PANZIERA, Ugo. - Franciscan, writer, b. in Prato, year unknown, d. in Tartary ca. 1330. Already a doctor in theology, he entered the Order of Friars Minor and, out of humility, wished to remain a lay brother. In 1307 he set out on a mission to the Muslim East; in 1312 he sent from Pera in Constantinople a Letter to the brothers of the Compagnia della Croce in Prato; after 1319 he wrote a short treatise against certain false mystics (perhaps the Beghards).
P. left 6 lauds, 4 published by C. Guasti (Prato 1861), two by F. Liuzzi, La lauda e i primordi della melodia ital. (Rome 1934, pp. 164-72), and 13 spiritual booklets (Florence 1492; Genoa 1535). In his lauds he follows Jacopone, adopting his motifs and forms, but he is a Tuscan and fourteenth-century Jacopone, with strophes heightened in tone. In his treatises he follows St. Bonaventure. His piety is guarded by an analytical intellect and an inner balance that distrusts both mystical ascents and passive mysticism. St. Bernardino annotated his Trattato delle spirazioni; others would cite his Letters in combating quietism. The polished style of some lauds supports the authenticity of his prose, which was composed in the vernacular and not translated from a Latin original, as was once claimed: introspective, without concessions to images or examples, yet precise, robust, and secretly musical.