends to reconstruct the history of the tombs in the lower Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi. The search move off the analysis of the  fresco depicting five Friars Minor, carried out under the  majesty of Cimabue by Pietro Lorenzetti, or one of his pupils, in the  first decades of the  fourteenth century in  the  left  transept of the  church. In  order to identify the five friars represented, the radius of the search is expanded to other tombs of the  basilica through the  testimony of the  sources of the thirteenth and  fourteenth centuries. The focus is particularly on graves of the   companions  of  the   saint,  making a  distinction  between his   first followers and   subsequent socii.  For  this purpose it was  conducted an analysis of hagiographical sources of the  first two centuries of Franciscan history. A particular problem is the identification of one of the  five friars represented in the fresco, it reported erroneously as Valentino from Narni from the late fourteenth century and revived in the documents and texts of the early sixteenth century. The friar had to be one of the companions of St Francis, is  impossible, however, at  the   present state of  research, its identification.

P. Sinigagliese, La Vita sancti Francisci di Giuliano da Spira tra le fonti della Legenda maior di Bonaventura da Bagnoregio

SUMMARY: Julian of Speyer’s Vita  sancti Francisci among the  sources of Bonaventure  of  Bagnoregio’s Legenda  maior.  For   the  writing  of  the Legenda maior, Bonaventure  mainly made use  of Thomas of Celano’s works and, secondly, also of other sources, among which  is to be included Julian’s Vita. The present contribution is intended to show – with the help of a  large casuistry –  how the  lectio  of Julian of Speyer’s Vita  sancti Francisci influenced Bonaventura’s wording, as just as the  image that he built up  of  Francesco’s sanctity  as  conformis to  Christ. Bonaventure employs the  work  of Julian to  borrow a  word,  a  couple  of words  or  a sequence of lemmas, probably giving  preference to  a  vocabulary more familiar to him,  more  precise and  linked to the  context of Paris’ magna domus, frequented for a long period of time both by Julian, who there held for many years the  office of magister cantus and  corrector  mensae, and Bonaventure, who  in  Paris undertook his  university studies until the appointment of the title of magister cathedratus.

A. Bianchini, Dallasequela alla conformitas nella Vita brevior di Tommaso da Celano

SUMMARY: From  sequela to conformitas in the Vita  brevior  of Thomas of Celano.  The  Vita  brevior  is a work  of recent discovery, composed by the friar Thomas during the administration of Elias. The lexical analysis of the work  showed a consistent presence of the  theme of sequela and  the  verb adhaerere, while  remains less or almost absent the  lexicon  of imitatio and conformitas. The preference for the lemma sequela and the verb adhaerere demonstrates a certain lexical  continuity in all  the  works of Thomas, in which emerge most this use. Besides the theme of sequela was very dear to Francis of Assisi,  who in his  works makes exclusive use of the  semantic family of sequi to express his relationship with Christ.

A. Horowski, Sermoni « Iuxta Scripture veritatem » del maestro francescano Antonio « de Yspania »

SUMMARY: The  Sermons “Iuxta  Scripture veritatem” of the  Franciscan Master Anthony “de Yspania” - In the  MS. 532 Fondo  Antico  Comunale of Assisi,   there are   three series of sermons (de  communi sanctorum, de proprio sanctorum and  de dominicis) attributed by the scribe to ”Antonius de  Yspania”.  The   present  study  gives   the   reasons that  enable the identification of this author with the disciple of John Duns Scotus, Antony Andrés (Antonius Andreae), also known as Antony of Lérida (or Antonius Ilerdensis), working at the  Studium generale of the  Friars Minor  in Paris and, subsequently, in  Catalonia.  Moreover, on the  basis of other manuscripts, the  list  is  drawn up  of 163  sermons of this author so far found, often  recognizable thanks  to  the  typical incipit (Iuxta Scripture veritatem...) or to the  usual beginning of the  prothemata (Quia  mediante Virgine oportet nos pro sermonem divinam gratiam obtinere...).

M. Donnini, Due sillogi alfabetiche di dicta Aristotelis nel cod. Asis. 665

SUMMARY: Two  alphabetic collections of dicta Aristotelis in  the  Asis. 665  codex  - This  contribution contains some  observations on  the  two alphabetic collections of dicta  that a humanist anonimous friar derived from Ethica Nicomachea and  from Politica of Aristotle.

M. F. Cusato, The Delicate Dance of the Custos: Francesco Suriano, O.F.M., the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, and Islam (1493-1514)

SUMMARY: Francesco Suriano  served two  terms as  Guardian of  the Convent of Mount Sion in Jerusalem and thus Custos of the Custody of the Holy  Land: between 1493-95  and  1509(?)-1514. Born  into  a  mercantile family of Venice,  in  1475  Francesco entered the  Observant wing  of the order of Friars Minor  and, thanks to his linguistic skills, accompanied the then  custos, Francesco Rosso  da  Piacenza, to  the  Holy  Land. Having returned to Italy shortly thereafter, he  began – upon  the  request of his Poor Clare sister – to compile his recollections and observations of his time in the Holy Land into what will eventually become his Treatise on the Holy Land. Chosen as Custos in 1493,  Francesco Suriano began a remarkable first tenure thanks in large part to amiable relations which  had  already been established by previous friars with two important figures in Mamluk politics: the Emir Azbak  and  the Sultan Qaytbay. This article traces these amiable relations with the  friars (as well as  their persecutions) prior to, during and  after his first stint as Custos. Largely due to the death of these two Muslim figures by the end of the century and  with trouble brewing on the northern and  eastern frontiers of the  Mamluk Empire, Francesco’s second tenure would  prove  much more  turbulent, with the  fall of that Empire occurring in 1516.

F. Sedda, Una predica sul Perdono tenuta ad Assisi da Bernardino da Siena e riportata autografa da Giovanni da Capestrano

SUMMARY:  A sermon on Pardon preached in Assisi by Bernardine of Siena and  reported autograph by John of Capistrano - The contribution studies the  ms. Bologna, Archivio storico  della Provincia dei frati Minori dell’Emilia Romagna, Sez. VII, mss. XV-XVI secc., Ms. 5, a time “Modena, S. Cataldo”, that have sermons of John of Capistrano and  Bernardine of Siena, reported autograph by John. Through the critical edition of the first sermon on Pardon, preached by Bernardine in Assisi  in 1424  and  written by John, it shows how John works under the pulpit and how he uses it for his preaching. The author  shows  how  the preaching of Friars Observant is a real creative laboratory, which  gives way to the attitudes of each,  creating a new way of addressing the masses of the faithful.

S. Brufani, Il Liber di Francesco di Bartolo sull’indulgenza della Porziuncola: dai codici alla stampa

SUMMARY: The  Liber of Francis of Bartolo about  the  indulgence of the Porziuncola: from Manuscripts to the printed Book – Between 1277-1335 a dossier of witnesses and documents about the concession of pope Honorius III  to  Francis of Assisi  of a  indulgence to  church of Portiuncola was collected in the Franciscan Order. In the first part of Liber Francis of Bartolo of Assisi  (1335)  rewrote an hagiographical narrative, and  in  the  second part he  registered the  miracles. The  nucleus of history (historia, capp. 5-10) with the transcription of early witnesses (capp. 11-13), and  also with the addition of some miracles formed an extract of the Liber in the manuscript Assisi,  417  and  in  two  posters (Instrumenti XI/7-8).  This  text  was  the source of the Liber’s editio princeps, a booklet printed at Trevi in 1470, the first Franciscan book.

A. Capaccioni, L’incunabolo del Liber di Francesco di Bartolo (Trevi, 1470) - Cronache - Indice dei nomi.

SUMMARY: The  incunable of the  Francesco di Bartolo’s Liber (Trevi, 1470) - This  essay examines the  events related to the  printing of a rare book (Trevi, 1470),  the  only known copy is in the  University Library of Rome (Biblioteca Alessandrina), which  contains the history, taken from a manuscript of the  Franciscan Francesco di Bartolo (sec. XIV), of the Portiuncula indulgence.

