GIULIANO da SPIRA (Theutonicus). - Franciscan scholar and musician, born in Spira at the end of the 12th century, died in Paris ca. 1250. He was a renowned master of singing at the French court before becoming a Franciscan (ca. 1225); he probably took part in the General Chapter of Assisi in 1227 and was a companion of the provincial of Germany (Fra Simone Anglico), later returning to Paris where he mostly lived (there he held the office of “corrector” or reading master for the friars in choir and at table and perhaps also taught singing in the conventual Studium).
Praised by historians for his literary and musical skill and for his holy life, G. composed the rhythmic offices, “in littera et cantu,” of St Francis and St Anthony, including hymns and responsories, as well as a life of St Francis in elegant prose (Ad hoc quorundam, 1232-35) which faithfully follows the first Tommaso da Celano (v.). To him is also attributed the Legenda Antoniana “secunda” or “anonima” (ca. 1240). G. is one of the earliest representatives of the long line of Franciscan poets and musicians who followed in the centuries after him; even his melodies are judged by modern critics to be of great value for their originality, refinement and structural solidity, surpassing the decadent forms of his time.