CRISTOFANO, GUIDINI da GANO (GALGANO). - Sienese notary and writer, disciple of s. Caterina da Siena. He was among the defenders of his Commune. A widower, on 14 Aug. 1391 he took the habit of the Brethren of the hospital of S. Maria della Scala, of which he was chancellor in 1410.
He was the first to translate into Latin (unpublished) the Saint’s Dialogo. He collected a large part of her letters and left us Memorie... and poems concerning her. He promoted her canonization. There also remains a collection by him of 78 legends of saints; and he was the first author of a life, now lost, of b. Giovanni Colombini.
BIBL.: N. Tommaso, Le Lettere di s. Caterina da Siena, I, Firenze 1860, pp. 200, n. 1; 203, n. 3; F. L. Polidori e L. Banchi, Statuti senesi..., III, Bologna 1877, pp. 207-10; A. Th. Drane, The History of st. Catherine of Siena and her Companions, 4ª ed., I, Londra 1915, pp. 160-63; Fontes vitae s. Cath. Sen. historici, IX (Laurent), Milano 1942, p. 41.