JOHN OF SAN GIMIGNANO. - Dominican preacher and writer, b. ca. 1260-70, d. after 6 May 1333. A Dominican in the convent of Siena, in 1300 lector at Arezzo, in 1305 at the Minerva in Rome, then (1310-13) prior at Siena, elected (1310) companion of the definitor for the General Chapter of 1311, G. took care of the theological study and of the confraternity of the Virgin and of St. Dominic of his convent and received various donations for it (1318, 1325). Finally he carried out a foundation at San Gimignano. To the word of doctrine and preaching he added a fruitful activity as a writer, carefully studied by Dondaine.
His works are: Sermones dominicales de epistolis et evangelis per totum annum, 132 sermons from 1300 to 1310; Sermones de adventu, de operibus sex dierum, from 1300 to 1310, in 2 collections printed by Pietro de Tardito at Paris 1512; Quadragesimale, from 1304 to 1314 (printed at Paris 1511, Venice 1548, Cologne 1612); Expositiones epistolarum et prophetiarum totius quadragesimae, from 1304 to 1314; Sermones de sanctis per totum annum secundum officium Ord. Praedicatorum, 134 sermons from 1323 to 1327 delivered in the vernacular; Sermones de mortuis, from 1300 to 1310; Liber de exemplis et similitudinibus rerum, from 1300 to 1310, G.'s most celebrated and widespread work, sometimes attributed to Elvicus Teutonicus (printed at Deventer 1477, Venice 1484, Basel 1499, Antwerp 1583 and seven other times, Lyon 1585); Legenda sanctae Finae (publ. in Acta SS. Martii, II, Paris 1865, p. 232-38 and in various adaptations printed at Florence from 1598 to 1919) and Legenda de vita et obitu b. Petri de Folgineo (publ. in part in Acta SS. Iulii, IV, Paris 1868, pp. 665-68 and the end in Analecta Bolland, 8 [1889], pp. 365-69).
Bibliography2 works
Angelo Walz