This volume of essays, by a group of scholars from the United States and Great Britain, presents a panoramic look at the study of Franciscan art in late medieval and early Renaissance Italy. In addition to being important case studies, the articles suggest a range of methodologies and interdisciplinary perspectives on important works of art. Senior scholars who have worked in the field for decades are joined by a new generation of researchers in the field.New studies of the Basilica in Assisi as well as innovative looks at early panel paintings and Franciscan stained glass are included. Those...

Only the second volume dedicated to Dante and the Franciscans, this collection of essays offers a Franciscan reading of the Divine Comedy. Nine of the ten essays address how Dante's Comedy and his Vita Nuova were influenced by Franciscan spirituality; the tenth essay addresses the influence that Dante's Comedy had on the preaching of the Franciscan Order. More specifically, the essays in this volume are truly interdisciplinary and contribute to the understanding of how Dante understood and employed Franciscan sources in his literary production and how Bernardino of...

Francis of Assisi, whose Gospel performance captured the imagination of his day, fostered a movement of men and women who were fascinated by the transformative power of the embodied Word. Learned or unlettered, theologian or penitent, their shared conviction took form in various gestures, languages, and literary genres. For their part, medieval artisans and craftsmen reflected this Franciscan predilection to preach in architecture, frescoes, and reliquaries. In Franciscans and Preaching, scholars from Europe and North Amercia offer the first extensive English language study of medieval...

This volume, Ordo et Sanctitas: The Franciscan Spiritual Journey in Theology and Hagiography, which celebrates the life and legacy of J. A. Wayne Hellmann, is comprised of articles written by colleagues, former students, and associates. The authors were invited to contribute their own articles within three broad categories corresponding with the areas in which Wayne has made a longstanding scholarly contribution: Franciscan hagiographical texts (especially Thomas of Celano); medieval theology and the Bonaventurian theological tradition; and the retrieval of the Franciscan tradition in...

When Francis of Assisi started to use his family’s resources for religious purposes, his father took him to court. It was there that Francis dispossessed himself of everything and began a new life that soon inspired others to follow. Within a century, members of this Order of Friars Minor were among the first to dedicate complete treatises to discussions of buying, selling, and the whole of human exchange that is known as economics. The natural question to ask—and the one proposed here—is whether there might be a connection between the two, between Franciscan poverty and Franciscan...

This collection of historical studies honors David Burr, emeritus professor at Virginia Tech. Representing some of the finest scholars in the field, the contributors touch upon the academic areas in which he has taught and published: the multi-faceted phenomenon of the Spiritual Franciscans (late 13th-early 14th century) and the life and writings of Peter of John Olivi in southern France.