GIOVANNI di FRIBURGO, called LECTOR. — Dominican moralist, d. at Fribourg on 10 March 1314.
Born probably at Haslach near Fribourg in Br., G. made the Dominican Convent there famous; he probably studied at Strasbourg, perhaps completing his studies at Paris. On 30 November 1294 he traced the new boundaries of the Convents of Fribourg and Basel, made necessary by the foundation of the Convent of Gebweiler. Apart from teaching at Basel, G. remained faithful to his Convent of Fribourg, which he brought distinction to both as lector and as prior.
Although G. left some sermons in German and Latin, his literary and doctrinal legacy is preserved principally in his writings for the advancement of practical morality. In addition to the Sum in titsch on the seven virtues, G.’s works include the Registrum or Tabula super textu et apparatu [Guilelmi Redonensis] sive glossa Raymundi [de Peñafort]; Additiones ad Summam Raymundi; Quaestiones casuales (of 1277?); Confessionale; Summa confessorum (1297), also called Summa Iohannina; Statuta Summae confessorum ex sexto libro decretalium addita (after 9 March 1298); Manuale, that is, an extract from the Summa; Summa
abbreviata; and a commentary on the fourth book of the Sentences, which Quétif attributes to him but which is probably spurious.
The Summa confessorum, like the Summa of s. Raimondo, comprises four books. Whereas Raimondo proceeds as a canonist, G. is a moralist. G.’s work exceeds the size of Raimondo’s Summa by two-thirds, drawing on the theologians Alberto Magno, s. Tommaso, and also Pietro di Tarantasia, Ulrico di Strasburgo and others, as well as on the canonists Guglielmo di Rennes, Goffredo di Trani, Hostiensis, Innocenzo IV, Bernardo di Bottone, Guglielmo Durandi senior, Monaldo, Ermanno da Minden, Burcardo di Strasburgo, various glossators, and the papal decretals from Gregorio IX to Bonifacio VIII. The Summa Iohannina provides confessors with a complete moral theology, supplemented by the doctrines of Alberto and Tommaso and other authorities. The Iohannina eclipsed Raimondo’s Summa.
The manuscripts are listed by Quétif-Echard, Schulte and Dietterle, though not exhaustively. The earliest printed edition of the Summa confessorum dates from 1476, at Augsburg. A disciple of G., fra Bertoldo, translated the Summa confessorum into German, perhaps as early as before 1300, or at least between 1300 and 1310, and brought about its extraordinarily wide circulation in the age of manuscripts and incunabula. The Tabula super Summam, the Summa rudium, the Summa casuum abbreviata of Guglielmo di Cayeu, and the Régie des marchands are summaries or abridgements of the Summa Iohannina.