L.  Pellegrini, Scritture, codici e scriptoria nei primi decenni dell’Ordine minoritico

Scriptures, codes and  scriptoria in the  first decades of the Minoritic Order  -  The  essay  proposes to  retrace the   history of  the writings in the  first centuries of the  Minoritic Order, starting from  the texts that Brother Francis had  to write and  wanted to be transcribed. Some  of these texts since  then took  the  dimensions of small codes  to develop later in  larger manuscripts. The earliest and  most  obvious  of these were   the   codes  for  liturgical use   and   the   transcripts of  the hagiographic text, composed of Brother Tommaso da Celano. Very soon, however, small miscellaneous codes  appeared that the  friars carried with them in carrying out  the   task of preaching. Among  these the manuscript recently returned to light, in which  a reduction of Vita beati Francisci was transcribed. Particularly significant are  the  manuscripts later collected in code 338, kept at the  Library of the  Sacred Convent of Assisie containing also  the  first collection of the  writings of Brother Francis, whose  three dossiers initially constituted a specific  code in its own right.

C. Delcorno, Codici miscellanei e predicazione

Miscellanies and preaching - The short Franciscan biography of Thomas of Celano (Vita  brevior),  recently discovered and  published by Jacques Dalarun, has  attracted attention on a miscellany compiled as  a preaching  help   for  itinerant  friars  (Paris  BnF   NAL  3245).   In   this manuscript the  Vita  has  been  copied  together with anonimous sermons and  excerpta from  the  model  sermons of Antony of Padua. This  essay studies some religious miscellanies (XIII-XV cent.) as an important kind of transmission  of  the  medieval  preaching  both   Latin  and   vernacular. Religious as  well  as  laymen collect  brief  anthologies or even  fragments from  the   complete  reportationes  of  the   most   famous preachers  (e.g. Giordano da Pisa, Bernardino da Siena and  the  friars of the Observance) and  copy the  selection in  modest manuscripts (“libri  da  bisaccia”) or in carefully produced books for the  lay piety. This results in a multiform and irregular series of miscellaneous compilations, where sermons and preaching aids  are  mingled with hagiographical, liturgical, moral, and juridical works. It is noteworthy that Latin and  vernacular texts are often mixed  together, a feature which  is constantly increasing during the  XVth century. Moreover Latin and  vernacular languages alternate in the  same text. An anonymous Franciscan  miscellany of  the   late XVth  century (Rome,  Bibl. dell’Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei  e Corsiniana, ms. 1131) provides a surprising evidence of such linguistic use.

F. Accrocca, De Inceptione vel fundamento Ordinis: una fonte preziosa, un testo malfermo

De Inceptione vel fundamento Ordinis: a precious source, an   unsteady text   –  The   manuscript tradition  of  De  inceptione  vel fundamento Ordinis is undoubtedly small, which  means that during the Middle Ages the  text  was  not  widespread. The  work  was published for the  first time in the  Acta Sanctorum, however, to have a critical edition it needed to wait the  one edited by Lorenzo Di Fonzo  in 1972.  This  the latter edition had  stated clearly the  criteria to which, would  have been lessened  and    the    preferences he had  harmonized; criteria  and preferences that, then he  had  not  followed  consistently: it is  indeed difficult to escape the impression of arbitrary choices.  In this article the author conducts a first partial survey, but  sufficient in  making us  to understand that such  edition – certainly meritorious – whoever, cannot be used  blindly. A new edition is therefore, necessary in a way to make available to everyone really a reliable text.

F. Carta, Inter saracenos et alios infideles. Le missioni dei frati Minori nelle Expositiones super Regulam (sec. XIII-XIV)

Inter saracenos et alios  infideles. The  missions of the  friars Minor  in the  Expositiones super  Regulam (sec. XIII-XIV)  - Franciscan Rule Commentaries are an extraordinary source suitable to follow the evolution of friars’ belief related  to many   different      issues. This article focuses  on the  theoretical reflexions about the  twelfth chapter of the  Rule  - De euntibus qui  vadunt inter  saracenos et alios  infideles - made in the  first century of Franciscan history. In  the  commentaries, written by intellectual friars in scholastic and university environments, it seems that missions were an exceptional activity in the life of exceptional friars. These missions were generally addressed to the all so-called infideles, a concept in which  it was  not  given  a prominent place  to Saracens. The goals of the friars were both to convert the infidels and  to preach the faith. No reflexions on the crusades were made in the commentaries. The analysis also shows  that there could be a link between the divine inspiration and voluntas of the  candidates for the  missions and  the  role of ministries. In the end it will be analysed the eschatological role acquired by the missions thanks to the  innovations introduced by the  commentaries written by Pietro di Giovanni Olivi and  Angelo Clareno.

D.  Ruiz, Le procès de canonisation de Louis d’Anjou. Pour une réconsideration codicologique

The process of canonization of Louis  of Anjou,  a codicological reconsideration - The present article intends to examine the manuscript of the canonization process of Louis d’Anjou preserved in the Library Estense of Modena. Since 1950 this manuscript has never been consulted again. It nevertheless deserves a  thorough examination to  try  to  understand its origin, its constitution and its history.

M. Guida, Come un coro di voci: dal processo di canonizzazione alle legendae di san Ludovico di Tolosa

A Chorale: From the Canonization Process to the Legendae of St. Louis of Toulouse - On 7 April 1317 Pope John XXII canonized Louis of Toulouse, son of King Charles II of the  House of Anjou.  The record of the canonization process – initiated by Pope Clement V on 1 August 1307, ten years after Louis’s  death – provides much information on  the  life  and conversatio of that Angevin prince who became a Friar Minor and a bishop. Some  of that  information appears somewhat discordant and  indicates clearly that the life choices Louis had to make were not at all as simple and free  of difficulty as  seems suggested by  the  Bull  of Canonization Sol Oriens. Louis’s  entry into  the  Order of Friars Minor, his  acceptance of appointment to the  episcopate, his choice to resign his episcopal post,  are some  of the  complex  factors that had  to be dealt with in the  course of the canonization process, and not everything about them has been transmitted by the  hagiographical texts that were  produced after the  inquisitio. Three writings containing such  hagiographical material are  examined in  this study: the  Vita  « Scripturus », the  Chronica XXIV Generalium Ordinis Minorum, and  the  De conformitate vitae  beati  Francisci ad vitam Domini Iesu.  These are  “exemplary” texts, in that each transmits an hagiographical model  of St.  Louis  that corresponds to a distinct context, in which  it was written and used.

D. Solvi, La più antica “legenda” di san Ludovico di Tolosa

The most  ancient “legenda” of saint Louis of Toulouse - After the  canonization of st.  Louis  of Toulouse in 1317,  the  Vita  attributed to John of Orta (inc. « Scripturus », BHL 5055) is currently considered as his first  legenda. Scholars believe also  that « Scripturus » was  one  of the sources of another less known and uncertainly dated Vita (inc. « Signum », BHL 50-56). A textual comparison between « Signum » and  « Scripturus » shows, on the  contrary, that the  latter was  a source of the  first, or that there was at least a common source of the two texts. Therefore, « Signum » can be dated between 1317 and 1319. Furthermore, there is strong textual evidence that « Signum » in  turn is  descended from  a  lost  Vita, whose prologue has  been  conserved also  in the  Vita  « Vergente » (BHL  5054ba). This lost document should rightly be considered as the oldest legenda of st. Louis of Toulouse.

M. Donnini, Una nuova redazione dell’Ante crucem virgo stabat nel cod. Asis. 563

A new drafting of the Ante crucem Virgo stabat in the Asis. 563 codex – The contribution edits a rewrittened and  shortened drafting of the  lyric poetry Ante crucem Virgo stabat, transmitted in the  MS. 563 Fondo   Antico   Comunale of  Assisi,   and   collates it with the   original version edited by Mone (1846) and  Sticca (1984).

Menestò - M. Bassetti, Ancora sul ms. 338 della Biblioteca Comunale di Assisi

This paper contributes, from both palaeographical and philo- logical point of view, to rethinking the moment and the circumstances in which some scattered Franciscan materials were transcribed as new copies, preserved as relics of the minoritical identity, and then joined together to become the manuscript nowadays known as Assisi 338

Maleczek, Vent'anni dopo. L'autenticità del Testamento di Chiara una questione chiusa?

