Cities of God: The Religion of the Italian Communes 1125-1325

(Darren Dugan) #1

GoodCatholics atPrayer 373 


people. The second group, still well represented but less so than the moraliz-


ing literature, consists of poems and treatises explaining the Creed or


Catholic doctrines. Among these are short expositions of theological topics


of popular interest, such as the end of the world or the causes of evil. I place


in this category the fragmentary biblical translations occasionally encoun-


tered after 1300. I call this grouping ‘‘catechetical literature.’’ Last in quan-


tity come meditations and pious reflections. Among these, two compositions


much outrank the rest in popularity. The first, and by far more common, is


the meditation on the life of Christ falsely ascribed to Bonaventure. The


second is a fascinating little work known as thePiato di Gesu Christo.^140 The


Pseudo-Bonaventure is a clerical work that appealed to the piety of the com-


munes; thePiatois probably a lay product and deserves special attention. I


will not undertake here an exhaustive analysis of these three types of devo-


tional literature. The small size of its audience counsels against that kind of


emphasis. Instead I will present an overview, give some examples, and posi-


tion these three categories within the piety that is the topic of this chapter.


For Zucchero Bencivenni, an understanding of the virtues and corre-


sponding vices was essential for right living.^141 Treatises on the vices and


virtues already existed in the Carolingian period, when Alcuin of York con-


tributed an effort of his own.^142 In the wake of Lateraniv, clerical authors


produced in great numbers updated versions, intended for use in sermons or


when hearing confessions. The most widely distributed of these was the


Tractatus de Virtutibusof the Dominican Guillaume Perault (Willielmus Per-


adus), which circulated in Latin. Other examples of the genre, including


anonymous abridgments and reworkings, are common.^143 Only in the early


1300 s did Francesco of Perugia, a Franciscan priest, produce a treatise of this


type intended specifically for lay use, theTractatus de Septem Vitiis Capitalibus et


Decem Preceptis.^144 It dwelt on the vices, said little of the opposing virtues, and


seemed mostly intended as an aid for going to confession. Like other clerical


productions, it lacked concrete examples and smelled of the scholastic lecture


room. As a popularizer, however, Fra Francesco was late off the mark. Vir-



  1. I have completely omitted three items from consideration: vernacularized saints’ lives, the
    hymns known aslaudi,and the religious dramas known assacre rappresentazioni.Nearly all examples are
    dated well into the 1300 s, outside our period. In the case oflaudi,of which thirteenth-century examples
    survive, there is no evidence these were ever used in private prayer or meditation.

  2. Zucchero Bencivenni,Trattato del ben vivere,ed. Giuseppe Manuzzi (Florence: Passigli, 1848 ), 6.

  3. HisDe Octo Vitiis Principalibus,which consisted of chapters 27 – 35 of his largerLiber de Virtutibus et
    Vitiis(PL 101 : 613 – 38 ), circulated in thirteenth-century Italy. E.g., Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenzi-
    ana,msMugellana 10 , contains this treatise. See Bloomfield et al.,Incipits, 304 , no. 3593 , on Alcuin’s
    work.

  4. Bloomfield’sIncipitsgives some idea of the extent of this literature. Merely for the sake of exam-
    ples from our period, see Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana,msH 168 Inf., fols. 54 r– 116 v(Perault and other
    anonymous examples); Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria,ms 2580(xivcent.), fols. 1 r– 14 v(anonymous
    short treatment); Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria,ms 1563, fol. 9 r(anonymous one-folio summary);
    Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana,msTrotti 541 (xivcent.), fols. 135 v– 141 v(vernacular version similar to
    Alcuin’s).

  5. A copy is found in Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale,msMagl.xxxv.

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