Mendicant Orders

"I principi costitutivi delle virtù nel De Summo Bono di Ulrico di Strasburgo", in Per perscrutationem philosophicam. Neue Perspektiven der Mittelalterlichen Forschung. Loris Sturlese zum 60. Geburstag gewidmet, hrsg. von A. Beccarisi, R. Imbach, P. Porro, Meiner, Hamburg 2008 (CPTMA Beiheft, Bd. IV), pp. 111-126.

by Irene Zavattero

Berthold of Moosburg, in Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy. Philosophy between 500 and 1500, ed. by H. Lagerlund, Springer, Dordrecht/Heidelberg/London/New York 2011, vol. I, pp 163-165.

by Irene Zavattero

Berthold of Moosburg was a 14th-century German Dominican. He was called to direct the Dominican studium in Cologne in... more Berthold of Moosburg was a 14th-century German Dominican. He was called to direct the Dominican studium in Cologne in 1335, where he was involved in resolving the crisis caused by the conviction of Meister Eckhart’s doctrines (1329). The doctrinal solution proposed by Berthold is contained in his Commentary on Proclus’s Elements of Theology (Expositio super elementationem theologicam Procli), the only medieval commentary on Proclus, a veritable summa of Neoplatonism. Berthold’s project was to promote the return to the Neoplatonic tradition of the German Dominicans, dating back to Albertus Magnus. He demonstrated that the Albertine school was an autonomous and unitary cultural identity that had its roots in ancient wisdom, of which Proclus, according to Berthold, was the most outstanding exponent. Berthold sees in the Greek diadochus a ‘divine man’ who could scan the divine properties, which are present in the totality of the real world, and therefore ascend to God only by means of the natural reason. In the same way, according to Berthold, the philosopher who studies Proclian theorems performs a cognitive ascent which leads him to the contemplation of God. This is possible by virtue of the presence in man of a divine faculty, i.e. the ‘One of the soul’.

Ulrich of Strasbourg, in Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy. Philosophy between 500 and 1500, ed. by H. Lagerlund, Springer, Dordrecht/Heidelberg/London/New York 2011, vol. II, pp. 1351-1353.

by Irene Zavattero

The German Dominican Ulrich of Strasbourg (1220-1277) was a pupil of Albertus Magnus in Cologne, a lecturer in... more The German Dominican Ulrich of Strasbourg (1220-1277) was a pupil of Albertus Magnus in Cologne, a lecturer in theology at the monastery of Strasbourg and a prior of the German Dominican province. He wrote the De summo bono, a voluminous theological-philosophical summa composed between 1262 and 1272. Long considered to have been a fervent disciple of Albertus Magnus and the compiler of a work based largely on his teacher’s doctrine, Ulrich has instead been shown, through recent studies and the critical edition of his work, to have been an autonomous thinker who developed on his maestro’s ideas in a personal way, often subtly diverging from them. He placed Albertus Magnus’s doctrines, including the more strictly philosophical ones such as the theory of the divine intellect, into a theological framework, in keeping with his aim of highlighting possible concordism between philosophy and theology. The De summo bono was widely circulated, and its reception followed two distinct lines of thought: a speculative one, particularly with the 14th-century brothers of the Cologne studium (Dietrich of Freiberg, Berthold of Moosburg and perhaps Meister Eckhart) and the 15th-century ‘Albertists’ of Cologne, and another moral-pastoral one that originated with John of Freiburg, a pupil of Ulrich’s, and spread through the German-Polish area until the 15th-century.

When did the Dominicans Arrive in Tallinn?

by Marek Tamm

published in 'Tuna. Ajalookultuuri ajakiri', special issue on the history of Estonia, 2009, pp. 35–45.

Il “Crocifisso gotico doloroso” di Bolzano

by Luca Mor

in Domenicani a Bolzano, exhib. cat. (Bozen, Galleria Civica and Chiostro dei Domenicani, 20 March - 20 June 2010) edited by S. Spada Pintarelli, H. Stampfer, Città di Bolzano, Assessorato alla Cultura, Ricerca, Piano di Sviluppo Strategico, Ufficio Servizi Museali e Storico-Artistici, Bolzano 2010, pp. 184-191

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Dominikaanit - Tallinna, Viipuri ja Turku. Dominicans in Tallinn, Viipuri and Turku.

by Tapio Salminen

Published in: Dominikaanit - Tallinna, Viipuri ja Turku. Dominicans in Tallinn, Viipuri and Turku. Dominikaanit Suomessa ja Itämeren alueella keskiajalla - Dominicans in Finland and around the Baltic Sea during the Middle Ages. Turun maakuntamuseo - Turku Provincial Museum, Raportteja - Report 18. Saarijärvi 2003, 37-56.

Dis buch ist iohannes schedelin. Die Handschriften eines Colmarer Bürgers aus der Mitte des 15. Jahrhunderts und ihre Verflechtungen mit dem Literaturangebot der Dominikanerobservanz, in: Kulturtopographie des deutschsprachigen Südwestens im späteren Mittelalter. Studien und Texte, hg. von BARBARA FLEITH und RENÉ WETZEL (Kulturtopographie des alemannischen Raums, Bd. 1), Tübingen 2009, S. 157-214

by Balázs J. Nemes

Kloster, klosterliknande inrättningar och klostertraditioner. (Monasteries, monastery-like establishments and monastery traditions.)

by Christian Lovén

A paper in Swedish on lesser-known monastic establishments. Published in Fornvännen (Stockholm) 96, 2001.