After  two decades, the  question of authenticity of St Clare’s Testament is revisited and discussed in three steps: 1. The assumed genuine- ness  of the Pope  Innocent III’s  Privilegium paupertatis is  disproved by means of a diplomatic analysis of papal documents. It turns out  to be a gross forgery based on Pope Gregory IX’s genuine Privilegium paupertatis, issued in 1228,  September 17, and  the  same pope’s privilege for Clare’s community of S. Damiano from 1229, November 29, which was augmented by  interpolation. –  2.  The  close  examination of the   earliest surviving witness of the  Testament, the  codicetto   preserved in  the  Poor  Clares’ nunnery of Messina/Montevergine, which was published in 2000 by Attilio Bartoli Langeli and  has  been intensified now, applying the instruments of historical auxiliary sciences and  textual criticism, proves the  manuscript to be a collection of texts centered on St Clare’s  spirituality and  grouped around the  Rule  approved in  1252/54  and  the  Testament. The  Rule  is structured by chapter headings, which usually appear only in the late 15th century, and  it contains Innocent’s Privilegium paupertatis as  well.  – 3. Considerations of the reasons for and the date of this dossier’s composition lead   to  plausible  hypotheses which   are   supported by  letters of  Pope Clement IV, suggesting a time-frame between 1263  and  1266.  With  the compilation, the  Poor  Clares of Assisi  reacted to Pope  Urban IV’s Rule issued in 1263, which  totally neglected Clare’s  main concerns, i. e. radical poverty and  intense attachment to  St  Francis. The  compiler was  most probably Friar Leo, an early and well trusted companion of Francis

Gardoni, Giovanni Bono (+1249) santo mancato tra fonti agiografiche e carte d'archivio

Giovanni Bono’s case († 1249) is emblematic due to his missed holiness. Despite the process of canonization which began a few years after his death and  which  developed in two different periods, between 1251 and 1253-1254, his  holiness wasn’t recognised officially. The  reasons aren’t clear, but  plenty of hypothesis were  formulated. Some  researchers asked themselves whether  Giovanni Bono’s  life  before  the   conversion might influenced this missed holiness. The various witnesses which  were  involved explained the  pontifical representatives  the  reasons why  the  friar from Mantova became a reference point for even  more  believers thanks to his prodigies. But  nothing is  said   about his  social  origins. Instead,  these biographical data related to the period before his conversion are contained in the  work  Vitae,  which  gives  the  reader a more  complete description of Giovanni Bono. But this recreation seems to highlight some topoi. So, this work offers a solution to this discussion thanks to a document which  dates back  to 1230  and  which  indicates Giovanni Bono’s social  origins and  in particular, the name of his family.

Santi, Giovanni di Pian del Carpine, Salimbene di Adam e Pietro di Giovanni Olivi: tre tre francescani e tre immagini del papa nel secolo XIII

John of Plano Carpini (1190  ca.-1252), Salimbene of Parma (1221-post 1288) and Peter John Olivi (1247/1248-1296/1298) represent three successive generations of friars partly contemporary. John met Salimbene and Peter’s youth crossed Salimbene’s maturity. For all three the reference to Francis of Assisi  is decisive and  similarly decisive the  belif of a major historical role for the Order of Minors, to which they belong. In their writings the  image of the  Pope  changes in  important way  and  this change has relationship with the  meaning attributed to  the  figure of Francis, and together with decisive facts in the history of the contemporary papacy. The change is expressed in the different function than the three attribute to the Pope.  For  John, in  the  Historia Mongalorum, the  Pope  is  the  one  who seems destined to assume and  resolve all otherness: John looks towards a world that is widening. On the horizon of the Cronica of Salimbene (so rich in news  about the  Popes  of his  time), the  Pope  manifests himself as  the only universal power, after the fall of the ultimus imperator (Frederick II), and  in front of kings who still  move uncertain steps. In Peter (particularly in his Expositio super regulam fratrum Minorum) the universality of the Pope is conditioned by the  fact  that through his  legitimacy the  Friars Minor mark the definitive and complete form of the Christian conscience: his Pope is called to recognize and announce this Franciscan perfection, foretelling the figure of the angelic pope

Degl'Innocenti, Per uno studio del 'Lucidarium legendarum': note introduttive

This paper draws attention to the so-called Lucidarium legenda- rum, an  unpublished XIII-century hagiographic lexicon,  passed down  in four  manuscripts. This  text  was  written by a Franciscan author, whose aim was to explain and clarify a series of legends of saints, arranged according to the  calendar. In particular, the  paper focuses  on the  Florentine manus- cripts: the oldest, ms. Plut. 25 sin. 4 of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, is investigated in relation to the ms. Plut. 29 sin. 6 (both coming from the S. Croce  convent in Florence). A list  of the  legends and  of their incipit and explicit is provided. Moreover, some  basic  characteristics of Lucidarium are individuated, thus laying the foundations for a thorough analysis of its relation to Mammotrectus super  Bibliam by Marchesino da Reggio and  to other lexicons. Also, the  prologue of the  Lucidarium is published on the basis of the ms. Plut. 25 sin. 4.

Lu. Pellegrini, Verso la sponda orientale del Mediterraneo: i frati Minori in terra dalmata e bosniaca

The  contribution traces the  stages of the  penetration of the Friars Minor  in the  lands of the  eastern shore of the  Adriatic, both  in the coastal part (Dalmatia, Croatia, Montenegro), both  in the  western part of the   Balkans, particularly  in  Bosnia, starting  from   the   first sporadic passages, until the  construction of a settlement network and  the organization  of  a  plurality of  territorial  districts along   the   XIII-XIV centuries. At the  same time the  main protagonists of these operations are briefly presented. Particular  attention  was   paid   to  the   complex   and tormented story of the  genesis and  development of the  Osservanza in the lively context of the complicated history of those regions, particularly of the troubled story of Bosnia between the  14th and  15th centuries. Specific attention was given  to the  narration of the  vicissitudes of the  Osservanza in the chronicle of Fra Bernardino da Fossa.

G.G. Merlo, Monasteri e conventi come segni d'identità

The essay deals with the themes and problems concerning to the relationships between physiognomy of the settlements (mirror of identity) and characteristics of the Christian experiences of the Friars Minor, in the long-lasting period which  goes  from  the  XIIIth  to  the  XVth century.  The “Minoritism” of the Order imposes its preponderance through magnificent and  imposing convents and  churches, even  if the  constant and  conflicting reference to the  simplicity of the  Franciscanism of Saint Francis is not missing.

M.C. Rossi, Antonio di Padova, Ordini mendicanti e società locali nell'Italia dei secoli XIII-XV. Note di lettura e qualche riflessione

I have just reread Antonio Rigon’s book Antonio di Padova, Ordini mendicanti e società locali published in 2016 (Spoleto) in the series Saggi of the Società Internazionale di Studi francescani. The work contains a significant portion of Rigon’s scholarly writings about the Portuguese saint but   also  on  the   relationship  between Francisan  movement and   local situations, a relationship the author examines without ever losing sight of the  larger picture while  always keeping close to the  sources. Standing out among these sources are  notarial documents – especially wills  – but  also hagiographic sources and sermons. The work dwells on two topics that are particularly dear to  Antonio Rigon:  the   study of religious life  among women  in the late Middle Ages and a study of medieval animals which  the author reinterprets in the light of the biographies of Anthony of Padua and several iconographic sources.

MERLO, Ancora su Frate Elia

This paper presents the main sources concerning Brother Elias of Assisi, assessing them in the light of recent historiography. In particular, it discusses the relationship of trust between Elias and Clare of Assisi, aimed at fostering fidelity to the evangelical-pauperistic identity of monasticism inspired by the Community of Saint Damian. The negative opinion expressed in the Chronicle by the ‘cleric’ Salimbene de Adam on the generalate of the ‘lay’ Brother Elias is viewed in a historical perspective, and several documents which mention the presence of Elias are re-examined in order to evaluate his role more accurately.

FELSKAU, San Cosimato: Implementation and Consolidation of the Damianites/Poor Clares in 13th century Rome.

The Benedictine monastery of Sts. Cosmas and Damian in Rome – over time the name evolved in San Cosimato – was assigned to the Poor Clares in the 13th century. After a summary of the historiography of this institution, and a description of the Trastevere area and the location of the monastery in the early 1200s, this essay focuses on the house’s period of transition. The monastery had been given to the Camaldolese monks before being turned over to the Poor Clares, and particular attention is paid to its economic  development under the old management and the new one. In the conclusion, the author raises the issue of determining the roles of the various ecclesiastic and lay holders of office who perfected this process of implementation and consolidation.

BOLOGNARI, Per l’edizione dello Stimulus amoris

This article provides new insight into James of Milan’s Stimulus amoris, particularly its manuscript tradition. The main purpose is to deconstruct the non-critical Frati di Quaracchi edition published in 1905, as well as the canonical tripartite division of the text followed by most of the manuscripts. To this end, it was necessary to analyze the manuscript versions of the Stimulus amoris, especially the codex kept in the Medici Laurentian Library in Florence (Bibl. Medicea Laurenziana, Plut. 19 dex. 10) on which the 1905 edition was based. The results of this research are presented in this, essay, which also addresses the methodological issue of how to produce a truly critical edition of a work of which more than five hundred manuscript versions are known to exist.

