RICCARDO di SAN LORENZO. — Theologian of the thirteenth century, about whom almost no biographical information is known.
(Inf. Enc. Cart.)
RICCARDO di SAN GERMANO — Incipit of the Chronica, autograph manuscript of the author — Montecassino, Archivio, cod. R R 507, f. 1r.
Born in Picardy, he became a canon and dean of the Chapter of Rouen between 1239 and 1245. It has been held that he subsequently became a Cistercian monk, but there is no certain evidence for this.
He wrote various works: Tractatus de versiculo + Quid est tibi nance + (among the works of Riccardo di S. Vittore: PL 196, 1073–1116; Mariale or De laudibus B. M. V. libri XII (edited anonymously at Strasbourg in 1493, with the true name at Douai in 1625, subsequently included among the works of s. Alberto Magno; vol. XXII: Jammy 1651; vol. XXXVI: Paris 1898), to which his fame is linked. The extensive work develops Marian theology according to the following plan: explanation of the Ave Maria (bk. I); Quomodo Maria servivit nobis in singulis membrii suis (bk. II); the Virgin’s privileges, virtues, and physical and moral beauty (bks. III–V); the celestial, terrestrial, and aquatic titles and symbols of Mary (bks. VI–IX); Marian symbols drawn from human life and from the arts of war and navigation (bks. X–XI); the significance of the title hortus conclusus (bk. XII). Apart from its fantastic elements and futile questions, the Mariale should be regarded as a solemn testimony to the fervent love for the Virgin characteristic of that age, and as an extensive repertory of the Marian questions current in the thirteenth century, in which ingenious explanations are not lacking and theological insights of some value abound. R. is a convinced advocate of the Assumption of Mary.