GIACOMO da MILANO. — Franciscan writer, of the Capelli or de Capellis family, who lived during the thirteenth century and was a lector at the convent of Milan.
He is the author of the valuable little work Stimulus amoris (Quaracchi 1905; Tuscan translation ed. A. Levasti, I mistici del Ducento e del Trecento, Milan 1925, pp. 239–51, 990), which circulated widely and was expanded in another compilation, with the same title, by an unknown fourteenth-century author (version by C. Guasti, Milan 1934). The fervent mysticism pervading it, and its dependence on the thought and spirit of s. Bonaventura, led to its attribution to the Seraphic Doctor.
There is nothing to prevent identifying G. da M. with the frater Jacobus de Capellis of the same convent of Milan, author of a Summa contra haereticos, composed around the middle of the thirteenth century and directed against the various Cathar sects of ancient Lombardy. It is therefore probable that he also held the office of inquisitor. Moreover, the Biblioteca Ambrosiana of Milan preserves a manuscript (42 sup.) containing 52 Conciones quadragesimales fratris Jacobi Capelli; examination of this unpublished work could complete the portrait and literary activity of this interesting author.