PAOLI, A proposito di una epitome in volgare del Liber di Angela da Foligno

The analysis of the manuscript and printed versions of a widely epitomized late-14th-century vernacular translation of Angela da Foligno’s Liber shows both the genealogical relationships among them and the frequent use of textual retouches that prove the existence of interesting contiguities with Iacopone da Todi’s Laude.

SANCRICCA, Il processo di regolarizzazione dei “Pauperes eremitae domini Coelestini”

SUMMARY: Following the resignation of Pope Celestine V and the subsequent election of Boniface VIII to the papal throne, the Poor Hermits found themselves without any kind of legal coverage, and in 1317 they were abolished by Pope John XXII with the decretal Sancta Romana. However, since the earliest years of Boniface’s pontificate the surviving fraternities had already gone through a new regulatory process that ended with the establishment of the Rule of the Third Order of St. Francis, promoted by the bishops of central Italy and perfected in 1391 by Pope Boniface IX with the Apostolic privilege Decet Sanctam, which enabled the Poor Hermits to live in diocesan environments as regulariter viventes. Therefore, this pardon was not a starting point for Angelo Clareno’s Societas, but an intermediate stage of a juridical-institutional journey which lasted half a century and led to the centralization of the Poor Hermits in 1473 and their full reentry in the Order of Friars Minor as a Reformed family of Conventual obedience in 1484. Boniface IX formalized a procedure used by the bishops of central Italy during the years of the Avignon captivity, whereby they conferred their powers and the visitator’s tasks (established by the Rule approved by Pope Nicholas IV) to the ministers elected by the diocesan fraternities. This modus operandi was used again by Boniface IX to regulate the common-life Penitents of the dioceses of Utrecht, Mainz and Magdeburg, and later by Eugene IV and Nicholas V to centralize the national congregations of penitents established in the 15th century in Flanders, Spain, Italy and Dalmatia. All the regulations concerning Penitents that observed the common life were granted in derogation from the Sancta Romana decretal, which remained nonetheless valid.

NAPIONE - MONETTI, I frati “costruttori”: fra Giovanni degli Eremitani.

The  Augustinian Hermit Fra Giovanni was  one of the  most eminent protagonists of the  architectural culture of Padua between the 13th and 14th centuries. The authors of this article reconstruct Fra Giovanni’s story drawing upon  multiple sources, including hitherto unpublished documents such as the Chapter of his convent, where in 1283 he was listed as the magister de manaria. They analyze the undertakings of frater Iohannes the henzegnerius, from bridge building and water management in the area between Badia Polesine and  Treviso, to the  rebuilding of Padua’s market squares. They also re-examine Fra Giovanni’s role, as reported by a 16th- century chronicler known as the  pseudo-Ongarello, in designing the  new roof, shaped like an upside-down hull, of Padua’s Palazzo della Ragione (1306-1307). Based on contemporary sources, the authors suggest that his responsi- bilities were shared with the Friars Minor  of the Basilica of St. Anthony of Padua.

DONNINI, Il De orthographia di fra  Nicolò da  Montegallo

De  orthographia, published  for  the   first time in  this paper, is one of the  many grammar essays that Franciscan humanist Nicolò da Montegallo (or Montanus, as he styled himself) wrote at the request of his  brethren, who  needed short and  easy  to  use literary manuals. (Written before 1453, these works circulated only in manuscript form  and  to date are  still  unpublished.) It contains excerpts from  the works of Priscian, plus  of a list  of words  drawn mostly from  Papias’s dictionary and  to a lesser extent from Priscian and  Festus; two words are drawn from Nonius and two from Hugh of Pisa.

DOMPNIER, Il libro  tra i frati, i libri  dei frati.*

* Il presente contributo è stato concepito come  discorso conclusivo al  XLVI Convegno internazionale  Libri e biblioteche: le letture dei  frati  mendicanti tra Rinascimento ed età  moderna, organizzato dalla Società internazionale di studi francescani e celebrato ad Assisi  dal  18 al  20 ottobre 2018.  Per  ragioni tecniche non  è stato inserito nel  volume contenente gli atti dello  stesso Convegno.

This  paper, which  was  written as a concluding contribution for the  conference organized in October 2018 by the  International Society for Franciscan Studies, lists studies on the friars’  readings and libraries at the beginning of the modern era. The innovations introduced by the invention of the   printing press –  such   as  the   increase in  the   number of books available in convents and the establishment of rules for their preservation, use  and  consultation – are  emphasized. Analysis of the  data collected by the Congregation of the Index at the end of the 16th century makes it possible to highlight the  features shared by the  libraries of the various orders on the  one hand, and  the  specific  elements in the  book collections assembled by each on the order. In the wake of recent research, this essay also focuses on the reading styles and specific behaviors of some groups (e.g., preachers and  students), as well as on the  relationships which  lay brothers, most  of whom were illiterate, maintained with written culture.

Li, Francis of Assisi  and  Franciscans in the  Vita  Gregorii  IX

This  article explores the  roles  of Francis and  his  orders as recounted in the Vita Gregorii, which contains elements that do not appear in other curial and  Franciscan accounts. First, the essay focuses  on the close relationship Gregory’s biographer may  have had  with the Franciscans. It then discusses how and why the biographer exaggerated the role Cardinal Hugolino (the  future Pope  Gregory IX) played in the  development of the Franciscan order, and  demonstrates that Gregory was  shown as  a doppel- gänger  of Francis of Assisi  in order to legitimize the  pope’s actions. It also helps understand Gregory’s affection for Francis, tracing their relationship back to when they  first met,  as well as the  conflict  between the  pope and the Emperor Frederick II in 1239, the year Vita Gregorii was written.

LUNGHI, Tra  Gregorio IX, Federico II e Giovanni di Brienne: la chiesa di San  Francesco in Assisi.

Though  few in number compared  with the rich fresco decoration, the  sculptures in  the  basilica of St.  Francis in  Assisi  have considerable heraldic significance, representing the  great political powers – pope  and   emperor –  involved in  the   construction of this magnificent building. The eagles on the  façade of the  Upper Church evoke the  coat of arms of pope Gregory IX, who founded the church in 1228. The two heads outside the   large south window   date from   the   time the   body  of  St. Elizabeth of Hungary was translated (1236);  the  crowned head portrays the  emperor Frederick II  of Swabia, the  other one  the  Order’s Minister General Elias. The funerary monument in the  narthex of the  entrance to the  Lower  Church contains the  remains of John of Brienne, Emperor of Constantinople and  King  of Jerusalem, and  dates from  the  fall  of Acre (1291), during the pontificate of Nicholas IV.

BIANCHI, La Finalis conclusio di Tommaso da  Celano. Motivi  e modelli classici nell’epilogo del Tractatus de miraculis.

This essay focuses on Thomas of Celano, Francis’s first biographer and  the  Order’s official historian, his considerable ability as a writer and  his extensive knowledge of the  classical and  medieval literary tradition. The  analysis of the  Finalis conclusio, the  brief and  elaborate epilogue to his Tractatus de miraculis, reveals a dense and complex intertex- tuality: Thomas used  motifs and  words drawn from  Julianus Pomerius’ treatise De  vita  contemplativa (which circulated  widely  in  the  Middle Ages), from St. Jerome’s prologues to the books of the Bible, and even from Horace’s  first epistle. This  reuse of themes and  words make it possible to shed more light on the Finalis conclusio and on its significance in Thomas’s personal life and the entire corpus of his hagiographic writings.

LERNER, Recapitulation or chronological progression? David  Burr treats medieval commentaries on the  Book of Revelation.

SUMMARY: This article reviews David Burr’s major study, The Book of Revelation (2019). Burr surveys Revelation commentaries written between the later twelfth century and the early fourteenth century. The commentaries fall  into   two  groups: those that interpret  the   sense of  Revelation as exposing the  history of the  Church by means of “recapitulation” and  those that interpret it by means of “linear progression”. The first method entailed reading St. John’s several visions as telling roughly the  same story over and over again, the  second entailed reading the  visions continuously as applying to historical events.

BRUFANI, Lo pastor ... posto  m’ha  for de l’ovile. Iacopone da Todi e Bonifacio.

