SPECULUM PERFECTIONIS. - A short work by a Friar Minor of the Spiritual tendency, written at the beginning of the 14th century, held to be one of the sources of Franciscan spirituality, free as it is of literary artifice, suffused with Franciscan feeling and humanity.

Paul Sabatier, its first editor (Speculum perfectionis, seu S. Francisci Assisiensis legenda antiquissima, auctore Fr. Leone; with critical apparatus, Paris 1898), attributed it to Brother Leo, a companion of St. Francis; critics, however, disagree on this (cf. Ilarino da Milano, in his review of

Lo specchio di perfezione, translated into the vernacular by F. Pennacchi, in Collect. Franc., 13 [1943], pp. 310-11). On account of its intrinsic merit, the work has already been repeatedly translated and published in various languages: Quaracchi 1901, edited by Fr. Leonardo Lemmens; Assisi 1905; Paris 1911; London n.d. (with a preface by Fr. Cuthbert of Brighton); Fribourg 1922; Latin and English text with a critical study, Manchester 1928-31; Milan 1943.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: V. Facchinetti, S. Francesco d'Assisi nella storia, nella leggenda e nell'arte, Milan 1926, pp. XX-XVII; D. Sparacio, Storia di s. Francesco d'Assisi, Assisi 1928, p. 18.

Felice da Mareto

@incollection{ec11_speculum_perfectionis, author = {Felice da Mareto}, title = {Speculum Perfectionis}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XI}, pages = {1103--1104}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/speculum-perfectionis} }

One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.

About this entry