for several later lives of Francis. By February 1229, he
had fi nished what would come to be called Vita prima.
Written in cursus, or rhythmical prose, the Vita prima
is a skillful attempt to convey the interior life of Francis
as early Franciscans knew it. But in many ways it is also
a conventional stereotyped hagiography. It emphasizes
Francis’s spiritual journey and ideals but omits some
of the quirkiest and most compelling episodes of the
saint’s life. In 1230, Thomas edited the Vita prima into
a liturgical epitome, the Legenda ad usum chori.
Although the Vita prima was greeted with enormous
enthusiasm when it fi rst appeared, by the early 1240s
many friars were voicing dissatisfaction with it, appar-
ently because so many favorite stories about Francis had
been left out. In 1244, the Franciscan general chapter
invited all friars who had known Francis ro submit their
reminiscences so that a new, more complete vita could
be composed. Thomas was once again called on to be
the author. From materials he had not used in his fi rst
life and from recently submitted anecdotes, Thomas
crafted the Memoriale in desiderio animae de gestis
et verbis sanctissimi patris nostri Francisci, usually
called the Vita secunda. Like the fi rst life, it tells the
story of Francis’s conversion; but in its second part the
anecdotes are arranged as a kind of prolonged character
study of the subject. The Vita secunda—unlike the Vita
prima—confronts matters of controversy within the
order, especially a growing dispute over the relaxation
of the rule. Thomas clearly depicts Francis as favoring a
strict adherence to the rule and lamenting the corruption
of his order by those who sought to relax it.
If “laxists” found the general message of the Vita
secunda distasteful, many throughout the order com-
plained that it gave insuffi cient attention to Francis’s
miracles, a subject that had been carefully elaborated
in the Vita prima. To remedy this, Thomas composed a
Tractatus de miraculis in 1255–1256 that detailed al-
most 200 of Francis’s miracles. Thomas may also be the
author of the Legenda sanctae Clarae, a life of Francis’s
friend Saint Clare written in the mid-1250s.
Thomas died in 1260 at Tagliacozzo. His works
survived, despite a directive of the Franciscan chapter
general of 1266 ordering that they and all other lives
of Francis be destroyed to facilitate acceptance of
Bonaventure’s Legenda maior as the only offi cial ver-
sion of Francis’s life.
See also Bonaventure, Saint; Francis of Assisi, Saint
Further Reading
Edition
Thomas of Celano. Saint Francis of Assisi: First and Second
Life of Saint Francis, with Selections from the Treatise on
the Miracles of the Blessed Francis, trans. Placid Hermann.
Chicago, III.: Franciscan Herald, 1963.
Critical Studies
Bontempi, Pietro. Tommaso da Celano, storico e innografo.
Rome: Scuola Salesiana del Libro, 1952.
De Beer, Francis. La conversion de Saint François selon Thomas
de Celano. Paris: Éditions Franciscaines, 1963.
Facchinetti, Vittorino. Tommaso da Celano: Il primo biografo
di San Francesco. Quaracchi: Collegio di San Bonaventura,
1918.
Miccoli, Giovanni. “La ‘conversione’ di San Francesco secondo
Tommaso da Celano.” Studi Medievali Series 3(5), 1964, pp.
775–792.
Moorman, John R. H. Sources for the Life of Francis of Assisi.
Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1940. (Reprint,
Farnborough: Gregg, 1966.)
Spirito, Silvana. Il francescanesimo di fra Tommaso da Celano.
Assisi: Edizioni Porziuncola, 1963.
Thomas TurleyTHOMASÎN VON ZERCLAERE
(fl. early 12th c.)
Born into an ancient noble family in Cividale in Friulia,
northern Italy, around 1185, Thomasîn was a member
of the monastic cathedral of Aquileia and so later came
into close contact with Wolfger von Erla, the German
patriarch of Aquileia known for his patronage of such
famous German poets as Walther von der Vogelweide.
We might assume that Wolfger commissioned Thomasîn
to compose his famous book of courtly etiquette, Der
Welsche Gast (The Italian Visitor), consisting of about
14,800 verses. Thomasîn dated his Middle High Ger-
man poem by telling us that he wrote it twenty-eight
years after the loss of Jerusalem to the Arabs in 1187,
that is, in 1215. The intention with his treatise was to
improve the desolate state of the German nobility. It
is the fi rst German Hofzucht (courtly primer) ever
written, and this by a nonnative speaker; it addresses
young noblemen and women, teaching them the norms
of courtly behavior. Thomasîn also added a general
lesson about courtly love that he based on his Buch
von der Höfi scheit (Book of Courtliness), which he
had previously composed in the Provençal language.
In his book the poet emphasizes the value of constancy
(staete), moderation (mâze), law (reht), and generosity
(milte). Thomasîn drew from many different sources
but mentions only the Moralia by Pope Gregory the
Great (d. 604), a highly popular Latin moral treatise.
Nevertheless, the text demonstrates Thomasîn’s exten-
sive knowledge of theological and secular literature of
his time. The poet was clearly opposed to Walther von
der Vogelweide’s polemics against the pope, warned of
the threatening spread of hereticism, and appealed to
the German knighthood to embark on a new crusade.
For him, knighthood must be subservient to the church
and must pursue primarily religious and moral ideals.
However, Thomasîn did not hesitate to recommend
courtly literature as reading material for young nobleTHOMASÎN VON ZERCLAERE