FRANCO (FRANKE), JOHANNES. - Dominican mystic, d. between 1347 and 1351. Among various confrères who around the year 1300 bore the distinctly Cologne name F. (Franke), Giovanni was a son of the patrician Vlagge family. Probably a disciple of Meister Eckart, F. appears to be identical with the conventual prior of Cologne in 1318 and with the subprior of 1334, that principal house of the Dominican Order in Germany always having superiors of the first rank. F. was certainly in Cologne from 1304 to 1327; he was a lector and preacher greatly beloved by the faithful. His sermons are distinguished by speculative power and vivid expression.
BIBL.: W. Preger, Geschichte der deutschen Mystik im Mittelalter, II, Lipsis 1881, pp. 173 ff., 84, 457 ff.; G. Löhr, Beiträge zur Geschichte des höheren Admin. Klötters in Mittelalter (Quellen u. Forschungen zur Gesch. d. domin. Klötters in Mittelalter, 15), ibid. 1920, pp. 49-50, 155; (ibid., 16-17), ibid. 1920-22, pp. 69, 72, 100, 126; J. Uttenweiler, s. V. in LThK, IV, col. 88. Angelo Walz