Jacopone da Todi’s Laude LIV-LVII reflect his dramatic relationship with pope Boniface VIII, who excommunicated and  imprisoned him for his support of the  “rebel” cardinals, the Colonnas. In these poems, meant to  advertise his  plight, Jacopone wrote fierce invectives against Boniface, and at the same time appealed to him as pope to be readmitted to the  communion of the  Church and to life in the  Franciscan Order. This essay examines  Jacopone’s position in  light of  Pierre de  Jean Olivi’s ecclesiology and  explains his “ambiguity” in making a distinction between Boniface the man and Boniface the pope.

FALVAY, Le Meditazioni sulla vita  di Cristo nel contesto del minoritismo del primo Trecento. Un  contributo al dibattito.

This essay investigates some aspects of Minorite culture in the early fourteenth century as a direct context for the well-known devotional work  titled Meditationes Vitae  Christi; it also  contributes to an  ongoing debate with Sarah McNamer about which  is the original version of the text, what language it was written in and who was its author. The main case studies analyzed here are  the Revelations of the Virgin Mary, one of the sources specifically cited  in the  Meditationes; the  writings of Jacopone da Todi, as a possible parallel to the  person suggested here as author of the text; and those of Angela of Foligno, who was recently mentioned as both a direct source and  a textual parallel. As regards parallels, the  conclusion reached in this paper is that both Jacopone and Angela can be interpreted as  close parallels, but  that their textual links with the  Meditationes are rather indirect. As regards the debate, after reconsidering many recent arguments and  counterarguments, the  conclusion is once again that the original version of the  text  is probably the  long one in Latin, and  that it was most likely written by Giacomo da San Gimignano.

SOLVI, Il papa dei fraticelli.

According to the traditional historiography on the heretical movement of the  Fraticelli, heirs of the  Spiritual Franciscans and condemned by pope John XXII in 1317,  the  “Little Bethren” elected their own popes and  were  organized in an autonomous church. However, based on an increased awareness of the  distortions present in the  heresiological sources, some  doubts have been recently raised about this, though the issue has  been  left  unresolved. This  article reviews the  entire corpus of historical accounts – both internal and external to the movement, in Latin or in the vernacular – on the Fraticelli’s pope. Critical analysis of the sources shows that the Fraticelli elected their own Minister General, called “pastor” or “maggiore.” This  person was not considered to be an actual pope, but  was entrusted with guiding his flock until the time when a pope would arrive to renew the Church of Rome in depth.

GRECO, Viaggiatori mendicanti nelle opere di Galvano Fiamma.

This paper examines how the Dominican friar Galvaneus de la Flamma used  Franciscan geographic sources in his Cronica universalis and  his  Cronicon maius. The  Cronica (ca. 1340),  which  was  recently redis- covered thanks to the  finding of its  only extant manuscript (dating from late fourteenth century), contains a long  geographical digression which, besides traditional bibliographic references, features the travel accounts of John of Pian del Carpine and  of Odoric of Pordenone, the letters of John of Montecorvino and  still  unpublished passages that Galvanus attributes to an unknown frater Symon predicator. The Appendix to the article contains a transcription of the section of the Cronicon maius devoted to the Mongols (ms. Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, A 275 inf., ff. 197ra-198rb), consisting of passages taken from the  works of John of Pian del Carpine and  Hayton of Corycus.

S. Brufani, I verba Domini e la sintassi di frate Francesco. Con l’esempio di EpFid II, 47-53

SUMMARY: In his Lauds and prayers, Francis of Assisi used God’s Word to praise Him, using very few words of his own. In his Rules and exhortations, and in his letters, Francis used a syntax all his own, free from hagiographic tradition, selecting and rearranging quotes  from the Bible, putting them in relation to each other; he made them interact with his own words until their meaning and value merged into a coherent and innovative evangelical sequela. One of the sources that characterize the Minorite-Franciscan Christian proposal can be found in 1 Peter:2. Another is John’s Gospel, that inspired the mystic-trinitarian sentiment with which, in his Epistola ad fideles, Francis invited the faithful to experience God personally, as all Christians may do by becoming “habitaculum et mansionem” of the Holy Spirit (Jn 14:23).

M. F. Cusato, The Enigma of Brother Illuminato

SUMMARY: Bonaventure (LM IX/8) identifies the friar who accompanied Francis into the presence of al-Malik al-Kamil in 1219 as Brother Illuminato. Consonant with recent scholarship on this Encounter and of the Poverello's radical vision of relations with all members of the human fraternity (including Muslims), it is natural to assume that Illuminato would have shared a similar vision. This rapport is strengthened by his invitation to accompany Francis to La Verna in 1224. However, two stories collected under the title of Verba fratris Illuminati tells a very different story whereby the two men exhibited an antagonistic posture before the Sultan. What is the relationship between these two contrasting images? This article addresses this enigma by fixing their approximate date, historical setting and, ultimately, propagandistic purpose in carrying forward the Franciscan mission in the Levant in the decades following the fall of Acre in 1291.

A. D’Amico, F. De Dominicis, M. Ravaioli, P. Filippini, L’ Eulogium de notitia verorum et pseudo apostolorum di Arnau de Vilanova. Esame della tradizione, dei dati storici sullo scriptorium arnaldiano e edizione critica

SUMMARY: This article presents the first ever critical edition of Arnau de Vilanova’s Eulogium. It is based on the entire manuscript tradition of this work, i.e., four witnesses, one of which is the Vat. Lat. 3284, considered optimus for its proximity to de Vilanova himself. Particular attention is given to an indirect witness (Sankt-Peterburg, Rossijskaja Nacional’naja Biblioteka gr. 113), written in Greek with glosses in Latin, which is of great help to reconstruct the original text and to clarify the mechanisms by which copies of this work were made. A critically sound text is provided, together with the apparatus of sources and loci paralleli. The methodological issues involved in the stemmatic reconstruction of texts of which multiple copies were produced at the same time, probably under the author’s supervision, are described; the historical data available on Arnau’s scriptorium are also examined.

Robert E. Lerner, Prophet and Pope: John of Rupescissa confronts Pope Clement VI 

SUMMARY: This article considers a dramatic episode in the career of the fourteenth-century French Franciscan eschatological prophet, John of Rupescissa (c.1310-c.1370). It is based centrally on an unstudied contemporary document. On 2 October 1349 Rupescissa confronted the profligate reigning pope, Clement VI, directly to his face in Avignon, inveighing against the pope’s abuses and the debased state of the Church. The article examines the incident against the backdrop of “pestilences, famines, and earthquakes” that then were afflicting Christendom This combination of disasters made it appear that Rupescissa’s prophecies about the imminent last days of the world were very true.

T. Danelli, La geopolitica dell’antipapa Niccolò V attraverso il suo registro di cancelleria

SUMMARY: A study of the chancery documents of the antipope Nicholas V, conveyed for the most part through the unpublished Reg. Vat. 118 of the Vatican Apostolic Archive, cannot forgo consideration of the nature and quantity of the surviving documents. That the extant licterae gratie and executoriae − which date from May 18, 1328, to March 22, 1329 – were grouped according to diocese allows to make some initial considerations about the secular and religious support provided to the antipope and his local representatives. This paper examines the cases of Rome, Viterbo, Milan, Todi, and of the whole Ligurian region, taking into account the peculiarities that characterize each of these areas.

M. Campopiano, Refert Iosephus: i Francescani del Monte Sion e l’assedio di Gerusalemme del 70 d.C. (secc. XIV-XVI)

SUMMARY: The siege and conquest of Jerusalem by Titus in 70 AD left a deep mark on Christendom’s shared memory. These events also played a fundamental role in how the history of the Holy Land was represented in the late Middle Ages. This paper studies how the conquest of the Holy City has been represented, with particular reference to the historical and geographical writings of the Friars Minor of Jerusalem, showing the assonances between these works and various voices of Minorite historical, theological and exegetic thought. Reflection on the events of 70 AD was also linked to the Friar Minors’ understanding of their position in the Holy Land, hence it played a key role in their historiography.

D. Solvi, Sulle tracce di un originale scomparso: il Fasciculus chronicarum di Mariano da Firenze  - G. Buffon, Francesco d’Assisi e il creato. Mappe degli interpreti e pertinenza ermeneutica

SUMMARY: In his now-lost Chronicles, Fra Mariano of Florence (1477?-1523) organized about three hundred years of history of the Friars Minor into a chronological grid and an overall interpretative model. For centuries this work was the most authoritative collection of early accounts about the Order. This paper reconstructs, insofar as is possible, the original codicological, philological and literary features of this work by analyzing the reports of subsequent scholars − from the Minorite chroniclers such as Mark of Lisbon and Luke Wadding to the Bollandists, and beyond – who had consulted Mariano’s own working copy (which was originally in Florence, then transferred to St. Isidore’s College in Rome). It also provides an overview of the various phases and reasons for interest in this text until it went missing at the beginning of the 19th century.