Medieval Sweden had comparatively few monasteries: the number usually given in surveys is around 50. However, the... more Medieval Sweden had comparatively few monasteries: the number usually given in surveys is around 50. However, the figure rises to around 60 if short-lived or otherwise obscure monasteries are included. It has not been commonly recognized that the Benedictines were well represented until the 13th century. There were at least two monastic cathedral chapters, one Benedictine and one Augustine. Two short-lived abbeys or priories were probably Benedictine. All six 12th century nunneries, later known as Cistercian, must have begun as non-Cistercian houses. The monastery-like establishments include some collegiate foundations and a komturei of the Teutonic Order. A few recluses and beguines are mentioned in written sources. The mendicant friars had chapels and small houses for their terminaries, i.e. recurring preaching joumeys. These are seldom mentioned in written sources. The author suggests that most people during the Middle Ages did not differ between monasteries proper and other establishments that were owned and visited by monks. Alleged “monasteries” in post-medieval popular tradition are often erroncous, but some may have been mendicant chapels or terminary houses. With this approach, some monastery traditions are examined.

Allie Terry, “Florentine Convent as Practiced Place: Cosimo de’Medici, Fra Angelico and the Public Library of San Marco.” Medieval Encounters (Special Issue: Merchants and Mendicants in the Medieval Mediterranean, edited by Taryn Chubb and Emily Kelley), forthcoming 2012.

by Allie Terry-Fritsch

(forthcoming 2012)

By approaching the Observant Dominican convent of San Marco in Florence as a “practiced place,” this essay considers... more By approaching the Observant Dominican convent of San Marco in Florence as a “practiced place,” this essay considers the secular users of the convent’s library as mobile spectators that necessarily navigated the cloister and dormitory and, in so doing, recovers, for the first time, their embodied experience of the architectural pathway and the frescoed decoration along the way. To begin this process, the essay recovers the original “public” for the library at San Marco, then reconstructs the pathway through the convent that this secular audience once traveled to reach it. By practicing the place, the essay considers Fra Angelico’s extensive fresco decoration along this path as part of an integrated “humanist itinerary.” In this way, Angelico’s decoration may be understood as not only a deposit of a social relationship between the mendicant artist and his merchant patron. It also may be read, for the first time in art-historical scholarship, as a direct means of visual communication with the convent’s previously unrecognized public audience and an indicator of these viewers’ political and intellectual practices within the Florentine convent.

Sancti Spiritus de Toro: Arquitectura y patronazgo femenino

by Mercedes Pérez Vidal

Faux Semblants: Antifraternalism Reconsidered in Jean de Meun and Chaucer

by Guy Geltner

Studies in Philology 101 (2004): 357-80

A revisionist study of two major works of medieval vernacular poetry connected by a character and a theme often seen... more A revisionist study of two major works of medieval vernacular poetry connected by a character and a theme often seen as expressing antifraternalism, or opposition to the medieval mendicant orders.

Mendicants as Victims: Scale, Scope, and the Idiom of Violence

by Guy Geltner

Journal of Medieval History 36 (2010): 126-41

This article establishes the scale of violence perpetrated against mendicant friars in thirteenth- and... more This article establishes the scale of violence perpetrated against mendicant friars in thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Europe, and provides a major list of such events in an accompanying appendix. It then underscores and analyzes the wide variety of contexts in which such incidents took place and examines its ramifications for the history of the mendicant orders and medieval urban society generally. In so doing it develops several observations regarding violence as a subtler form of communicative action than is sometimes recognized, and points to the inverse relation between power and violence in medieval urban conflicts.

Brethren Behaving Badly: A Deviant Approach to Medieval Antifraternalism

by Guy Geltner

Speculum 85 (2010): 47-64

A seminal survey and analysis of major instances of deviancy among members of the mendicant orders, especially the... more A seminal survey and analysis of major instances of deviancy among members of the mendicant orders, especially the Dominicans.

L'architettura sacra a Treviso nell'età dei Comuni (secoli XII-metà XIV)

by Gianpaolo Trevisan

Published in:
Treviso e la sua civiltà nell'Italia dei Comuni secoli XI-XIV, Atti del convegno di studio (Treviso, 3-5 dicembre 2009), a cura di P. Cammarosano, Trieste, CERM, 2010, pp. 213-242.

Medieval church architecture of Treviso (Italy): a concise history from Romanesque to the Mendicant Orders. Medieval church architecture of Treviso (Italy): a concise history from Romanesque to the Mendicant Orders.

Cum squadra et cordula et aliis edificiis ingeniosis. La facciata della chiesa di San Fermo Maggiore a Verona e la misurazione della distanza da Santa Maria della Scala nel 1327

by Gianpaolo Trevisan

Published in:
Arredi liturgici e architettura, a cura di A.C. Quintavalle, Milano, Electa, 2007, pp. 143-151.

When was the façade of San Fermo Maggiore built?
A new reading of an important medieval topographic survey which... more When was the façade of San Fermo Maggiore built?
A new reading of an important medieval topographic survey which offers the terminus ante quem for the franciscan church of San Fermo Maggiore in Verona (Italy).