PANZIERA, UGO. - Franciscan, writer, born at Prato, year unknown, died in Tartary about 1330. Already a doctor of theology, he entered the Order of Friars Minor and, out of humility, wished to remain a lay brother. In 1307 he departed on mission to the Muslim East; in 1312 he sent from Pera in Constantinople an Epistola to the brethren of the Company of the Cross of Prato; after 1319 he wrote a short treatise against certain false mystics (perhaps the Beghards).
P. left 6 laude, 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 works (Florence 1492; Genoa 1535). In the laude he follows Jacopone in motifs and forms, but he is a Tuscan Jacopone of the fourteenth century, with a more polished stanza. In his treatises he follows St Bonaventure. His piety is watched over by an analytical intellect and an inner balance, which distrusts mystical ascents no less than mystical passivities. St Bernardino would annotate his Trattato delle spirazioni; others would cite his Epistole in combating Quietism. The craftsmanship of certain laude confirms the authenticity of the prose, composed in the vernacular and not translated from a Latin original, as has been claimed:
introspective, making no concession to images or examples, yet precise, vigorous, and secretly musical.