S. Chessa, Dante e la contemplazione di Chiara

SUMMARY: This essay examines both the figure and figurality of Clare of Assisi in Dante’s Paradiso, and documents the structuring function of the interpretatio nominis in the canticle and in Clare’s hagiographic tradition. In particular, it highlights the centrality of Clare’s canonization bull Clara claris praeclara meritis and the account of her life written by Mariano of Florence, a protagonist in the history of Minorite spirituality. In this paper, the elements that differentiate Clare’s hagiography from Francis’s that are relevant in Dante, the lexicographic scrutiny, the formal facts, and the verification of the scriptural sources, all contribute to identify the model of perfection represented by Clare, she who is an exemplum most high, both in the lower heavens and “higher up.”

D. Sini, « Isti sunt qui viderunt stigmata beati Francisci ». I cives assisiati testimoni delle stigmate di san Francesco

SUMMARY: Considering the literature and the increased number of published documents that have become available in the last century, this essay re-examines the list of witnesses that testified to the presence of stigmata on St. Francis’s body (Assisi, Archivio storico della Basilica di San Francesco e del Sacro Convento, Istrumenti, XV, 1), outlining their biographical and prosopographical profiles and suggesting several hypotheses about when and in which context the list was produced.

A. Alessandri, La Vitis mystica: un esempio di autorialità francescana diffusa

SUMMARY: The authors of early Franciscan writings often did not sign their works. This practice was so widespread that it deserves to be studied in depth. While a census of anonymous sources is not possible at the present state of this research, the unsigned longer version of the Vitis Mystica, with its literary consistency and unusually widespread
dissemination, can provide a first picture of the situation. In this essay, several portions of the anonymous text are analyzed and compared with the corresponding ones of the original shorter version, written by St. Bonaventure. What emerges is the unknown author’s emotional involvement in his reworking of the earlier text, and his intention
to highlight the subjects he thought were the most important and moving ones.

F. Carta, « Preceptum est ». La Brevis Expositio Regule e la disputa tra “Spirituali” e “Comunità” (1310-1312)

SUMMARY: This  essay shows the importance of the Brevis Expositio Regule as  a source for the study of the dispute between Spiritual and Conventual Friars Minor held  at the court of Pope  Clement V between 1310 and  1312, and offers new considerations about the date, context of production and  author of this text, and  on its fortune in the 14th and  15th centuries. In particular, it considers the links of this work with the writ- ings  of Ubertino da Casale, and  concludes that it was written by a Spiri- tual friar, probably between July or August, 1311,  and  May  6th, 1312. Lastly, this article notes how the text does not expound on the Rule’s pre- scriptions but simply indicates whether they are mandatory or not, i.e., whether they are precepts or advice.

E. Fontana, Frati Minori e Clarisse a Cividale del Friuli nel Trecento

SUMMARY: The  convent at Cividale – the first settlement that the Friars Minor established in  the Friuli area, in  northeastern Italy – played a  key  role in  the Custody of the region throughout the 13th century. It lost its preeminent position in the 14th century, but continued to be  an  important point of reference in  the network of Franciscan settlements. Drawing in  part on hereto unpublished documents, this paper examines the history of the two Cividale convents – the one of the Friars Minor and  the one  of the Poor Clares – in  the 14th century, highlighting the web of relationships that they maintained with each other, with the city and  with the other Franciscan convents. Of particular interest are their connections with the immigrant families (mostly from Tuscany) that were present in Cividale in the late Middle Ages.

G. Di Bella, Accenni sulla presenza di frati Minori spirituali in Estremo Oriente durante il XIV secolo. La vicenda di Arnaldo Montaner tra Regno di Aragona e Khānato del Kipčak

SUMMARY: The subject of this paper is Arnaldo Montaner, a Minorite deemed to be a heretic because of his sympathy for the pauperistic and rigorist views  upheld by Spiritual Franciscanism. In  1354,  due  to the accusations brought against him by the inquisitor Niccolò Rosselli, Mon- taner fled to the Kipchak Khanate, where he continued his preaching in the convents of the Vicaria Tartariae Aquilonaris. This  essay aims to highlight the reasons that  drove Arnaldo to choose  Tartary as  his refuge, as well as the reaction of the ecclesiastical authorities and  the inquisitors; the most important sources for this investigation are Pope Gregory XI’s Dudum per Dilectum and  Nicholas Eymerich’s Directorium Inquisitorum.

G. S. Saiani, La memoria di Francesco nei manoscritti dei Minori tra XIV e XV secolo

SUMMARY: Starting from a consideration on the relationship between memory and  legacy  of Francis of Assisi, this paper offers a  reasoned overview of the 14th- and  15th-century manuscripts that transmitted – in the form of compilations and  miscellaneous anthologies – Francis’s writings, which had  soon been  put in connection with the hagiographic and  biographic works (both signed and  unsigned) written about him. The analysis of a number of these compendia, and  of the rationale underlying the selection and  treatment of the texts they contained, makes it possible to bring them to the fore as qualifying products of the Minorite culture of that period and  at the same time bring the focus back  on these valuable material sources, which are of primary importance when trying to piece together the fragments of Francis’s identity and  original fraternitas.

R. Rusconi, Disiecta membra. Una lista di titoli dei libri posseduti dai Frati Minori della Regolare Osservanza della Provincia di S. Angelo alla fine secolo XVI.

SUMMARY: The  Reginense latino 2099  codex  contains a list of the books owned  by the Friars Minor of the Observance of the Sant’Angelo Province at the end  of the 16th century. Upon  Pope  Clement VIII’s is- suing of an updated Index librorum proibitorum, in 1596,  the Sacred Congregation of the Index of Forbidden Books in Rome required all the male regular orders located in  the Italian peninsula to send a “note” listing all  the books  in their possession, whether in their libraries or owned  by individual friars, in order to detect any  books  that were pro- hibited, suspect or to be corrected. The  list in question was  originally part of the series of documents kept in the archive of the Holy Office; it was  transferred to the Latin manuscript fond of the Vatican Apostolic Library in the early 20th century.

M. Ferrari, Ezio Franceschini e le Fonti Francescane (1977): la nascita di un’opera nuova.

SUMMARY: For decades Ezio Franceschini (1906-1983), a professor at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart and eventually its dean, was  the “older brother” of the Franciscan-inspired Secular Institute of the Missionaries of the Kingship of Christ founded by Father Agostino Gemelli. Franceschini was the head of the group of scholars that edited and  published the first edition of the Franciscan Sources in  Italian (Assisi,  1977).   This   paper  examines his  personal  contribution  in deciding how the work was  to be structured, especially as  regards the inclusion of all the biographies of Francis written before 1266,  as well as of the biographies of Clare of Assisi  and  her writings.

S. Brufani, Il Natale di frate Francesco e il presipio di Greccio

SUMMARY: This paper analyzes the story of the Christmas that Francis of Assisi celebrated in Greccio in 1223, as recounted by Tommaso da Celano in his Vita beati Francisci (§ 84-87). His echoing the words of the Regula non bullata (1, 1), with their reference to the sequela Christi (1Petr 2, 21), makes it possible to compare Celano’s narrative with other writings by Francis where his solicitation to the sequela is inspired by Peter the Apostle. They include, in particular, the psalm for Christmas contained in Francis’ Officium Passionis (XV), and his Epistola ad fideles II (vv. 47-53), in which he affirmed that those who do penance can become mater of Christ. In the Greccio Christmas, the “incarnationis humilitas et charitas passionis” constitute the Christological foundation of the renewed sequela Christi that animated Francis’s strong desire to “ad humilitatis reverti primordia” from 1223 to 1226, after the Regula bullata was approved.

W. Maleczek, Ein unbeachtetes Abbild Gregors IX. auf dessen Privileg für die Minoriten Is qui ecclesiam suam vom 22. April 1230 (Assisi, Archiv des Sacro Convento)

SUMMARY: The solemn privilege Is qui ecclesiam suam, granted by Gregory IX on April 22, 1230, stands out among the many papal documents kept in the archive of the Sacred Convent of Assisi. The initial of the pope‘s name is unique; it shows a hitherto unknown image of Gregory, as is confirmed by a comparison of this privilege with other forty-six granted by him. A detailed analysis of the privilege itself – the critical edition of which (by the author of this essay) is provided in the appendix – highlights two elements: on the one hand, the preeminent position given to the church where St. Francis was buried, which was granted the honorific title of caput et mater (the same as the Lateran Basilica); on the other, the evident attempt to firmly tie the Minorite Order to the papacy.

