St. Francis of Assisi (c. 1181-1226) and Jacopone da Todi (c. 1236-1306) were but two exemplars of a rich school of mystical poets writing in Umbria in the Franciscan religious tradition. Their powerful creations form a significant corpus of medieval Italian vernacular poetry only now being fully explored.
Drawing on a wide range of literary, historical, linguistic, and anthropological approaches, Vettori crafts an innovative portrait of the artists as legends and as poets. He investigates the essential features of emerging Franciscan tradition, in motifs of the body, metaphors of matrimony, and musical harmony. Vettori also explores the relationship of Francis's poetic mission to Genesis, the relationship between erotic love and ecstatic union in both poets' work, and the poetics of the sermon.
Author(s): Alessandro Vettori
Series: Fordham Series in Medieval Studies, 3
Publisher: Fordham University Press
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 250
City: New York
Acknowledgments ix
Adviso to Reader xi
Introduction xiii
Part One
1. Theater of Nudity 3
2. Mysticism of Sexual Union 40
3. Harmony of the Cosmos 59
Part Two
4. Origins of the Canon 79
5. Theology of Ravishment 112
6. Ecstasy of Agapic Love 145
7. Symphony of the Ineffable 172
Conclusion 193
Appendix 197
Cantico di frate sole 197
The Canticle of the Sun 199
Sources of the 'Canticle of Brother Sun'
Daniel 3:51–90 200
Psalm 148 203
Bibliography 205
Index 219
