GIORDANO da GIANO. – Franciscan, born ca. 1195 at Giano (Spoleto), died at Magdeburg after 1262. Received into the Order by s. Francesco, he took part in the Chapter of Mats and in September 1221 set out for Germany with fra' Cesario. He established his base at Salzburg and, just one year later, his activity extended to the territories of Speyer, Worms, and Mainz.
On 27 October 1224 he was sent to Thuringia with seven German friars, and as custos he directed the Franciscan movement in Erfurt, Eisenach, Gotha, Nordhausen, and Mülhausen. He returned twice to Italy; a third journey to Rome for the reform of the Order in 1239 is probable. As vice-minister of the provinces of Bohemia and Poland, in May 1241 he was in Prague and the following year at Altenburg for the Chapter. At the urging of Baldovino da Brandeburgo, in 1262 he dictated, in medieval Latin sometimes mixed with vernacular forms, the Cronica, which, for its knowledge of the Minorite movement in Germany and also for the history of s. Francesco, must be considered a work of the highest importance.