ALEXANDER OF BREMEN. - Franciscan, author of a commentary on the Apocalypse. He was canon-scholastic of the cathedral of Bremen; he entered the Order of Minors and remained there as a lay friar. He lived and died (1271) in the convent of Staden (Saxony); for this reason he is also called A. of Staden.

His Commentary deserves attention because it seems that he was the first to apply the historical system to the individual facts of ecclesiastical history: much earlier, therefore, than Peter Aureoli and Nicholas of Lyra. Furthermore, he refers the visions of the Apocalypse from ch. 20, 5, to St. Francis and St. Dominic and to the Orders founded by them. Of the Commentary 8 manuscript codices are known, 3 of which are richly illustrated.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: A. Kleinhans, De Commentaria in Apocalypse Fr. Alexandri Bremensis, in Antonianum, 2 (1927), pp. 289-334; M. Huggler, Der Bilderkreis in den Handschriften der Alexander-Apokalypse, ibid., 9 (1934), pp. 85-150, 260-308; A. Wachtel, Die weltgeschichtliche Apokalypse-Auslegung des Minoriten Alexander von Bremen, in Franziskanische Studien, fasc. 3 and 4, Werl in V. 1937.

Arduino Kleinhans

@incollection{ec1_alessandro_da_brema, author = {Kleinhans, Arduino}, title = {Alessandro da Brema}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {I}, pages = {783}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1948}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/alessandro-da-brema} }

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Alexander of Bremen

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