Jacques Dalarun's indefatigable quest for the oldest account of the life of St Francis of Assisi made significant progress in his Vers une Resolution de la question franciscaine: la légenda ombrienne de Thomas de Celano (Paris 2007), a text assigned to the period when Elias of Cortona was the minister general (1232–9). About the same time he discovered a breviary in the Vatican Library (ms reg. lat. 1738), whose readings for the office of St Francis had been partially scraped, rendering them almost illegible. Dalarun reveals that on 15 September 2014 he received a message from Sean Field, who alerted him to the presence of a manuscript for sale on the website Les Enluminures. This text contained a life of St Francis, including at times the readings of the breviaries in the Vatican Library and the Umbrian legend. The importance of this text was underlined by Laura Light. Dalarun examined the contents of the manuscript and concluded that it contained a re-working of Thomas of Celano's Vita prima sancti Francisci. His findings were communicated to Isabelle Le Masne de Chermont, director of the Department of Manuscripts at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and the decision to purchase the volume was taken by the president of the library, Bruno Racine. This precious manuscript is now ms 3245 in the Bibliothèque nationale.
The manuscript contains a copy of the Vita brevior. It is of small dimensions, measuring 120x82 mm. It was bound without a cover and it has 122 folios of low quality parchment, with some damaged folios. The manuscript was copied in the vicinity of Assisi in the early 1230s for the use of a friar, probably one assigned to the ministry of preaching, and it reflects the order's commitment to evangelical poverty. The recovery of this manuscript is one of the most important finds in the last century and it necessitates the reopening of the debate about the canon of Franciscan hagiography; the same applies to the critical edition of St Francis's writings. About 60 per cent of the Vita brevior consists of new materials. It is an abbreviation of the Vita prima sancti Francisci and it includes the author's letter of dedication to Brother Elias of Cortona as minister-general. The letter conveys the author's gratitude to Elias and confirms Thomas of Celano as the author, revealing that Elias was one of the sources of the Vita prima sancti Francisci. Thomas of Celano discloses that the Vita prima sancti Francisci had earned him some criticism on account of its length. The Vita brevior is, nevertheless, notably longer than many of the biographies of St Francis, such as the Legenda trium sociorum. For instance, it mentions the canonisation of St Anthony on 30 May 1232 (no. 25) and the death of John Parenti, the former minister general-donec advixit (no. 55). It was probably written before 1236, when Elias dispatched visitators to the provinces. Salimbene de Adam provides specific allegations against the divisive conduct of these officials, whose behaviour redounded to the discredit of the increasingly embattled minister general. The manner of these visitations led to calls for a general chapter to be summoned in Rome in 1239.
Dalarun got to work with his customary zeal, expertise and resolve. Without delay he prepared a critical edition of the text which was published in Analecta Bollandiana in 2015 and it was followed by a spate of translations such as his ‘Thomas de Celano: La vie de notre bienheureux père François’, Études franciscaines viii (2015). Further translations followed in the principal languages of Western Europe. The Bibliothèque nationale, the Institute of Research and the History and the History of Texts of the CNRS agreed to conduct a thorough examination of this manuscript from a codicological and scientific manner. The fruits of this investigation are published in Le Manuscrit franciscan retrouvé, a treasure-trove of information which sheds light on the manuscript carried by an Umbrian friar across the Alps. The preface, by Isabelle le Masne de Chermont, is followed by three sections. First, ‘Où, Quand, Comment ? Les Coordonnées du Codex’; secondly, ‘Quoi ? L’Écheveau des Textes’ and thirdly, ‘Qui, Pourquoi ? Un Témoin des Origines Franciscaines ?’ The first section has three studies; the second has thirteen; and the third has five. These contributions are followed by a thorough examination of the diverse contents of Le Manuscript franciscain retrouvé by a team of paleographers, codicologists, historians and scientists. The manuscript contains notes for a commentary on the Pauline epistles, sermons, a moral florilegium, a commentary on the Pater noster, notes and extracts, a sermon on the purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the book of Job. A sample of the stimulating studies is the analysis of the hands conducted by Denis Muzerelle, who detects twelve in the manuscript (pp. 49–53). Hand B contains the borrowings from Anthony of Padua. Hand D reproduces extracts from St Francis's Regula bullata and Admonitions. Hand H covers the Vita brevior. The witness to early Franciscan texts comes from Riccardo Saccenti's Étudier la théologie à Paris les notes du f.68v who connects the text with the Moralium dogma philosophorum and Jean de la Rochelle's Tractatus de divisione multiplici potentiarum animae. Two authors, Amandine Postec and Carlo Delcorno, highlight the presence of borrowings from the writings of St Anthony of Padua. Folio 16, line 12 begins with a citation to Beatus Antonius ordinis minorum fratrum. Six extracts from his sermons have been identified between folios 16r and 17v. St Anthony's influence has been located on other folios. This manuscript is an early manifestation of the dissemination of St Anthony's writings from northern Italy and Umbria. This rich collection of studies will be warmly welcomed by Franciscan scholars and students of medieval hagiography. It is a pity that there is no index to the volume.
