Life of St. Francis of Assisi

40. He has avoided the mistakes so unfortunately committed by Wadding in his list of ministers general. Vide 66a. 2, 104a, 1, 118b, 2. He was lecturer on theology at Bologna, Padua, Pisa, Sienna, and Florence. He preached for many years and with great success in the principal villages of the Peninsula and could thus take advantage of his travels by collecting useful notes. Mark of Lisbon has preserved for us a notice of his life. Vide Croniche dei fratri Minori, t. iii., p. 6 ff. of the Diola edition. He died December 10, 1401. For further details see Wadding, ann. 1399, vii., viii., and above all Sbaralea, Supplementum, p. 109. He is the author of an exposition of the Rule little known which can be found in the Speculum Morin, Rouen, 1509, fo 66b-83a, of part three.

41. This opinion is expressed in a guarded manner. For example, fo 207a, 1, Bartolommeo relates the miracle of the Chapter of the Mats, first following St. Bonaventura, then adding: "Et quia non aliter tangit dicta pars (legendæ majoris) hoc insigne miraculum: antiqua legenda hoc refertur in hunc modum." Cf. 225a, 2m. "Et quia fr. Bonaventura succincte multa tangit et in brevi: pro evidentia prefatorum notandum est ... ut dicit antiqua legenda."

42. However, it is necessary to note that not only are there considerable differences between the editions published, but also that the first (that of Milan, 1510) has been completed and revised by its editor. The judgments passed upon Raymond Ganfridi, 104a, 1, and Boniface VIII., 103b, 1, show traces of later corrections. (Cf. 125a, 1. At fo 72a, 2m, is indicated the date of the death of St. Bernardin, which was in 1444, etc.) Besides, we are surprised to find beside the pages where the sources are indicated with clearness others where stories follow one another coming one knows not from whence.

43. Fo 70a, 1: "Cujus nomen non reperi." 1a, 2: "Multaque non ex industria sed quia ea noscere non valui omittendo."

44. Fo 78a, 1: Informationes quas non scribo quia imperfectas reperi. Cf. 229b, 2: "De aliis multis apparitionibus non reperi scripturam, quare hic non pono."

45. Fo 69a, 1: "Hec ut audivi posui quia ejus legendam non vidi." Cf. 68b, 2m: Fr. Henricus generalis minister mihi magistro Bartholomeo dixit ipse oretenus.

46. The citations from Bonaventura are decidedly more frequent. We should not be surprised, since this story is the official biography of St. Francis; the chapter from which Bartolommeo takes his quotations is almost always indicated, and, naturally, follows the old division in five parts. Opening the book at hazard at folio 136a I find no less than six references to the Legenda Major in the first column. To give an idea of the style of Bartolommeo of Pisa I shall give in substance the contents of a page of his book. See, for example, fo 111a (lib. i., conform. x., pars. ii., Franciscus predicator). In the third line he cites Bonaventura: "Fr. Bonaventura in quarta parte majoris legende dicit quod b. Franciscus videbatur intuentibus homo alterius seculi." Textual citation of Bonaventure, 45. Three lines further on: "Verum qualis esset b. F. quoad personam sic habetur in legenda antiqua ... homo facundissimus, facie hilaris, etc." The literal citation of the sketch of Francis follows as 1 Celano, 83, gives it as far as: "inter peccatores quasi unus ex illis," and to mark the end of the quotation Bartolommeo adds: "Hec legenda antiqua." In the next column paragraph 4 commences with the words: B. Francisci predicationem reddebat mirabilem et gloriosam ipsius sancti loquutio: etenim legenda trium Sociorum dicit et Legenda major parte tertia: B. Francisei eloquia erant non inania, neo risu digna, etc., which corresponds literally with 3 Soc., 25, and Bon., 28. Then come two chapters of Bonaventura almost entire, beginning with: In duodecima parte legende majoris dicit Fr.

Bonaventura: Erat enim verbum ejus, etc. Textual quotation of Bon., 178 and 179. The page ends with another quotation from Bonaventura: Sic dicebat prout recitat Bonaventura in octava parte Legende majoris: Hac officium patri misericordiarum. Vide Bonav., 102 end and 103 entire. This suffices without doubt to show with what precision the authorities have been quoted in this work, with what attention and confidence ought to be examined those portions of documents lost or mislaid which he has here preserved for us.