J. Dalarun, La Lettera da Greccio e la Leggenda cosiddetta dei tre compagni

SUMMARY: To mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Théophile Desbonnets (b. 1923), this essay resumes, as if in conversation with the French scholar, his study of the key points that he had resolved or identified in the so-called Legend by the Three Companions: the date and sources of the text, its completeness or incompleteness, the identity
of its author, and its relationship with the “Letter from Greccio.” The apparent contradiction between the words “per modum legende non scribimus” contained in the Letter and the Legend that comes next is resolved when we realize that certain parts of the Letter do not actually refer to the entire textual “package” that follows but only to some portions of it.

M. J. P. Robson, Thomas of Eccleston, a voice of restraint and renewal

SUMMARY: Thomas of Eccleston extolled the virtues of the first generation of Friars Minor that settled in England, emphasizing their qualities and pastoral zeal, which explained the geographical expansion of the Order in that country. This essay explores his curriculum vitae, the recruitment of friars, their witness to evangelical poverty, the debates on the features Franciscan friaries and churches should have, and the role of the fratres laici. Thomas combined a progressive view on the ordination of friars with the ministry of preaching. He advised the friars to avoid the perils and temptations associated with the schools, and forged a new role for the lay brothers in the aftermath of
the deposition of Elias of Cortona.

C. Zacchetti, La manuductio nella tradizione dionisiano-vittorino-francescana

SUMMARY: The concept of manuductio catalyzes the per visibilia ad invisibilia dynamics accepted by Christian  cholasticism throughout the Middle Ages as the most important legacy of Dionysian thought. Before becoming a technical term used by humanistic thinkers, this concept underwent a semantic evolution that united Pseudo-Dionysius, the School of Saint-Victor and Franciscan Spirituality into a single tradition. Hugh of St. Victor highlighted the term manuductio in his commentary on De caelesti hierarchia, while his student Richard of St. Victor commingled it with the two adjacent notions, anagoge and the emanationistic process per visibilia ad invisibilia. Bonaventure, who
espoused the full scope of Hugh’s theologia symbolica, made manuductio – which he paired with reductio – a key  concept of his doctrine of exemplarism.

A. Salvestrini, Bellezza minore, da frate Francesco a Bonaventura da Bagnoregio

SUMMARY: This essay analyzes the idea of beauty as it appears in writings of the Franciscan milieu, from Francis of Assisi to Bonaventure of Bagnoregio. The aim is to verify whether there may be common traits and directions that contribute to the construction of a concept of minor beauty. To this end, bearing in mind the stratification of philosophical, rhetorical and mathematical-musical traditions, particular attention is given to the lexical and conceptual variations of beauty regarding three themes dear to the Friars Minor: stigmata, poverty, and creatures. Thus, the humble aspects of creation, the choice of a life of poverty, and the marks of Christ impressed upon a suffering body animated by intense spiritual love, circumscribe an idea of beauty that is often material, perceived in its harmonious relationships and capable of conveying one to the sublime heavenly regions.

E. Barale, La traduction française des Revelationes Beatae Elisabeth et son passage à l’imprimé

SUMMARY: This paper analyzes the first French translation of the spiritual treatise Revelationes Beatae Elisabeth, which had been written by an unknown author belonging to the Italian Franciscan milieu (late 13th-early 14th  century). After reviewing the manuscript tradition of the French text and putting forward a number of hypotheses about its sources and main translation techniques, the essay scrutinizes its printed tradition. The analysis of its structural adaptations and paratexts makes it possible to reconstruct two distinct editorial projects: the Lyon publication, whose editio princeps was printed by Topié and Heremberck between 1490 and 1494, and the Paris edition, a “pièce gothique” published by Trepperel in 1506.

G. S. Saiani, Riconsiderare la tradizione manoscritta dell’Arbor vite crucifixe Iesu di Ubertino da Casale

SUMMARY: This paper proposes a new comprehensive analysis – including paleographic and codicological aspects – of the thirty-eight witnesses that transmit Ubertino da Casale’s Arbor vite crucifixe Iesu in non fragmentary form, hence constituting its Latin manuscript tradition. Distributed along at least three main routes – Italic, Rhenish-Brabantian and Pyrenean-Iberian – this tradition now has new coordinates as regards dates and places where the codices were written. Except for those cases where it was lacking altogether, this kind of information had been gleaned from descriptions in repertories that are now superseded. Moreover, it has been possible to reconstruct the aspect and function of many of these codices, as well as the paths by which they were transmitted.

M. Bartoli, Quando Francesco d’Assisi divenne il primo poeta della letteratura italiana?

SUMMARY: Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of Brother Sun and Sister Moon, or Canticle of the Creatures, which he  composed in the first months of 1225, is unanimously held to be the poetic text that marked the beginning of Italian literature written in the vernacular “si” language (i.e., Italian). To be more precise, this is oldest poetic text in
Italian whose author is known; hence, Francis is the first poet in Italian literature. However, such acknowledgment is relatively recent, as it was affirmed definitively only in 1950, when Vittore Branca published the first critical edition of Francis’ Canticle. This essay explores the premises of Branca’s edition, that is, how views held by literary criticism
in Italy, and in Europe in general, vis-à-vis the Canticle evolved over the course of the 19th century. The aim is to identify the various paths that eventually led to the full appreciation of the Canticle’s poetic value and to the recognition of the saint of Assisi as a true poet.

In Rete. Archivio Paul Sabatier (Urbino) e Archivio della Società internazionale di Studi francescani (Assisi)

SUMMARY: Thanks to a project developed by the International Society for Franciscan Studies (SISF) and carried out between 2019 and 2022 in collaboration with the University of Urbino and the Romolo Murri Foundation, the personal archive of Paul Sabatier (who modernized and revitalized Franciscan studies) and the archive of the SISF he founded in 1902 have been digitized and are now available online. It is now possible to directly access documents written by the protagonists of Modernism, as well as documents that open up farreaching avenues of interconfessional and international research on Franciscan subjects.

P. Stoppacci, La Forma vite di Chiara d'Assisi nei monasteri di San Francesco a Praga e di Santa Chiara a Breslavia

SUMMARY: Agnes of Bohemia – renowned for, among other things, her correspondence with Clare of Assisi – played a major role in the spread of female Franciscanism across northern Europe. According to local hagiographic sources, Agnes and the Damianites of St. Francis in Prague professed Clare’s Forma vite. This article examines the manuscript tradition of Clare’s Rule and several documents from Prague in order to ascertain the grounds for this assertion and, if they are valid, to find the evidence to support it. The proposition advanced here is that Agnes may have indeed received a copy of the Forma vite from Clare herself; in 1260 she obtained approval to follow it from pope Alexander IV. In 1262, Agnes’s sister Anne, Duchess of Silesia, was granted a similar authorization for the monastery of St Clare she had founded in Wrocław.

Agnese di Boemia, celebre per il carteggio intercorso con Chiara d’Assisi, ha svolto un ruolo determinante nella diffusione del Minoritismo femminile nell’Europa del Nord.  Secondo le fonti agiografiche locali, Agnese e le damianite di San Francesco a Praga avrebbero professato la Forma vite di Chiara. L’articolo prende in esame la tradizione manoscritta della regola clariana e alcuni documenti praghesi allo scopo di verificare la fondatezza di questa notizia e di rinvenire prove a suo sostegno. L’ipotesi che qui si avanza è che Agnese possa aver effettivamente ricevuto copia della Forma vite da Chiara stessa, ottenendo nel 1260 l’approvazione di papa Alessandro IV. Analoga concessione ricevette nel 1262 Anna di Slesia, sorella di Agnese, per il monastero di Santa Chiara a Breslavia.     

F. De Dominicis, Il «De vita et passione Christi»: una meditazione in versi sulla vita di Cristo attribuita ad Anselmo di Canterbury

SUMMARY: This article presents the critical edition of De vita et passione Christi, a meditation in verse on the life of Christ, variously attributed to Anselm of Canterbury, Anselm of Lucca, Alexander Neckam, Bonaventure, and Bernard. A brief introduction analyzes the contents and structure of the work, highlighting its debt to Passion literature, and, based on internal and external elements, suggests that it was composed in the 13th century. The study examines in detail both the manuscript and the printed tradition of the work – twenty-two manuscripts and three editions are examined here – in order to comprehend the relationships among the various witnesses and reconstruct the original text, the critical edition of which is provided.

