Calò, Pietro

CALÒ, PIETRO. - Dominican, hagiographer, b. at Chioggia, d. perhaps at Cividale del Friuli on 11 Dec. 1348. In 1307 he was assigned as lector to the convent of Ferrara (Arch. Frat. Praed., 13 [1943], p. 145 ff.). His legendary contains personal notices for the years 1330 and 1342.

He wrote: Legendae de tempore and Legendae de Sanctis; the first are lessons for the feasts de tempore, the second are a precious legendary of the lives of the saints, with 863 notices. The original number is 857, including some duplicates, after which there is an explicit. The six nos. 858-863 were added later, perhaps by the same author. About fifteen of these lives have been published here and there; Pietro de Natalibus (v.) drew heavily on them, but the work as such is, perhaps because of its great bulk, unpublished. It is found in three codices, described in Analecta Bollandiana, 29 (1910), pp. 44-108, and they are: cod. Barberini lat. 713-714 of the 14th century of the Vatican Library; codd. IX, 15 - IX, 20 of the library of S. Marco (Venice), 6 vols., of the 14th century, very complete, but less correct than the Barberini codices; cod. XVI, G. 23, of the 15th century, of the library of the (Protestant) cathedral of York, incomplete, covering only the last five months. This legendary is valuable because the author collected and abridged many earlier texts, showing a certain critical sense.