47. Fo 31b, 2: ut dicit fr. Thomas in sua legenda, cf. 2 Cel., 3, 60.—140a, 2: Fr. in leg. fr. Thome, cf. 2 Cel., 3, 60.—140a 1, cf. 2 Cel., 3 16.—142b, 1: Fr. in leg. Thome capitulo de charitate, cf. 2 Cel., 3, 115.—144b, 1: Fr. in leg. fr. Thome capitulo de oratione, cf. 2 Cel., 3, 40.—144b, 1, cf. 2 Cel., 3, 65.—144b, 2, cf. 2 Cel., 3, 78.—176b, 2, cf. 2 Cel., 3, 79.—182b, 2, cf. 2 Cel., 2, 1.—241b, 1, cf. 2 Cel., 3, 141.—181a, 2, cf. 1 Cel., 27. It is needless to say that these lists of quotations do not pretend to be complete.

48. Fo 36b, 2. Ut enim habetur in leg. 3 Soc., cf. 3 Soc., 10.—46b, 1, cf. 3 Soc., 25-28.—38b 2, cf. 3 Soc. 3.—111a, 2, cf. 3 Soc., 25.—134a, 2, cf. 3 Soc, 4.—142b, 2, cf. 3 Soc., 57 and 58.—167b, 2, cf. 3 Soc., 3 and 8.—168a, 1, cf. 3 Soc., 10.—170b, 1, cf. 3 Soc., 39, 4.—175b, 2, cf. 3 Soc., 59.—180b, 2, cf. 3 Soc., 4.—181a, 1, cf. 3 Soc., 5, 7, 24, 33, and 67.—181a. 2, cf. 3 Soc., 36.—229b, 2, cf. 3 Soc., 14. etc. The reading of 3 Soc. which Bartolommeo had before his eyes was pretty much the same we have to day, for he says, 181a, 2. referring to 3 Soc., 67: "Ut habetur quasi in fine leg. 3 Soc."

49. Fo 111a, 1, Sic habetur in leg. ant., corresponds literally with 1 Cel., 83.—144a, 2. Franciscus in leg. ant. cap. v. de zelo ad religionem, to 1 Cel. 106.

50. Fo 111b, 1. De predicantibus loqueus sic dicebat in ant. leg. Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 99 and 106. 140b, 1. Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 84.—144b, 1, cf. 2 Cel., 3, 45—144a, 1, cf. 2 Cel., 3, 95 and 15.—225b, 2, cf. 2 Cel., 3, 116.

51. Fo 31a, 1. Vide 2 Cel., 3, 83.—143a, 2. Vide 2 Cel., 3, 65 and 116.—144a, 1. Vide 2 Cel., 3, 94.—170b. 1. Vide 2 Cel., 3, 11.

52. Fo 14a, 2.—32a. 1.—101a, 2.—169b, 1.—144b, 2.—142a, 2.—143b, 2.—168b, 1.—144b, 1.

53. Chapters 18 (chapter of the mats) and 25 (lepers cured) of the Fioretti are found in Latin in the Conf. as borrowed from the Leg. Ant. Vide 174b, 1, and 207a. 1.

Finally, according to fo 168b, 2, it is also from the Leg. Ant. that the description of the coat, such as we find at the end of the Chronique des Tribulations, was borrowed. See Archiv., t. ii., p. 153.

54. Fo 182a, 2; cf. 51b, 1; 144a, 1.

55. He died December 12, 1306, at Bastia, near Assisi. See upon him Chron. Tribul. Archiv., ii.; 311 and 312; Conform., 60, 119, and 153.

56. Although the history of the Indulgence of Portiuncula was of all subjects the one most largely treated in the Conformities, 151b, 2—157a, 2, not once does Bartolommeo of Pisa refer to it in the Legenda Antiqua. It seems, then, that this collection also was silent as to this celebrated pardon.

57. Published with extreme care by the Franciscan Fathers of the Observance in t. ii. of the Analecta Franciscana, ad Claræ Aquas (Quaracchi, near Florence), 1888, 1 vol., crown 8vo, of xxxvi.-612 pp. This edition, as much from the critical point of view of the text, its correctness, its various readings and notes, as from the material point of view, is perfect and makes the more desirable a publication of the chronicles of the xxiv. generals and of Salimbeni by the same editors. The beginning up to the year 1262 has been published already by Dr. Karl Evers under the title Analecta ad Fratrum Minorum historiam, Leipsic, 1882, 4to of 89 pp.

58. I have been able only to procure the Italian edition published by Horatio Diola under the title Croniche degli Ordini instituti dal P. S. Francesco, 3 vols., 8vo, Venice, 1606.