L'articolo presenta l'edizione critica del De vita et passione Christi, una meditazione in versi sulla vita di Cristo, variamente attribuita ad Anselmo di Canterbury, Anselmo di Lucca, Alessandro Neckam, Bonaventura e Bernardo. Una breve introduzione analizza i contenuti e la struttura dell'opera, evidenziando il suo debito nei confronti della letteratura sulla Passione, e propone una datazione al XIII secolo basata su elementi interni ed esterni. Lo studio esamina dettagliatamente la tradizione manoscritta e a stampa, analizzando ventidue manoscritti e tre edizioni, per comprendere i rapporti tra i vari testimoni e ricostruire il testo, di cui si offre l'edizione critica.

E. Paoli, Legende sanctorum abreviate. Un leggendario francescano degli inizi del XIV secolo

SUMMARY: The Legende sanctorum abreviate (written in 1314) attest to the use that the friars minor made of abbreviationes in their preaching, a connection hitherto known only through Juan Gil de Zamora’s Legende sanctorum. An examination of their sources shows that practically all the chapters derive almost entirely – even word by word – from the Legenda aurea, while the ones that concern the Franciscan saints ‒ Anthony, Clare, Francis and Elizabeth – are summarized versions of, respectively, the Vita secunda of Anthony, the Vita sanctae Clariae virginis, Bonaventure’s Legenda maior, and the lessons from the Office of Saint Elizabeth. For the most part, the compiler of the 14th-century work disassembled the sources’ original texts and endeavored to rearrange them by subject, each topic numbered and highlighted graphically with paragraph marks and underlines. His purpose was to adapt the hagiographic legends to fit the structure of the sermo modernus.

Le Legende sanctorum abreviate (1314) costituiscono una testimonianza del rapporto stretto dai frati minori tra predicazione e abbreviationes, finora noto solo attraverso le Legende sanctorum di Juan Gil de Zamora. Dall’esame delle fonti risulta quasi tutti i capitoli dipendono prssoché  interamente, anche ad verbum, dalla Legenda aurea, mentre quelli relativi ai santi francescani (Antonio, Chiara, Francesco ed Elisabetta) sono riassunti della Vita secunda di Antonio, della Vita sanctae Clariae virginis, della Legenda maior di Bonaventura e delle lezioni dell’Ufficio di s. Elisabetta. In genere il compilatore scompone il testo della fonte e cerca di riorganizzarlo per argomenti, numerati ed evidenziati graficamente mediante segni di paragrafo e sottolineature. Suo obiettivo è quello di adattare la leggenda agiografica alla struttura del sermo modernus.

A. Pelegrinelli, I manoscritti dello Specchio dell'Ordine Minore (Franceschina): connettere libri, connettere comunità

SUMMARY: The compendium Specchio dell’Ordine Minore (also known as Franceschina) was written in the late 15th century by Iacopo Oddi; his purpose was to redact a universal account of Franciscan history and its saints, retold from the Observant point of view. Originally intended to be disseminated in print, the work actually circulated only in manuscript form. This article examines the five known extant manuscript copies of the Franceschina, which were made at different times: three in the late 15th century, one in the 16th century, and one in the 18th century. It also publishes, for the first time, the prefatory letter of the 18th-century copy ‒ which was produced at the Sacred Convent of Assisi ‒ its decorative apparatus and the description of the manuscript itself. Manuscript copies and their circulation reveal the existence of a substantial network of relationships among the various Observant friaries in Umbria. In the Franceschina’s specific case, the original universal printing project turned into a micro-circulation of manuscripts that made it possible, through the very act of copying the text by hand, for the work to be adapted to different contexts.

G. Castelnovo, I cappuccini e la biblioteca-archivio di Pescarenico

SUMMARY: This essay reconstructs the history of the library-archive of the Capuchin friary of Pescarenico (now part of Lecco, in Lombardy). Drawing on the Cronichetta written by friar Bernardo of Acquate in 1718, almost a century and a half after the convent’s establishment, and on unpublished sources kept the State Archives of Milan, it tracks the events experienced by the friars’ documentary and bibliographic collection, in particular on how it was broken up and its contents dispersed following the Napoleonic suppression of religious orders. The paper also focuses on the preservation, circulation, and identification of the surviving books; the ones that are known are now in the possession of Swiss libraries. By exploring these aspects, this study highlights the Capuchins’ cultural interests and role in managing the library-archive of a convent that, while marginal from the geographic point of view, occupies a central place in the history of Italian literature, having been immortalized by the great 19th-century Italian writer Alessandro Manzoni in his masterpiece, I promessi sposi (The Betrothed).

Lo studio ricostruisce la storia della biblioteca-archivio del convento dei cappuccini di Pescarenico (Lecco), noto attraverso I Promessi Sposi di Alessandro Manzoni. Basandosi sulla Cronichetta di frate Bernardo da Acquate e su fonti inedite conservate presso l'Archivio di Stato di Milano, si ripercorrono le vicende del patrimonio documentario e bibliografico dei frati, con particolare riguardo alla sua dispersione a seguito delle soppressioni napoleoniche. Specifica attenzione è dedicata alla conservazione, alla circolazione e all’identificazione dei volumi superstiti, attualmente conservati in biblioteche svizzere. Esplorando questi aspetti, lo studio evidenzia gli interessi culturali e il ruolo dei cappuccini nella gestione di una biblioteca-archivio all'interno di un convento che, pur essendo geograficamente marginale, occupa un posto centrale nella storia della letteratura.

G. Braccio, Sor Ana Maria: una capuchina pertinaz (Buenos Aires, 1769-1789)

SUMMARY: Towards the end of the 18th century, the Capuchin convent in Buenos Aires, which at the time was a marginal city of the Spanish Empire in the Americas, was involved in a bitter dispute that pitted the nuns against a newly appointed bishop, and eventually one group of nuns against the other. The key player in this conflict was Sor Ana María, a headstrong nun whose stubbornness attained unimaginable heights, persisting unquenched until her death. The complex story of the controversy attests to practices that were typical of Spanish colonial society in the context of the reforms enacted by the Bourbons. By focusing on Sor Ana Maria’s figure in recounting the events, this paper aims to reach a better understanding of their significance, based on unpublished documents found in archives located in Buenos Aires and Seville.

P. Zanini, La Custodia di Terra Santa e la politica estera italiana nel Levante

SUMMARY: This article examines the close connections that from the 1890s to the mid-20th century developed between Italy’s foreign policy in the Levant and the Franciscan presence in Palestine. On the one hand, the Italian foreign service repeatedly tried to take advantage of the Custody of the Holy Land to strengthen Italy’s political and cultural influence in the region. On the other, especially in the aftermath of the First World War, a number of Franciscans sought to play a political role in the area, synergic with Italian interests, mainly through their order’s claim to the Cenacle in Jerusalem. This paper highlights the continuity of Italy’s efforts to expand its influence and pursue its claims in the area, as well its attempts to exploit the religious dimension, despite the profound changes that over the course of six decades repeatedly overhauled the political scene in Palestine ‒ from Ottoman rule to occupation by the Entente’s armed forces and the establishment of the British Mandate, to the birth of the State of Israel, the 1948-1949 ArabIsraeli war,
and the subsequent division of Jerusalem between Israel and Jordan.

L’articolo ripercorre gli intrecci tra la politica estera italiana nel Levante e la presenza francescana in Palestina, per come essi si svilupparono tra gli anni Novanta dell’Ottocento e la metà del XX secolo. La diplomazia italiana cercò a più riprese di sfruttare la Custodia di Terra Santa per aumentare l’influenza politica e culturale italiane nella zona; al tempo stesso anche alcuni francescani, in particolare subito dopo la Prima guerra mondiale, cercarono di svolgere un ruolo politico, sinergico con gli interessi italiani, soprattutto attraverso la rivendicazione del Cenacolo. Significative appaiono soprattutto le continuità delle direttrici espansive e delle rivendicazioni italiane nella zona, e il tentativo di utilizzare l’elemento religioso, nonostante i profondi cambiamenti che caratterizzarono la situazione politica della Palestina: il dominio ottomano, l’occupazione da parte delle truppe dell’Intesa, il mandato britannico, la guerra del 1948-1949, la nascita dello Stato d’Israele e la spartizione di Gerusalemme tra israeliani e giordani.