JOHN OF CALVOLI (a Caulibus). - Near San Gimignano in Tuscany, a great Minorite preacher of the 14th century, sometimes also erroneously called Giovanni da S. Gimignano, still alive, according to Wadding and Papini, in 1576; but nothing more is known of him. According to the most common attribution, he would be the author of the Meditationes vitae Christi, one of the masterpieces of Franciscan spirituality, which the author wrote with dramatic vividness and expressive power, almost plastic, as well as with an exquisite sense of literary art.

The work, which had great influence on religious life, was written for the edification of a Poor Clare nun around 1335, in Tuscany, probably first in the vernacular, then translated into Latin. The vernacular text is considered a text of language.

The work itself had, in the manuscript tradition, two redactions: one abridged, and the other fuller and more common in 93 chapters; but that G. da C. is its author, the most competent scholar, C. Fischer, in 1932 (op. cit. in bibl., pp. 449-83) has certainly excluded, assigning the work to an unknown Tuscan Minorite; he defends the priority of the vernacular original, and further holds, against the opinion of others and of the very editors of St. Bonaventure, that the Seraphic Doctor is the author of the Meditationes de Passione (that is, of the 13 chapters, from the 68th onward). But this claim, judged certain and definitive also by the recent Spanish editors of the Obras de s. Bonaventura (II, Madrid 1946, pp. 735-47), has been contested with excellent internal arguments by Fr. Cicchitto. However, the question of its authenticity is still at least doubtful.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: Numerous editions, Latin and vernacular: the most recent, in Italian, that of F. Sarri, Milan 1933; Latin and Castilian text of the section Meditationes de Passione Christi, in Obras de s. Bonaventura, II, Madrid 1946, pp. 748-817. - Notices and studies: B. Bonelli, Prodromus ad Op. Omn. s. Bonaventura, Bassano 1767, p. 657 s.c.: N. Papini, Etruria francescana, II, p. 113v (cod. 84, Rome, conv. SS. Apostoli); Sbarabia, I, pp. 51-52: II, 102 and pp. 52-53: Editores S. Bonaventura, Op. Omn., X, Quaracchi 1902, p. 25, n. 41: Bartolomeo da Pisa, Liber Conformitatis, in Anal. Franc., 4 (1906), pp. 341 and 518-19: L. Oliger, Les Méditationes vitae Christi, in Studi franc., 7 (1921), pp. 143-83 and 8 (1922), pp. 18-47: R. Boving, Das aktive Verhältnis des hl. Franz zur bildende Kunst, in Arch. Franc. hist., 19 (1926), pp. 610-635 (influences): more extensively on the codices, editions and authenticity, C. Fischer, Die Med. V. C. v. ihre handschriftliche Überlieferung und die Verfasserfrage, 25 (1932), pp. 3-35, 175-209, 305-48.

449-83; Collect. Franc., 13 (1943), p. 42; L. Cicchitto, in Miscell. Franc., 48 (1948), pp. 391-95; L. Döppenschmitt, Joh. de Cunlibus, in LThK, V, col. 486.

Lorenzo di Fonzo

@incollection{ec6_giovanni_da_calvoli_a_caulibus, author = {Di, Fonzo Lorenzo}, title = {Giovanni da Calvoli (A Caulibus)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VI}, pages = {530--531}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/giovanni-da-calvoli-a-caulibus} }

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John of Calvoli (a Caulibus)

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